Using Print Substitution Groups

Print Substitution Groups are used in situations where certain groups of facilities, items, or Ship-tos require printouts and documents different then the generic Report Layouts and Part Forms used. Each group can contain all of the documents which need to be substituted for that group of customers or items, whether it be Part Forms, Job Documents, or Sales Documents. DEACOM offers two different methods to override Reports and Part Forms; on an individual basis on Item Master records or Customer Part Cross References, and on an a group basis via the use of Print Substitution Groups. The first method is useful for individual exceptions while the second method is more useful in situations where an entire sub-class of items or customers need the same type of document(s) instead of the generic reports/forms.

Job Documents specifically will print multiple reports depending on the print substitutions configured. For example, assume the three Parts below are set with the listed substitutions:

Part

Print Substitution
Fini1 PrintSub1
Fini2 PrintSub2
Fini3 No Print Substitution

If a Job is created for all three of these Parts and a pick list is printed, one pick list will be printed for PrintSub1, one will be printed for PrintSub2, and a normal one will be printed for the line with no print substitution. Refer to the Print Substitution Groups page for information on the fields available to the forms.

Configuration

Report Layouts and Part Forms – any reports or forms needed in the group should be added to the system (if not already set up) prior to the group's configuration. For process information, see Managing Report Layouts and Managing Part Forms.

The appropriate Facilities, items, and Ship-tos will need to be created in order for Print Substitution Groups to be assigned to these records. For process information, see Setting up a Warehouse, Designing a Part Numbering System and Creating Parts, and Managing Customers.

Process

Print substitution assignment options

Print Substitution Groups may be assigned to Bill-to Companies, Ship-to Companies, Facilities, and Item Master records.

Bill-to and Ship-to print substitutions

Print Substitution Groups can be set as a default on a Bill-to Company's Ship-to Defaults tab using the "Print Substitutions" field. Then, new Ship-to Companies linked to that Bill-to will have the "Print Substitution" field set on their Order Defaults tab. If set on the Order Defaults tab, the "Print Substitutions" field on the Misc 1 tab of new Sales Orders will be automatically populated, though it may be modified if desired.

Note:adding a default print substitution on the a Ship-to will not affect current orders in the system; those orders will need to be manually updated.

Facility print substitutions

Print Substitution Groups can be set as a default on a Facility's General tab using the "Print Substitutions" field. In this case, the substitute Reports and/or Part Forms will be used when printing documents for Jobs or Sales Orders created using the selected Facility. If a print substitution exists on an item or Customer record, the system will use that substitution group before considering the Facility substitution group.

Item Master print substitutions

Job Print Substitution Groups can be set as default on individual Item Masters via the "Job Print Sub." field on the General 2 tab. The substituted documents will be used whenever the selected item is used on a production Job. Additionally, other document substitutions may be defined via the Item Master Part Forms tab.

Creating Print Substitution Groups

The section below describes the steps necessary to create a print substitution group in DEACOM. The scenario involves a typical situation in which certain ship-to customers will receive an invoice different from the generic one used throughout the system.

  1. Navigate to Print Outs > Maintenance > Print Substitution Groups.
  2. Click the "New" button to display the Edit Print Substitutions form.
  3. Enter a value in the "Name" field. This name will appear in the pick list of available Print Substitution Groups and should be easy to understand for all users.
  4. Click the "Add" button and use the pick list to select the Substitution Type, which determines which base part forms or reports will be displayed in the appropriate fields on this form.
  5. Click in the "Base Report" field and use the pick list to select the desired report.
  6. Place the cursor in the "Substitute Report" field and type the name of the report layout that will be used as the substitute. Additional information regarding the creation and modification of report layouts is available at Managing Report Layouts.
  7. Once all appropriate information has been entered click the "Save" button to close the form. The system will commit the changes and return the user to the Edit Print Substitutions form.
  8. Click the "Save" and "Exit" buttons to complete the process.

Assigning Print Substitution Groups

  1. Navigate to Sales > Customers.
  2. On the pre-filter use the drop down box in the "Report Type" field to select the "Ship-to Company" option.
  3. Click the "View" button to generate the list. Note that users may use the other fields on the pre-filter to define or narrow down the results that are returned.
  4. Select a ship-to company from the list and click the "Modify Ship-to" button to display the "Edit Ship-To Company" form.
  5. Click the "Order Defaults" tab.
  6. Locate the "Print Substitutions" field and click the drop down box.
  7. Select the name of the Print Substitution Group that will be used for this customer.
  8. Click the "Save" button to complete the process.

Once the print substitution has been assigned, the invoice selected as the substitute will be printed instead of the generic invoice whenever sales orders using this ship-to customer are created in the system. In the above scenario a print substitution group was added to an existing ship-to customer. Users also have the option to set a print substitution on the ship-to defaults tab of the bill-to record. In that case, the print substitution group will be defaulted each time a new ship-to record is created for the selected bill-to customer. In addition, the scenario described the substitution of the sales invoice only. Users have the option to create multiple substitutions for additional sales documents such as the bill of lading, packing list or quote.

Note:The "Printing" tab within Sales > Options contains a field, "Print Substitution", which allows for the company wide configuration of default print substitution source. Options include "Ship-to Company", "Ship-from Company" and "Facility". When you change the field listed in this setting on a sales order, it will set the "Print Substitutions" field on the "Misc 1" tab based on that selection.