Departments

A department is primarily a production department and a sales dissection department. Components and processes get assigned to departments so that production schedules can be tailored to specific departments and sales from those processes can be tallied and reported on based on each department in the business.

Departments will be sections of the business such as Sand Blasting, Laser Engraving, Sublimation, Assembly etc. But you can also have departments such as Sales, External Supply.

The program comes set up with some default departments and processes. You can delete departments and processes. You can also change them to suit your needs or add new departments at anytime during the life of your business.

Add: Add a new Department

Edit: Select any Department and Press Edit to open.

Delete: Delete A Department

Assign Art Department

Select the listing to assign as Art Department.

The obvious selection is 'Art Department'

This function tells AwardPro that your selection is the Art Department and AP will then use the selected entry as the department is associate Art with.

Do not change this

Components are grouped by Component Type and Component Types are associated to a Department. This allows 2 things.

1. When a component is part of a job then the program knows which department it is associated with so it can list the job on the departments work schedule. So the department knows that there is work to be done.

2. Because the component is associated with a department the costs and mark up sell value gets allocated to that department so you can review Department performance reports that show you material costs, sales values and profits.

Processes are grouped by Process Type and Process Types are associated to a Department. This allows 2 things.

1. When a process is part of a job then the program knows which department it is associated with so it can list the job on the departments work schedule. So the department knows that there is work to be done.

2. Because the process is associated with a department the sell value gets allocated to that department so you can review Department performance reports that show you material costs, sales values and profits.

In all departments you can set them to require the Art Process so that if those Departments have work scheduled then the Art Department also gets work schedule even if it is not shown anywhere on the job.

Departments such as Sand Blasting, Laser, Sublimation, Vinyl Cutter will always need an art file before the process begins so these departments are dependent on the Art Department. In the Department Editor you can set these dependencies by checking Art Required.

Now whenever the dependent department (in the above image - Sublimation is the dependent Department) is added to a sales order the Art Department is assigned a work order as well.

This ensures that the Art Departments work schedule always has all of the artwork jobs listed even when it has not been added to the sale.

2. Check the pre-installed departments and delete any departments you do not need.

4. If the department always needs the art department to do work for it (such a Sublimation or Sand Blasting Department) select the Art Required check box.

To Create a new department use the "Setting Up Departments" procedure above. You may also need to transfer some Processes and components to that department.

The system departments considers that you only have one of each department type such as engraving and Laser etc. However your business may have more have one engraving department such as Engraving - Diamond and Industrial engraving.

The Business has a small engraving machine dedicated to trophy plate work and a couple of the team members share the responsibility of doing the trophy plate engraving. They also have a heavy duty engraving machine that primarily does Industrial engraving. So these could be seen as two separate departments and in doing so you create two separate Work Schedule lists so each machine/department has there own list of work to work with.

This versatile business also has a good trade in rubber stamps which they use the laser for. They have a couple of Laser Engraving machines and two Laser Staff. Both Lasers do general work but only 1 laser does rubber stamps. This business could create a department called Rubber Stamps and assign the Rubber Stamp Components and process charges to it so that whenever a Rubber Stamp Job comes along it is placed not on the Laser Engraving Departments Work List but on the Rubber Stamps work list.

When you create a new department you may want to transfer some pre-made processes and components to this new department. Obviously if you have a Process Under the Process Type of Laser Engraving which is assigned to the Laser Engraving Department called "Laser Engrave Rubber Stamp" You will want to transfer it to the new Process Type of Rubber Stamp Manufacture which you have set up and assigned to the Rubber Stamp Department

Likewise all of the components associated with rubber stamps should be assigned to the Rubber Stamp Department.

You can only delete a department after you have cleared associations with the department. If a Department has any Component Types or Process Types Assigned to it it can not be deleted until you remove the association. To remove the association you have to got to the Component or process type and change the department setting so that nothing is assigned to the department. Once the departments cupboard is empty you can delete it.

Here is an example of a Component Type associated to a Department.

Screen shot comes from System Set Up/Component Types.

If you were able to delete a department without clearing the cupboard the Acrylic trophy component would be orphaned and become a looses end and the Job Schedule system would not work automatically.

3. Open your department types screen and select the department you want to delete

In particular when you are first starting out with AwardPro it may be better not to delete departments until you are really clear as to how they work. You might consider adding a z to the front of the department description so that it moves to the bottom of the department list and out of the way for now. You can always come back later and remove it when you have a good understanding of the system structure.