Inventory - Transaction Date vs Post Date

Question

When entering a manual inventory transaction/adjustment the adjustment batch the header has a "post date" and each adjustment line includes a "transaction date". Both dates default to the current date. 
 SCENRIO: 
 An inventory adjustment batch is entered for the week on 10/16/23 (monday) using a postdate 10/21/23 (saturday of the week of 10/16/23, the date the batch will be posted). 
 Each day, 10/16 thru 10/20 inventory adjustments are added to the batch with a transaction date based on the date the adjustment physically occurred, e.g. on 10/16 a bag of inventory was dropped and all of the product was destroyed, and that adjustment was entered with a transaction date of 10/16 since the event took place on 10/16. 
 Each day the batch is saved with the additional adjustment lines using the date the item was physically destroyed/used/written off entered into the transaction date field of the adjustment batch. 
 At the end of the week there's an adjustment batch with a post date of 10/21 and lines with transaction dates ranging from 10/16/ to 10/20. 
 QUESTIONS: 
 What date, transaction date or posting date, controls the impact on the inventory valuation and costing such that the costing layer is updated on that date? 
 The timcosttier table has a costing date field and it must be either the transaction date or the posting date; which is it? 
 When reconciling inventory for month end between the inventory valuation and general ledger, which valuation date is used? Transaction date or Posting date? 
 In my scenario, if the inventory adjustment batch is posted on 10/21 with a post date of 10/21 and there&rsquo;s multiple inventory adjustment lines between 10/16 and 10/20, what date impacts the costing and valuation for each line of the adjustment batch?

Contefication · Answer

The post date is the date used when it hits GL, the transaction date is the date used in the module's document or transaction table. This works the same way throughout the Sage 500 functionality. A simple example would be the posting of an AR invoice batch where the post date again represents the date the transactions will hit the GL, but the invoice date (transaction date) is the date of the document. For inventory transactions, you can assign the same or different post and transaction dates but you cannot alter their effect on inventory. For example, you cannot back date a cost tier adjustment with the expectation that it will change the cost on transactions that have already been committed. Sage 500 operates in a real-time model where the stock and inventory costs are affected when the transactions are committed. There are also a number of options and settings that affect how items are costed, how transactions affect inventory stock and how that item can be used. Depending on your business model, accumulating inventory adjustments could be problematic if those items are consumed in manufacturing production or shipping operations. This is especially true if the inventory items are tracked or use a valuation method other than average or standard. You also create a potential problem with inventory valuation depending on how you schedule stock or cost adjustments across periods. This could have greater or lesser impact under different valuation and tracking methods, and if you use manufacturing it could impact your BOM rollups. Customer pricing can be affected as well, primarily when using markup methods, landed costs may not be applied and your Inventory Replenishment/MRP calculations may be rendered inaccurate. The cost tier is generally established when stock is initially received, produced or adjusted into inventory, but there are a lot of other item attributes or actions that could affect tier creation, value and the relevant dates. These include the valuation and tracking methods assigned to the item, the item type and cost methodology for produced items or kits, the option to allow negative inventory, etc. There will always be a minimum of one cost tier created for an inventory item in each warehouse once stock has been established (BTO kits and non-inventory items are not stocked), but there could be more depending again on the valuation and tracking methods, as well as the various inventory set up options. For sub-ledger to general ledger reconciliation, you need to determine the methodology that works best for your organization. The valuation report is based on inventory transactions and is sometimes problematic, so the inventory cost report is another option. Just keep in mind the inventory valuation is a historical report while the inventory cost - especially when run with the cost tier option - reports on data in real-time, so it can be affected by ongoing inventory commitments.

Sage 500

Inventory - Transaction Date vs Post Date

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