Vendors are set up as “Refining Customers” in the CAI Software Precious Metals Solution because Refining transactions result in the generation of Payables at the time of Settlement. Hedges can be created at the Vendor level to price metals. Vendor Contracts are also linked to the Vendor record and are used to calculate charges and impose accountabilities at the time of Settlement. Lastly, a Refining Customer’s Pool or Toll Account precious metal balance is available from their Vendor record.

A Lot is a quantity of material earmarked for processing.   If the material is received from a Vendor (also refered to as a Refining Customer) the Lot is known as a Customer Lot.  If the material is derived from internal refining Inventory,  the Lot is known as a House lot.  (If a Lot has to be created for material that has not yet been physically received, see Lot In Transit.)

A Lot is created by selecting New on the Home Tab ribbon bar of either the Lot List or the Lot Card.  Either selection will then display a blank Lot Card with the General FastTab open.

General

Tab through the Lot No. field to enter the next number in the Lot numbering series.  When the next number is displayed, the Card will then be populated with any default values defined in Refining Setup such as Receiving UOM, Path Item and Inventory Type.  The various Date fields will be populated with today’s date and the Assay FastTab will be populated with the Metals Types defined for the system.

The following fields need to be populated when creating a lot prior to creating a Production Order:

• Vendor No.
• Path Item No.
• Receiving UOM
• Gross Weight
• Tare Weight, if applicable
• Weight to Process
• Material Type
• Assay FastTab – Specific Metals to Assay for.

Shipping

The Shipping FastTab contains fields to identify Shipping Agents, Method, Tracking No. etc. regarding this Lot.

Terms

The Terms FastTab contains fields to identify the terms agreed to regarding this Lot as well as any special instructions.

Ribbon Bars:

The Home ribbon tab contains both standard Business Central items as well as specialized Refining actions, including:

Print Acknowledgement

Select Print Acknowledgement from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to print a Lot Acknowledgement.

Metal Market Prices

Select Metal Market Pricing from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to enter any Lot level hedges that may exist.

Estimated Assay

Select Estimated Assay from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to enter any estimated Assay information if required.

The Actions ribbon Bar contains the following:

Create Prod. Order

Select Create Prod. Order from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to create a Production Order for the lot.

Select Vendor Contracts

Select Vendor Contracts to display and choose from a list of existing Vendor contracts.

Track Package

If a Shipping Agent and a Package Tracking No. has been entered on the Shipping FastTab, select Track Package to view the current status of the package.

A Lot in Transit (LIT) represents a Lot not yet received in house. Refining Customers will often initiate LIT transactions so that they can be advanced on them. They can also hedge their metal from the Lot in Transit. That hedge will follow the LIT as it is received in-house and becomes a Lot. Once a Lot in Transit has been physically received into the plant, it can be turned into a Lot and weighed as a first step to toward processing.

A Production Order is comprised of the steps used to turn a quantity of material (Lot) into either Refining Inventory or Finished Goods inventory. The steps include the physical processing of the material i.e. melting, milling etc as well as one or more assays which list the precious metal content of the material. When the Production Order is closed, the After Processing Weight is added to the approriate Inventory.

A Production Order is created from either a Lot Card by selecting Create Production Order, or it can be created from a Production Order card by selecting New on the Home ribbon bar and entering the From Lot No. directly. When created it will bring in various fields from the Lot such as, Vendor No., Receiving UOM, Path Item and Inventory Type, and the Before Processing Weight will be populated with the Net Weight as stated on the Lot Card. The Order Date and Expected Start Date will be populated with today’s date. The Production Order is now ready to begin processing Production labor entries and as well as Assay information.

Assay Information.

Select Assay Information from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to access the Assay Header List for this Production Order.  Enter a Number and a Description for this Assay then click Assay Lines. This will open up a list comprised of the metals that had been entered on the Lot Card to be Assayed for Enter the Percentage found for each metal. Notice that the Quantity of each metal will be calculated as the Assay Percentage of each is entered. When complete, close the Assay Lines form. If you return to the Assay Lines form you will see that the remaining amount will be listed as BALANCE with the total of the Percentages being 100%.

A Production Order can have multiple Assays associated with it but only one Assay can be defined as the Selected Assay when Posting the Production Order.

Labor Entries

Select Labor Entries from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to display any Labor Entries that may have been been Posted so far to this Production Order.  New Labor entries are created and Posted from the Production Journal  The labor entries include a record of any weight loss or addition as well as the amount of time taken to perform each step, the accumulated totals of which appear on the Production Order Card.

Print Bag

Select Print Bag from the from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to print a Job Ticket to affix to the bag or container that has the material to process.

Print Tag

Select Print Bag from the from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to print a label to affix to the bag or container that has the processed material.

Lot

Select Lot from the from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to quickly navigate to and display the Lot Card for the Lot on the current Production Order.

Statistics

Select Statistics from the from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to quickly display status information regarding the current Production Order.

Post

Select Post from the from the ribbon bar on the Home Tab to close the current Production Order.  Before a Production Order can be closed however, numerous things must be in place:

• All Production entries must be entered such that the Open Processing Weight is zero.
• Assay information must be enterred and one Assay must be identified as the Selected Assay.
• The Temp Barrel Weight, or Inventory Weight, must equal the Weight Processed.
• An Inventory Type must be selected.

If all of the above items are in Place, the Production Order can be posted.  This will Close the Production Order, create a Transaction Ledger Entry increasing the Inventory and, if there are no other open Production Orders for this Lot, Close the Lot.

Once all Production Orders associated with a Lot have been processed  and closed, the lot itself will also be closed. Any Closed Lot not designated as a House Lot is now designated “Ready for Settlement”. The goal of the settlement process is to price contained precious metals and to calculate processing and other lot and production related costs. These costs are treated as revenue and reduce the overall payment to the Refining Customer. In this way, the Settlement process combines two unique sets of transactions: Liability for the metals and Revenue for the Charges. Advances issued against the Lot are also brought onto the Settlement and, like revenue related charges, are used to reduce the overall payment to the Refining Customer.

The posting of a Settlement where metal Settlement Lines have been priced will result in a Payable Invoice being posted to the Refining Customer’s ledger. Settlement metal lines which have not been priced will result in that metal being posted to the Refining Customer’s Pool (Toll) Account. When metal is posted to the Refining Customer’s Pool Account, Refining Charges can either be deducted from Pool as a separate transaction or can be invoiced as a credit to the Refining Customer ledger.