Establishing Quantity Precision and Rounding Rules for Items

This topic provides a overviews of rules used when rounding and rounding exceptions and discusses how to set up quantity precision and rounding rules.

This topic discusses:

  • Quantity Precision Rules.

  • Rounding Rules.

  • Automatic UOM Rounding.

Quantity Precision Rules

Quantity precision rules enable you to indicate whether entered and calculated quantities for an item-UOM combination should be expressed as whole numbers or decimals. If you specify a whole number as the quantity precision, all quantities involving the item-UOM combination are stored in the database and appear on pages and reports as whole numbers. Zeros still appear in the decimal places, however, so that you see 5.0000 rather than 5. If you specify a decimal quantity precision, quantities are stored and appear as decimals that are carried out to four places.

Quantity precision is set at the inventory SetID and item-UOM levels and is defined on the Units of Measure page, which you access from the Define Items menu.

Whenever you enter a quantity for an item-UOM combination, the PeopleSoft system verifies whether the entry conforms to the quantity precision rules that you specify. If you enter a decimal value for a combination requiring whole numbers, an error message appears. For example, if the EA UOM is defined for whole numbers, you cannot enter a quantity of 1.5 EA.

You can always change a whole number precision to a decimal precision, but you cannot always change a decimal precision to a whole number precision. After you complete certain transactions involving the item—any putaway operation, any order placed against the item, or any adjustment—you cannot make this change.

See Setting Up Quantity Precision and Rounding Rules.

Rounding Rules

Whenever you define a whole number as the quantity precision on the Unit of Measure page, you associate a rounding rule with that item-UOM combination. Rounding rules enable you to determine the direction in which fractional quantities are rounded so that calculations involving the item result in whole numbers. You have two options:

  • Natural round

    Fractional values that are greater than or equal to 0.5 are rounded up to the nearest integer, and fractional values that are less than 0.5 are rounded down to the nearest integer.

  • Round up

    Fractional values are rounded up to the nearest integer.

To change the rounding rules for an item at any time, return to the Unit of Measure page and select a different option.

Note: Calculations that are performed by using the natural round option can produce rounded quantities of 0. For example, the calculated quantity 0.2500 rounds down to 0 rather than up to 1. When establishing the rounding rules, select the round up option to ensure that the system never rounds to 0.

See Understanding Rounding Exceptions.

Automatic UOM Rounding

The Automatic UOM Round option on the Business Unit Related - Inventory Definition page enables you to indicate whether entered fractional quantities should be rounded automatically during UOM conversions. Whenever a PeopleSoft application performs a UOM conversion, it uses the specified rounding rule in conjunction with the automatic rounding option that you select here to determine how to process these quantities.

Depending on how you set the automatic rounding flag, the PeopleSoft system handles automatic rounding in one of three ways:

  • Generates a warning message.

    The system suggests a new quantity to replace the entered quantity. If you accept the suggested value, processing continues; if you reject it, the system displays an error message and stops processing the transaction.

    Note: Because batch processes do not produce online messages, the system treats this option differently when running in batch: it creates a hard-error warning and stops conversion processing.

  • Generates an error message.

    The system displays an error message and stops conversion processing. You must enter a different quantity before processing can resume.

  • Performs automatic rounding without generating a message.

    The system automatically replaces the entered quantity with the new value.

    Note: A UOM conversion that necessitates changing a quantity that is already stored in the database always results in an error, no matter which automatic rounding option you select.

This example illustrates the principles that are behind automatic rounding. Suppose that you maintain item A in two different UOMs: the standard UOM is each (EA) and the stocking UOM is cases (CS). Assume that cases can exist in fractional quantities but EA must be whole numbers, you have selected the natural round rule, and the conversion factor is 6 EA to 1 CS. Suppose that you enter an order for 0.3331 CS of the item. Because PeopleSoft Inventory conducts transactions in the standard UOM, the request for 0.3331 CS is converted to 2 EA (rounded according to the rules that you specify). To maintain data integrity within the system, the originally entered quantity must be revalidated. When the rounded quantity of eaches is reconverted to cases, the resulting value requires the original quantity to be changed from 0.3331 CS to 0.3333 CS.

Certain situations exist in both PeopleSoft Purchasing and PeopleSoft Manufacturing in which rounding differs from the standard functionality.

PeopleSoft Purchasing

If the installation includes PeopleSoft Purchasing, you can override the defined quantity precision rules on the Supplier's UOM & Pricing Info page.

If you specify a whole number quantity precision, the Build Inv Demand from Stage (build inventory demand from stage) process (PO_REQINVS) automatically rounds to whole numbers after calculating the transfer yield (defined on the Define Business Unit Item - Planning: Order Modifiers page). If a rounding error occurs, the process stops the creation of inventory demand and creates a purchase order instead.

During purchase order sourcing, the system applies to the largest distribution any differences that are from rounding. Rounding differences are usually small enough that updating the source documents (requisitions and planned purchase orders, for example) to reflect these discrepancies is not necessary.

PeopleSoft Manufacturing

PeopleSoft Manufacturing does not use the standard rounding rules in three types of transactions:

  • Quantity per assembly.

  • Cost Rollup process.

  • Component demand.

When you establish items and UOMs for the business, define quantity precision and rounding rules for use in system transactions and calculations. These rules govern the manner in which PeopleSoft applications process entered and calculated quantities.

To set up quantity precision and rounding rules:

  1. Define quantity precision and rounding rules for the SetID.

    On the Units of Measure page, which you access from the Define Items menu, specify whether quantities for each item-UOM combination should be expressed as whole numbers or as decimals.

    If you specify a whole-number quantity precision, select a rounding rule (either round up or natural round) to indicate how calculated quantities should be rounded so that they result in whole numbers.

  2. Define automatic rounding rules for UOM conversions.

    On the Business Unit Related - Inventory Definition page, select an automatic rounding option to indicate whether the system should generate warning messages, generate error messages, or round quantities automatically during UOM conversions.