xTuple for Service Businesses Demo Guide

Just as materials have their bills of materials (BOM), operations have their routings. It is through operations that labor and overhead for particular work orders are tracked and recorded. Let's begin by examining the routings for the Yellow Tough Truck. To see the routings for YTRUCK1, follow these steps:

Routing for YTRUCK1

As you can see, there are three operations for YTRUCK1. They move in a sequential fashion, from painting to assembly to shipping. Once we get to the work order section of this chapter, we will see how operations are posted to the work order.

Let's look at the first operation in the list to gain a better understanding for how operations are connected to labor and overhead costs. To open the PAINT operation, simply double-click on it:

Routings Item detail

The first highlighted portion of the screenshot indicates the work center the operation is associated with. We will look more closely at the PAINT1 work center in just a moment. The other highlighted portion of the screenshot points out how materials are handled when operations are posted. For this operation, any materials linked to the operation will be automatically issued to the work order when this operation is posted. Similarly, finished goods will be received into Inventory on a subsequent operation.

You can also see on this screen how the standard set up and run times for this operation have been specified. When you are posting operations, you can use these times—or enter actual times. Any variation in the pre-defined times will be added to WIP (work-in-process) and later recorded as a cost variance in the general ledger when the work order is closed. Cost variance reporting helps you determine when and if your costing metrics need to be adjusted.