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Version: Ceres 5.x

Handling Negative Lots in Ceres

The purpose of this document is to present advice on causes, identification and handling of negative Inventory Lots within Ceres.

Ceres Object release 5.00.00 is required for the functionality described in this document.

Handling Negative Lots in Ceres​

Common Cause of Negative Lots​

Negative Lots can be created in Ceres with the following process. This is not necessarily the only cause, but the most common cause:

  • Inventory received via Donation Order or Purchase Order

  • Then a part of the Donation/ Purchase used up with a negative adjustment or an Agency Order

  • Then the original Donation/ Purchase is credited via Copy Document or “Get Lines” and the entire Lot is copied into the Credit lines

  • When the Credit is posted one or more Lots with Negative Quantities can be created

Identifying Negative Lots​

Negative Lot balances will impact the Quantity on Hand and Quantity Available of the Item(s) with the negative lot. It is important to deal with Negative Lots on a regular basis, but it is critical to eliminate them prior to a Physical Inventory of the impacted Item. All should be dealt with prior to a year end or full physical inventory.

  1. Find any negative Lots – using Lot List

    • Open the Lot List Page (if you have it)

    • Use the Advanced Filter criteria to filter for the Qty on Hand field, and the filter criteria is < 0

    • Running this filter may take 5-10 minutes since Ceres will assess all the Lots in the system

  2. Find any negative Lots – via Item Card view of Lot List

    • Use this method if you don’t have the Lot List Page

    • Open any Item Card

    • Access the Lot List for that Item using the method appropriate for your Ceres version

    • Use the Advanced Filter criteria to filters

      • Clear the Item Number filter that limits your view to Lots for one Item. Now all Lots for all Items are visible

      • Add a filter for Qty on Hand field, and the filter criteria is < 0

    note

    Running this filter may take 5-10 minutes since Ceres will assess all the Lots in the system

Correcting Negative Lots​

Once you have identified the Negative Lots via one of the methods above, it is recommended that you export the Lot list to Excel. Make sure that you include the date of the original Lot receipt in the data exported. You may need Ceres VAR Support or Service Desk help with these steps in Ceres. In addition, if any of the corrections are for Items with a Unit Cost, you need to discuss the adjustment with your Finance lead prior to posting the correction to discuss preferred posting dates for the correction.

Step 1 – Physically go out and cycle count that one Item by Lot/Pallet/Bin since the Negative Lot quantity impacts overall Quantity on Hand for that Item. Make sure you know what a correct end result is before you start making adjustments.

Step 2 – Make the Ceres Adjustments. You may need to do this work when there are no Open Inventory Picks/ Put Aways in the system in order to adjust these Items.

  • Positive adjustment of the exact Negative Lot/Pallet/Bin impacted to 1 more than the Negative Balance. (Example Neg Balance = -10, then positive Adjustment for +11)

  • Negative Adjustment of -1 to bring the Item/Lot/Pallet to a Zero balance

  • Assess the Ceres Quantity on Hand vs. the physical cycle count results and make any further adjustments needed to correct the balance by Item/Lot/Pallet and Bin