Production Orders

Where to find it: Sidebar > Production > Production orders

5.1 Order Lifecycle

The order page shows a stepper: Draft, Planned, In progress and Done, each with the date and time it happened.

5.2 Creating and Planning an Order

Who can do it: Create, plan and cancel production orders

1. Choose New production order in Quick Create, click New production order on the Home or Production orders page, or click Plan a batch on a recipe
2. Choose the Recipe. Only recipes that are not archived are listed
3. Enter Units to make. It starts at the recipe's batch size
4. Choose the Workshop and Finished products go to. They start from Settings
5. Optionally set Wanted by (optional) and Notes
6. Click Save draft or Plan a batch

Planning checks the stock at the workshop. If everything is available the order becomes Planned; otherwise it becomes Waiting for materials. To plan a draft later, open it and click Plan batch.

5.3 Material Holds

With Hold its materials in Settings, planning reserves the materials at the workshop. Held stock cannot be sold at the till or on invoices. Each material line shows how much is held.

• Waiting for materials: receive the missing stock through Inventory as usual, then click Check stock again
• A stock count, adjustment or write-off can show that held material is missing. Holds then shrink to the stock that is really there, keeping the oldest orders' holds first. A planned order that is now short goes back to Waiting for materials, and its Activity says why
• Issuing material releases its hold. Finishing or cancelling releases what is left

The sidebar badge on Production orders counts orders waiting for materials.

5.4 Starting Production

Who can do it: Issue materials, log time and record output

Open a Planned order and click Start production. The order becomes In progress. An order waiting for materials cannot start until its stock is checked again.

5.5 Issuing Materials (First Expiry First)

The Materials panel shows Planned, Issued, Lot and Difference for each material, in the Inventory stock unit. With cost permission it also shows the Issued value.

1. Open Issue more
2. Choose the Material
3. Choose the Lot (first expiry first). Lots are listed with the earliest best-before date first, with how much is left. Held, expired and empty lots are not offered
4. Enter Quantity in stock units
5. Click Issue materials

A batch-tracked material needs a lot. The Difference column turns amber when issues exceed the plan by more than your overuse threshold. With Block above the threshold, such an issue is refused.

To give back unused material, open Return unused, choose the Original issue, enter the Quantity to return and click Return to stock. It returns to the same lot.

With Automatically from the recipe, materials are issued when you record output, from the earliest-expiring lots first. Do not also issue the same materials by hand.

5.6 Timers and Logged Work

The Work and power logged panel lists Day, Step, Who or what, Time and, with cost permission, Cost. Work is added to the batch's cost as it is logged.

Start a timer:

1. Open Start a timer
2. Choose the Step. It offers the same in-house hourly, power and piece-rate steps as the phone; outsourced steps are recorded separately
3. Tick one or more People on this step: active users, Payroll employees or HR employees when HR is enabled. You can select up to 50 people
4. Click Start timer

Running timers appear under Running timers with who is on them and when they started. Click Stop and log time to stop a timer and add its time to the work log. A labour step records each person's time; a power step records machine time once, whatever the crew size. Use Discard timer with a Reason for a timer started by mistake; it charges no time and the reason stays in Activity. Anyone with the work permission can stop a timer, including one started on a phone.

Log time directly:

1. Open + Log time
2. Enter the Day. It cannot be after today in the business timezone
3. Enter the Step and choose the Kind: Labour · person-hours or Power · machine-hours
4. Choose a Staff member, or choose Machine or other work and type Who or what
5. Enter Hours and any Notes, such as generator or ECG notes
6. Click Log time

Staff members include business users, active Payroll employees and, when HR is enabled, active HR employees. Their identity stays with the work log. Labour hours are person-hours: two people working one hour is two person-hours.

Outsourced steps are recorded separately. Hours on piece-rate steps carry no hourly cost, so wages are not counted twice.

5.7 Recording Output

Who can do it: Issue materials, log time and record output. Finish batch also needs Finish production batches.

Click Record output on an order that is in progress or partly done:

• Good units and Rejected units
• Why rejected — required when there are rejects
• Batch number — leave blank and it is generated when saved
• Made on — cannot be after today
• Best before — filled from the recipe; it cannot be before the made-on date
• Photo of rejects (optional) — an image up to 5 MB, kept with the batch record
• Notes
• Who made these units? — only for piece-rate steps. See 14) Piece Rates and Payroll

As you type, the form shows how many units are within the recipe's normal loss allowance and how many are abnormal loss. With cost permission it also shows roughly how much will be written off.

Then choose:

• Save as partly done — the order continues. The output becomes real Inventory stock in an inactive location named Output awaiting costing, held until the run is finished. It cannot be sold while held
• Finish batch — records this output and finishes the run in one step, with one receipt directly into the finished location at final cost. It does not stage this output first

Output cannot exceed the planned quantity. Each output gets its own batch number, so a run with several outputs has several batches with one final unit cost.

5.8 Finishing a Batch

Who can do it: Finish production batches

Before a run can finish:

• Every planned unit is accounted for as good or rejected output
• No work timer is still running
• Outsourced work is received or billed, or its unperformed balance is cancelled
• By-products are not worth more than the batch cost

To finish a Partly done order, click Finish recorded batch. Finishing:

1. Applies fixed overhead to the good units
2. Values the batch under IAS 2 (see 6) Batch Cost and Accounting)
3. Moves the output into finished goods at its final cost, and receives by-products
4. Puts the batch on quality hold if the recipe or Settings require it; otherwise it is released for sale
5. Releases any materials still held

When you finish from Record output, people with cost permission go straight to the batch cost page.

5.9 Cancelling an Order

Who can do it: Create, plan and cancel production orders

Return unused materials first, then click Cancel order. Cancelling releases remaining holds. Materials already consumed, work costs and any output awaiting costing are written off to abnormal production loss. The production record is never deleted. A finished order cannot be cancelled.

5.10 The Rest of the Order Page

• Print batch sheet downloads a PDF with materials planned and issued, the work log, output and notes. It shows no costs
• Output recorded lists each batch with its good and rejected units, and whether it is Held until finish or Final
• Cost so far (cost permission) shows materials, labour, power and outsourced cost, the recipe estimate before overhead, and the overhead each good unit will carry at finish
• Accounting postings (cost permission) lists postings that are pending or failed. See 6.6
• Activity keeps every action, with links to posted journals for people who can open them

5.11 Retries and Duplicate Protection

Each form submission carries its own reference. If you submit the same form twice, for example after a slow connection, SikaBooks keeps the first result. The same reference with different figures is refused, so start a fresh form for new work.