Understanding the Material Usage and Reconciliation Business Process

To set up consumer usage, use the Consumer Usage (USAGE_INV_GBL) component.

PeopleSoft Inventory provides tools for capturing and tracking material usage from locations and receipt of goods into locations. These tools track information for par and internal locations, including the captured usage by consumers and the purchase receipts or internal issues of stock. This enables you to reconcile data and account for the stock.

If you integrate with a third-party consumer management system, you can capture and synchronize information about consumer usage. If you integrate with third-party consumer billing or costing accounting systems, you can use consumer usage data in the costing and billing functions. Generic enterprise integration points (EIPs) support integration with these third-party systems and enable the exchange of applicable consumer and consumer usage data.

While the ability to track material usage is common in the healthcare industry, the PeopleSoft Inventory material usage features enable you to work with any business that uses par locations.

Before tracking material usage, you must capture basic consumer information in PeopleSoft Inventory by either:

• Entering consumer information manually.

• Using the Consumer Message EIP to receive consumer information from a third-party consumer management system.

Data sent with the Consumer Message EIP include basic consumer information, such as consumer name, consumer ID, and service encounter with the consumer. For example, a hospital might use the Consumer Message EIP to import patient data from the system that handles admissions, discharges, and transfers. At a minimum, the hospital would import the patient name, patient ID, and the reason and date for the admission. Using the patient ID and service encounter information, you can distinguish and bill for items issued to the same consumer on different encounters.

After consumer data is sent to PeopleSoft Inventory, you can:

1. Print a charge sheet for the consumer, using the Consumer Charge Sheet Report page.

   The report consists of a header with basic consumer data, in both bar-coded and human-readable form, and preprinted blank boxes. When you dispense an item from the par location supplies to a consumer, you transfer the bar-coded item label from the dispensed item to a box on the consumer's charge sheet. You do this for each item dispensed to a consumer from par location supplies.

2. Gather the charge sheets and update the PeopleSoft Inventory system with the consumer usage information.

   You can enter the consumer usage information on the Consumer Usage Entry page using a keyboard wedge device for quick data entry. Item usage can also be entered manually for each consumer's service event, using the Consumer Usage page.

   • The replenishment of goods to par locations is handled by the Create Par Replen Requests process (INPGCDMD), where stock is either purchased from a supplier and received directly to the par location or issued from an inventory business unit to the par location.

   • The reconciliation of consumer material usage involves tracking the consumer usage and receipt data for a specified time frame, business unit, and location and summarizes the total receipts versus the total usage by item.

     PeopleSoft supports reconciliation activities with online inquiries of item usage as well as with reporting features to help you account for lost charges.

3. Push usage data for the consumer to the billing or costing system, using the Consumer Usage EIP.

   When activated, consumer usage data is published when you save the Consumer Usage Entry page or the Consumer Usage page.

The following scenarios illustrate possible applications of material usage and reconciliation in different industries.

Healthcare

A typical healthcare facility records patient information using the healthcare provider's admissions system. On admission, the system assigns the patient an ID and assigns the visit an associated service event ID. These two data elements are then sent to PeopleSoft Inventory using the Consumer Message EIP.

During the patient's service event, PeopleSoft Inventory accumulates material usage. The usage information is tracked by item in the dispensing unit of measure, which is the lowest unit of measure defined for the item. To gather material-usage data:

1. The patient's bedside or a general nursing location on the floor maintains the patient's record or PeopleSoft Inventory-produced consumer charge sheet.

2. The nursing staff gathers materials for the patient from a par location that is replenished through either direct issues out of inventory or direct purchases to the nursing location.

   For each item used in the patient's service event, a PeopleSoft Inventory-produced item usage barcode label for that item is placed on the patient's consumer charge sheet.

3. Once a day, or after each shift, the staff collects consumer charge sheets for each location in the facility.

4. New consumer usage information on the charge sheets is either entered manually or scanned into PeopleSoft Inventory.

   Consumer charge sheets are produced once a night, or once each shift, until the patient is discharged. Each night, patient consumer charges are sent to the healthcare provider's accounting and billing systems, using an EIP, for final billing, costing, and analysis.

5. In PeopleSoft, item usage information accumulated for the patient can be reconciled with the item receipts from the inventory and purchasing material replenishment functions in PeopleSoft Purchasing and Inventory.

   This reconciliation includes item usage inquiry tools as well as reporting used to account for lost charges.

Service and Retail Industries

The material usage tracking feature has cross-industry applications. For example, infrastructure and telecommunications industries can set up par location trucks and charge specific customers for materials depleted from the truck during onsite installations. Likewise, retailers can stock delivery trucks or vending machines with par location supplies, which can be tracked and invoiced as ad-hoc sales are made.

These trucks and machines are point-of-service locations that can be replenished using the par location inventory replenishment feature in PeopleSoft Inventory. Just as healthcare facilities need to reconcile material usage with a patient, these service and retail companies need to reconcile material usage with the customer being serviced.