How to: Clean up out-of-date and incomplete transactions in your system.

Purpose: Properly manage transactions and ensure the system data is up-to-date. A clean system encourages consistent:

• Accounting
• Inventory management
• Customer relations
• Supplier relations
• Reporting

In this article:

1. Understand Incomplete Transaction Clean-up
2. Determine Clean-Up Frequency & Criteria
   1. Frequency
   2. Criteria
   3. Status Expiry Date Recommendations
3. View Lists of Incomplete Transactions
   1. Open Transaction Lists in the Transaction Management Window
      1. Purchase Order Transaction List Criteria
      2. Stock Requisition Transaction List Criteria
      3. Work Order Transaction List Criteria
      4. Shipment Transaction List Criteria
      5. Supplier Return Transaction List Criteria
   2. Open Transaction Lists in the Transaction Window
4. Export the Transaction List to Excel
5. Filter Out-of-Date Transactions
   1. Filter Custom Date Ranges in Management Windows
   2. Filter Custom Date Ranges in Excel
6. Handle Incomplete Transactions
   1. Cancel Open Transactions
   2. Cancel Released Transactions

Understand Incomplete Transaction Clean-Up

Incomplete transaction clean-up is the task of reviewing incomplete transactions, in various statuses, that have been inactive for too long. Transactions that are incomplete and out-of-date clog the system with incorrect data. Incomplete transaction clean-up is primarily for transactions directly affecting inventory, these include:

• Purchase Order
• Stock Requisition
• Work Order
• Shipments
• Sales Orders
• Customer Return
• Supplier Return
• Product Counts

Certain transactions prompt the movement of other transactions e.g. releasing a sales order creates a stock requisition or a purchase order. Because of transaction relationships, always work through the incomplete transaction clean-up by transaction type in the order listed above.

Determine Clean-Up Frequency & Criteria

Frequency

Review incomplete transactions on an ongoing basis that:

• Works for your company
• Keeps the task manageable
• Keeps your data up-to-date

Criteria

Determine which transactions to review by two main criteria:

• Transaction status
• Date of the last status update

A general clean-up involves reviewing all transactions that are not completed and have statuses past the expiry date. Expiry dates are set by your company and deem a transaction out-of-date. Your process may be more specific and include criteria such as supplier, customer, or product. The rules for each criterion vary according to the transaction type. This article only includes criteria recommendations. Modify any recommendations that do not work for your company.

Status Expiry Date Recommendations

Table 1: Status Expiry Date Recommendations

Transaction Type	Status	Expiry Date
Purchase Order	Open	1 Week
	Released (order not received)	Variable
	Released (order received)	1 Month
Stock Requisition	Open	1 Week
	Released	1 Week
Work Order	Open	Variable
	Released	2 Weeks
Shipment	Open	1 Week
	Released	1 Week
	Shipped	1 Week
Sales Order	Open	Variable
	Released	6 Weeks
Customer Return	Open	Variable
	Released	4 weeks
Supplier Return	Open	Variable
	Released	4 weeks
Product Count	Open	1 week
	Released	3 Days

View Lists of Incomplete Transactions

There are two types of locations to view lists of incomplete transactions. The type of transaction determines the type of location. The location types are:

• Transaction Management Windows
  • Purchase Order Management
  • Stock Requisition Management
  • Work Order Management 
  • Shipment Management
  • Supplier Return Management
• Transaction Windows
  • Sales Order
  • Customer Return
  • Product Count

Open Transaction Lists in the Transaction Management Window

Each management window begins with a wizard where you enter the criteria to pull a list of transactions that meet that criteria. Using criteria you can pull broad or specific transaction lists. Recommend is pulling a broad list of incomplete transactions which can be filtered later than pulling multiple smaller lists.

Purchase Order Transaction List Criteria

For a general clean-up, we recommend Complete the Purchase Order Management wizard with the following criteria:

Statuses: Open, Released

Include Fully Received: Yes

Divisions: Any applicable

Suppliers: All

Stock Requisition Transaction List Criteria

For a general clean-up, we recommend to complete the Stock Requisition Management wizard with the following criteria:

Statuses: Open, Released

Divisions: Any applicable

Warehouses: All applicable to the selected division(s)

Ship To Warehouses: All applicable to the selected division(s)

Work Order Transaction List Criteria

For a general clean-up, we recommend to complete the Work Order Management wizard with the following criteria:

Statuses: Open, Released

Divisions: Any applicable

Shop Departments: All applicable to the selected division(s)

Warehouses: All applicable to the selected division(s)

Ship To Warehouses: All applicable to the selected division(s)

Shipment Transaction List Criteria

For a general clean-up, we recommend to complete the Shipment Management wizard with the following criteria:

Statuses: Open, Released, Shipped

Order Selection: Sales Orders

Invoiced: All

Divisions: Any applicable

Customers: All

Inside Sales: All applicable to the selected division(s)

Project Managers: All applicable to the selected division(s)

Supplier Return Transaction List Criteria

For a general clean-up, we recommend to complete the Supplier Return Management wizard with the following criteria:

Statuses: Open, Released

Divisions: Any applicable

Suppliers: All

Open Transaction Lists in the Transaction Window

Sales order, customer return, and product count do not have a separate management window. For these transactions, you must open the entire list of transactions in the Find window and filter from the entire list. 

