Business processes can be designed to accommodate line item consolidation: the ability to select individual line items from one or more BP records (the source BPs) and copy them into a new record (the destination BP). The selected line items can be from the same BP type, or they can be from different types, as long as they are compatible (see the table below). The source and destination BPs must be at the same level (both company level or both project or shell level). File attachments can also be copied.
This functionality is built into business processes through the uDesigner design, which includes specifying which BPs can be used for the source and destination. Also, the ability to filter the business process records that can be consolidated (by status) can be added in uDesigner. This enables you to filter the records you see in the list to consolidate by the record status, allowing you, for example, to exclude records that have the status of Pending or Rejected.
For example, this functionality can be used to consolidate specific line items from multiple change order requests submitted over a period of time into a single change commit.
The following BP types are supported:
- Cost type (except payment applications)
- Document (with a detail form)
- RFB (Requestor form only)
- Line item type
There are some restrictions when consolidating line items from different BP types:
Note: Line Items cannot be edited after consolidation, if the “Prevent consolidating the same line item across multiple records” checkbox is checked.
| Source (across) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Destination (down) | Cost Type | Doc Type | RFB | Line Item |
Cost Type | Yes | No | No | No |
Doc Type | No | Yes | No | No |
RFB | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Line Item | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
To copy line items from one or more business process records into another
- Open the business process record into which the line items will be consolidated (the destination business process).
- On the bottom toolbar, click Copy and choose Consolidate Line Items. The Line Items Consolidation window opens. This window lists the business processes that are eligible for consolidation with this BP.
Note: This window will not appear if there is only one eligible business process. Instead, a list window opens, displaying a list of the eligible records from that business process. Continue with step 4.
For Shells:
If you are consolidating line items from a business process in a shell, the window will display a Choose Location field. Use this field to specify which shell the business process resides in. (View-only shells are not usable with this feature.)
For Data Pickers:
If the source BP includes a data picker on the form, it might be set up to present the list of records in a hierarchy. If this is the case, Unifier will ignore the Choose Location field.
- Select the source business process and click OK. A list window opens, displaying a list of eligible records from that business process.
- Select a record from the list. To search for a particular record, click Find.
- To copy specific line items from the selected record:
- Click the Select Line Items button. The BP Line Item(s) window opens, displaying the line items for that record.
- Select one or more line items and click Copy.
- Choose With Attachments to include any file attachments that may be present on the line item to be copied, or choose Without Attachments to ignore attachments.
- To copy all line items from the selected record:
- Click All Line Items.
- Choose With Attachments to include any file attachments that may be present on the line item to be copied, or choose Without Attachments to ignore attachments.
Note: If there are multiple tabs on the record you selected, Unifier will prompt you to select the tab you want to copy the line items from.
- Close this window by clicking the Close Window button.
Unifier copies the line items to the consolidated business process record.
Note the following:
- Once you copy a line item for consolidation, that line item will no longer be available for other consolidations—unless the BP design specifies that, once the consolidated BP reaches a certain status, the line items from the source BP(s) will be available again. For example, if a Change Order with consolidated line items reaches a "rejected" status, then all the consolidated line items will be available so you can consolidate them again in another Change Order. In addition, line items will be available again for consolidation if the consolidated business process record reaches a terminal status, or if the line item is deleted in the originating (source) business process or is terminated.
- You can consolidate the line items of the Standard tab of a Document-type business process into the line items of the Standard tab of another Document-type business process, only.
- Be aware that line items on a draft business process are also unavailable for consolidation. If the consolidated line item business process has not been saved or sent to the next step in a workflow, Unifier considers it to be in draft mode and will lock the line item for any other consolidation. To unlock the line item, you must delete the draft BP.
- If the consolidation setup was designed so in uDesigner, the line item in the consolidated BP can be automatically updated whenever the source line item changes (as long as the consolidated record has not reached a terminal status). For example, pickers that are auto-populated will be updated, formulas will be re-calculated, roll-ups will be updated, attachments will be modified or removed, reverse auto-population will be performed. However, if any new attachments are added to the source line item, these will not be added to the line item on the consolidated BP. If
uuu_li_consolidated(Field Label: Consolidated) is a part of the detail form design of the consolidation source BP record, then the Data Element (DE) will be set to "yes," if the line item has been consolidated. - If there is a BP Line Item picker on the source and destination detail forms, the BP Line Item picker data will be ignored (will not be copied) while copying line items.
- BP picker information can exist on source and destination detail forms. Data will be copied only if the underlying BP picker reference is the same on both the source and destination. If the reference is not the same, data will not be copied. For example, a destination BP has a BP picker on the detail form that references a vendor BP. To populate data via this BP picker, the source BP must have a BP picker that is the same vendor BP. If it is not, the vendor data cannot be copied.
- A Commit Line Item picker on the detail form of a change order business process will allow you to select a line item from SOV (contract + change orders). A Commit Line Item picker always works in conjunction with a Reference Commit picker on the upper form. The Reference Commit picker on the source and destination should refer to the same base contract.
- If the destination line item form and the source line item form both contain a data element that is designed to be auto-populated from another source, the auto-populate will be ignored during consolidation. The copied line item data will take precedence over auto-populated data in the destination BP.
- When consolidating line items from a Cost BP to a SPA type commits BP, if the Cost Line Item Type in the source BP record is the Variable Unit Cost, and the destination design does not have the uuu_quantity and the uuu_unit_price, then Unifier will display this message: Cost Line Item Type of Variable Unit Cost cannot be created. Detail Form design for this tab in uDesigner must include the data elements uuu_unit_price and uuu_quantity. The functionality is the same in the case with the auto-creation of the SPA commit record, from non-SPA BP.
- When consolidating line items, from a non-SPA BP to SPA type commit BP and in the destination if the amount data element is not defined as formula of uuu_unit_cost * uuu_quantity, the amount value in the copied line item will be zero (0).
- Validations to be considered when consolidating or auto-creating line items into SPA BP:
- The costed amount total must be equal to the line item amount, based on the form properties in the design.
- All of the fields which are marked as required must have data in the destination line item.
- When the line items are auto-created from a non-SPA BP, if the CBS Code does not exist in the destination, then the BP record will be created in the I-step. In this case, only the summary line will be created.