What Atlas will not do
What the screen says
What to do
A shortfall it cannot reconcile the units of
Not reported at all, rather than reported wrongly. The line reads not computed — which is neither zero nor covered.
Declare the conversion on the item and the line answers like any other. Subtracting kilograms from tonnes gives a number that adds up perfectly and is wrong.
A bill of materials with no components
Refused rather than answered with an empty list. “An empty requirement list is not nothing to buy — it is a bill of materials nobody has filled in.”
Add the components. An absence and a zero must never render alike.
A production run of nothing
Refused. “A production run has to be for more than nothing.”
Say how many of the output you intend to make.
A non-conformance with no quantity, or no reason
Both refused. On the quantity: “A quantity of nothing is not a rejection.” And on the reason: “It is the first thing the supplier will ask, and this is the record you will be answering from.”
Record both. The disposition may be left undecided and shows as not decided rather than as nothing.
A rejection that moves the stock
It does not, and the record says so: “Atlas has recorded this and has NOT moved any stock.”
Quarantine or return the goods through the movement screen, with your name on it. A pack that quietly adjusted a balance would be doing the one thing the inventory module is careful never to do.
Confusing what you can build with what you must buy
Atlas keeps them apart deliberately. Producible now counts stock on hand only, because goods in transit cannot be consumed. What a run would need nets off what is already on order.
Read the second before you buy. Not netting what is coming is how a shortfall replenishment already ordered gets ordered again.
Underneath all of it
Shared by every pack that converts or imports anything
What to do
A conversion that was never declared
Refused, and Atlas never returns the quantity unchanged. “Until it is declared, the two quantities are not comparable and Atlas will say so rather than return a figure that looks right.”
Declare the factor for that item. A factor is per item — a case of paper and a case of wine hold different numbers of things — so it is never guessed from a unit's name.
A blank unit read as “each”
It is not. Blank is nobody having said, and it refuses.
State the unit the stock is counted in. Nothing existing is re-expressed when you do: every quantity already recorded means exactly what it meant yesterday.
Spreading import costs with no basis chosen
Refused; there is no default. By value, by weight and by quantity give three different unit costs from one invoice: “all three look equally right on the screen.”
Choose the basis the consignment was actually costed on. A house default would be Atlas deciding which of your products looks profitable.
One line with no weight, on a by-weight split
Refuses the whole split, not just that line. “That would overstate every one of them and understate these to nothing, and the total would still foot exactly.”
Record the missing figures, or choose a basis every line can carry. A figure that foots is the most convincing kind of wrong.
A charge in another currency
Refused, not converted — a customs entry settled months ago at one rate is not today's fact: “What was paid is an amount in a currency, not a rate.”
Record it in the shipment's currency, or cost the shipment in the currency the charges were settled in.
Every one of these is also written into the guidance drawer on the screen it happens on, and into the process guides your own workspace generates — so a person who meets it at four o’clock on a Friday does not need us, or you.
