QCI has evolved since 2003 from a system for Quoting, Costing and Invoicing to an integrated business management suite.
It is a multi-user system with 16 levels of authority and access that are assigned depending on the role of the user.
QCI has several modules that, while integrated, can be used independently.
The primary focus is on production management to comply with the stringent requirements of the Therapeutic Goods Administration whereby all processes are thoroughly documented and tracked from raw materials provisioning to customer delivery.
It is best suited for a small to medium sized manufacturer, say up to 100 employees.
It is not a volume retail point-of-sale system but can be used by a wholesaler for sales.
QCI is a large system with much of the code modularised so that it can be reused without duplication. Even so there are over 700 dynamic pages or modules containing over 270,000 lines of code (excluding blank lines) and 340,000 lines including comments.
Accounting
Accounting incorporates the following functions;
Purchase orders
Create of view purchase orders (see example opposite)
Amend purchase orders
Receive purchase orders
Reporting
Overdue orders
Orders summary
Supplier performance graphing
Supplier register
Purchases by item summary
Purchases by item detail
Purchases by supplier summary
Purchases by supplier detail
Invoicing (accounts receivable)
Create of view an invoice
Generate an invoice from delivery dockets
Amend an invoice
Receive payment (single invoice)
Receive payment (multiple invoices)
Complete bank deposit voucher
Issue a credit note
Reporting
Overdue invoices
Invoices issued
Customer statement print
Receivables reconciliation summary
Receivables reconciliation detail
Receivables reconciliation by account
Receivables due summary
Receivables due detail
Receivables due summary
Sales by item summary
Sales by item detail
Sales by customer summary
Sales by customer detail
Accounts payable
Enter/View accounts payable
Pay account payable
Amend account payable
Receive a credit note
Export EFT payment data
Confirm EFT payments
Record presented cheques
Reporting
Payables reconciliation summary
Payables reconciliation detail
Payables reconciliation by account
Payments due summary
Payments due detail
Financial maintenance
Fiscal years
Currency rates
Tax codes
Accounts
Delivery terms
Delivery methods
Payment terms
Payment methods
Customers
Supplier categories
Suppliers (see example opposite)
Asset register
Record journal entry
Standard journal entries
Export account data
Financial reporting
Income
Expenses
Trial balance
Profit and Loss statement
Balance sheet
Transaction analysis
Past 12 months cash flow graph
GST receipts/payments
Inventory Management
Inventory Management incorporates the following functions;
Catalogue maintenance
Product types
Equipment types
Units of measure
Catalogue maintenance (see example opposite)
Equipment register
Inventory
Stock replenishment
Transfer completed lots to stock
Return product stock to work in progress
Reporting
Item summary
Item details
Item usage report
Item usage graph
Raw material stock at cost
Work in progress at cost
Finished goods at cost
Stock reconciliation by account
Work in progress reconciliation by account
Check for stock inconsistencies
Warehousing
Receive purchase orders (see example opposite)
Relocate stock
View stock
Transfer stock between catalogue numbers
Stock locations maintenance
Direct issue
Issue adjustment
Direct receipt
Reporting
Stock list
View stock
Stock take
Print a list of stock locations
Generate a new stocktake check list
View/Print first stocktake check list
Enter discrepancies / Print 2nd check list
Update remaining discrepancies
Unresolved stocktake discrepancies report
Stocktake discrepancies stock adjustment
For catalogue products there is provision for assemblies, bill of operations (including technique cards and costings for each stage of production), bill of materials and manufacturing drawings.
Each catalogued item is assigned an item type.
While optional, the item names are based on the NATO codification system (see also Wikipedia) where there is a standard name for each item and it has a standard definition to ensure that you are using the correct name.
This avoids ambiguity and incorrect supply.
You can then assign questions (not defined by NATO) to items types with the most significant to least significant to have a consistent standard and format within the catalogue (where the questions are answered) that is easily searched and indexed.
Document management
Document management may seem unnecessary and indeed may be until your business requires accreditation.
With accreditation all your procedures need to be documented and all your staff need to be trained.
When you are audited your staff need to be able to immediatly produce the relevant documentation.
Once documentation has commenced it needs to be ongoing and maintained with an auditable review and release procedure.
When a document has been revised then relevant personnel need to be advised and may be required to confirm that they have read the documentation and your organisation provide evidence of this.
If the document relates to external vendors then they also need to be advised of revisions to ensure the supply conforms to the latest revision.