You can either navigate through the incomplete transactions in the Find window using the filter line item or export the list as an excel sheet. Recommended is exporting the list as an excel sheet for expiry date filtering. Unlike the management windows, you must export a separate list for each status.

In either the Sales Order, Customer Return, or Product Count window:

1. Click Open

2. Click Find Now
   • The list of all transactions will populate

In the Filter line item:

3. Enter the filter criteria
   • e.g. Status, division, etc.

4. Export the Transaction List to Excel
5. Repeat steps 3-4 for other statuses and filter criteria

You now have lists of incomplete transactions.

Export the Transaction List to Excel

In the transaction list window:

1. Click Down Arrow on the left column header

2. Hover over export
3. Click Export To Excel

In the File Explorer window:

4. Select the save location
5. Enter the file name
6. Click Save

Your transaction list is now saved as an excel sheet.

Filter Out-of-Date Transactions

You can create a custom date filter directly in management windows whereas you cannot create custom date filters in the Find window. You must export Find window lists to an Excel sheet and create a custom filter in Excel. When filtering any transaction list be sure to:

• Use the Status Expiry Date Recommendations above or your company's defined expiry dates
• Filter from the Date Created column for open transactions
• Filter from the Date Released column for released transactions

Filtering Custom Date Ranges in Management Windows

For transaction lists in the transaction management windows, you can set custom filters to view out-of-date transactions. 

In a Date field:

1. Click the Down Arrow
2. Click (Custom)
   • The Custom Filter window will open

In the Condition field drop-down list:

3. Select < Less than

In the Date field:

4. Select an expiry date

5. Click OK

If you want the list in an excel sheet:

6. Export the Transaction List to Excel

You now have a custom filter for out-of-date transactions.

Filtering Custom Date Ranges in Excel

*Note: You only need to do this for lists that you pull from the transaction window rather than the transaction management window.

In the Excel window:

1. Select all the columns and rows

In the top ribbon:

2. Click Sort & Filter
3. Click Filter

On the date column header:

4. Click the Down Arrow
5. Hover over Date Filters

6. Click Before

In the Customer AutoFilter window:

7. Click the Calendar icon

8. Select the expiry date
9. Click OK

Now we have a custom filter for out-of-date transactions. 

Handle Incomplete Transactions

Incomplete transactions may be out-of-date due to clerical errors, suppliers, customers, or backlog. Investigate each transaction thoroughly to determine the cause of the issue and the best way forward. There is no catch-all to handle incomplete transactions. Determine if you need to:

• Follow-up with the customer or supplier
• Follow-up with another department
• Correct errors in Comsense
• Cancel the transaction

Cancel Open Transactions

Open transactions are simpler to cancel than released transactions because the transaction has not started. The method to cancel open transactions varies depending on the transaction type. The table below details the steps to cancel open transactions.

Table 2: Methods to Cancel Open Transactions by Transaction Type

Transaction Type	Steps
Purchase Order	Unsource the Product
Stock Requisition	Unsource the Product
Work Order	Unsource the Product
Shipment	Update the status to Deleted and Click Save
Sales Order	Update the status to Deleted and Click Save
Product Count	Update the status to Deleted and Click Save
Customer Return	Update the return quantity to 0 and Complete the return
Supplier Return	Update the return quantity to 0 and Complete the return

Cancel Released Transactions

Cancel released transactions is more complicated than canceling Open transactions because all transactions are linked to other transactions or inventory. Released transactions can have multiple stages in the released status. If an out-of-date transaction is released, you must determine the exact stage of the transaction and cancel the transaction according to the exact stage. The table below details guidelines to cancel released transactions.

Table 3: Methods to Cancel Released Transactions by Transaction Type

Transaction Type	Stage	Steps
Purchase Order	Not received	Unsource the Product and Change the sales order quantity to 0
	Received	Apply a 0.00 payable, Unsource the Product, and Complete a Supplier Return
Stock Requisition	Any	Complete the stock requisition, Unsource the Product and Complete a pool to stock transfer
Work Order	Purchase order or stock requisition IS unsourced or deleted	Unsource the work order
	Purchase Order or Stock Requisition is NOT unsourced or deleted	Complete the work order, Unsource the work order, and Deal with the WIP in the pool
Shipment	Any	Complete the shipment and Invoice the shipment OR Change the shipment status to Deleted and Deal with the WIP in pool
Sales Order	Not Sourced	Update the sales order status to Deleted
	Sourced	Unsource the Product and Change the quantity required to 0 on the sales order
Product Count	Count not in progress	Complete the Product Count without updating the count numbers
Customer Return	Any	Complete the Customer Return and Reship the product
Supplier Return	Any	Complete the Supplier Return, Apply a 0.00 payable, and Create a product count to add the product to inventory