iDempiere and ADempiere – Learning Manufacturing and Production

Hi Everyone,

The purpose of this post is to help make learning production and manufacturing in iDempiere and ADempiere, open source ERP, as easy as possible. Specifically, I am going to address a common situation that users encounter when first start playing with the manufacturing abilities.

Error – AverageCostingNegativeQtyException

This is an error you will get when posting a Production Order when the system does not have the sufficient data to process the accounting for a production order. Here is what makes this error difficult to solve. Even if you have set the Accounting Schema to Standard Costing, and even if you ensured that your Product Category -> Accounting does not override the schema’s costing method, you are getting an Average Invoice or Average PO error.

Why would you get an Average Costing Method error when you are performing Standard Costing? The answer is because the system maintains the costing methods for all elements listed in the Cost Elements window. Even though you are not using Average Invoice at the general ledger, the system will maintain the costing records if they appear in the Cost Element window.

This is a good thing!

The fact that ADempiere and iDempiere maintain costing records for multiple methods helps you better understand the value of your inventory, and it helps defend the material cost of your standard costing.

You can even go so far as to track the cost components (freight, duty, taxes, source, etc..) by slightly modifying the landed cost functionality; however, that is a more advanced topic.

The Resolution

If you get the above error, just make sure you have satisfied all the costing methods. For example, make sure you have created and completed a PO for your raw goods (Average PO) with ample quantity. Make sure you have created and completed a Material Receipt (FiFO, LIFO) with ample quantity. Make sure you have created and completed an invoice for your raw goods (Average Invoice) with ample quantity. The ample quantity is needed because the system tracks the current quantity with the average costs.

I hope this helps!!

ADempiere vs iDempiere vs Openbravo vs Compiere

Please note that ADempiere, iDempiere and Openbravo are forks or copies from Compiere. Therefore, they have similar abilities mentioned above. The biggest difference is that ADempiere and iDempiere are pure open source. There are no features held behind a commercial or paid license.