Documents are subdivided into two areas, development and production.
Production documents be they Control templates, Design documents, General documents, Engineering drawings, External documents, Vendor reports, Human resources documents, Monitoring and Maintenance documents, Measuring equipment documents, Meeting records, Process specifications, Validation documents, Receipting forms, Specification sheets, Supplier review documents, Technique cards, or Work record forms, are only viewable to the user if it is the current release and the user is a member of a group with viewing rights to the document type.
Development documents are subdivided by project and only viewable to members of the development project team.
The design process progresses through several levels to reach the final level and when a level is closed no documents can be added to that level within the project.
These development documents include all the notes, references and prototypes involved in the project. Only at the end of the project is the final released to production.
Once in production, subsequent document revisions may also be seen within the project when traversing the revision history.
A document may appear in multiple folders but there is only one master copy of that document.
Document management does not need the other modules. Without the document management module the other modules loose some functionality.
Document management incorporates the following functions;
Document searching and viewing (see example opposite)
A reading list of documents to be read
Document favorites (an individualised subset of viewable documents)
Documents maintenance
Document folders maintenance (where the document tree is created and edited)
Document types maintenance
Document maintenance
Documents for you to peer review
Documents submitted by you for peer review
Documents to be reviewed where you are the author
Documents reporting
Document status by user
Documents for review
Document read history details
The training module is an extension to document management.
For accreditation a training review process is required along with evidence of qualified training.
Reminders of up and coming training schedules appear on the home page.
The training module incorporates the following functions;
Competency areas maintenance
Competency levels maintenance
Competencies maintenance
Individual training profile (see example opposite)
Reporting
Overview
Training as student schedule
Training as trainer schedule
Training review schedule
Production management
Production management covers receipting of customer order, through to production to delivery.
While it is possible to produce and deliver an uncatalogued item, you can not receive into the system a customer's order for an item that is not a catalogued product.
An uncatalogued item can not have a bill of materials nor bill of operations.
Without the inventory management module you can't hold or issue stock to be consumed in the production process but you can still order uncatalogued material or services directly for work in progress if you have the accounting module.
In summary, while the production management module relies heavily on the other modules it can function without them with restrictions.
Every step in the production process is recorded as in who, when, what and how.
Any non-conformances to specification or process are recorded and again who, when, what and how.
A non-conformance also results in an analysis and preventative action process.
Production processes may be internal or external.
Production management incorporates the following functions;
Orders incoming
Enter/view/process customer orders
Fill customer backorders
Prepare/view Quotations
Reporting
Product backorder summary
Product backorder details
Lot/Batch creation, processing and viewing
Lot costing (see example opposite)
On-line context related procedures and specifications
Mix internal and external processes within the overall production process
Barcode scanning in start of a process
Barcode scanning in end of a process
Uploading of related work records and certificates
Issue materials to a lot based on the bill of materials
Order additional materials or services for a lot
Issue additional materials to a lot
Produce product packaging labels
Authorised product release
Maintenance
Process types
Product non-conformance categories
Product dispositions
Causalities
Lot number series
Machine codes
Equipment maintenance scheduling
Engineering change request register and processing
Rework register and processing
Non-conformance register and processing
Preventative action register and processing
Repackaging register and processing
Clean-room register and processing
Reporting
Track a batch
Documentation retrieval related to the production process from raw material certificates of compliance to completed work record forms
Lot cost performance
Lot time performance
Raw material conversion rate
Projected unit production costs
Work in progress summary
Work in progress details
Work in progress at cost
Work in progress barcode print
Work in progress snapshot
Work priority summary
Non-conformance graph
Non-conformance details
Delivery
Transfer completed lots to stock
Generate/view/print delivery dockets for production directly for a customer
Delivery docket cancellation/amendment
Reporting
Delivery performance graph (see example opposite)
Overdue lots/deliveries
Custom delivery labels
Base module
The base module is common to and supports all other modules.
The base module incorporates the following functions;
User registration and authorisation
User groups maintenance
Individual colour scheme customisation and font sizing
Company branding, system options settings and selection
Next document (eg invoice) number settings
States maintenance
Postcodes maintenance
Non-working days maintenance
System wide bulletins creation and posting
User forum
User system usage logging
Who is currently logged in, for how long, where and with what
Site visitation reports (see example opposite)
Version control with automated (upon acceptance) background updates over the Internet from the update server
QCI integrated business management suite
