Slow-Moving Inventory for Epicor Prophet 21
Every item in Prophet 21 with no sales in months, its last receipt, cost and value by branch and vendor, sorted into what goes back, what gets marked down and what moves to the other branch. The return request is drafted, and a person decides.
Purchasing & inventoryUpdated Oct 202620 ERPs
See it work on Prophet 21.
Click through the steps. Fictional data, in Prophet 21’s terms; the real thing runs on Prophet 21.
| Vendor | Items | Value at cost | Returnable | Window closes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cascade Millwork | 26 | $22,410 | $12,410 | Dec 15 |
| Lakeside Roofing Supply | 41 | $12,960 | $8,200 | Nov 30 |
| Summit Fasteners | 63 | $5,930 | $5,930 | Rolling, 12 months |
| Blue Ridge Truss | 4 | $3,180 | $0 | No returns |
Every item with no sales in six months, by branch and vendor, with the value at cost and the vendor’s return window.
The problem, as it happens in Prophet 21.
Dead stock at a dealer is a report in Prophet 21 nobody runs, because it comes back with four thousand lines and no way to act on them. The item master says ninety-six of something are on hand at Route 9; it does not say the last one sold in February, that Main St sells a dozen a month, or that the vendor takes returns within a year of receipt.
So it sits. The door that could have gone back to the vendor in March is past its return window in September, the pallet of ice melt gets counted again in January, and the carrying cost never shows up anywhere because the inventory is still on the books at cost. The write-down lands at year end, all at once, when the accountant asks.
How it works.
- 1
What stopped selling is found
Every stock item with no sales in the months you set, by branch: on hand, cost, extended value, last receipt, last sale, and the vendor it came from. Seasonal items are judged against the same months last year, so snow shovels in July are not dead stock.
- 2
Sorted into return, markdown or transfer
Returnable if the vendor takes it and the receipt is inside their window. Transfer if the other branch sells it. Markdown if neither. Each item carries the reason and the value at stake.
- 3
A person decides
The buyer opens on the vendor with the most returnable value first. Return, mark down, transfer, keep, or leave it for next quarter. Every decision is kept with the item, so the list gets shorter.
- 4
The return request is drafted
One request per vendor, with the items, quantities, receipt dates and PO numbers from Prophet 21. The buyer sends it. The markdown and transfer lists are laid out for Prophet 21 and keyed or imported by a person.
How it connects to Prophet 21.
Lunica reads the item master, on-hand by branch, cost, sales history, receipts with their PO and date, and the vendor on each item through a read-only login to the Prophet 21 SQL Server database. Vendor return windows and restocking fees are a rule you set per vendor, not something read from Prophet 21.
Nothing is sent to a vendor and nothing is changed in Prophet 21 on its own. The return request is a draft the buyer sends; the markdown and transfer lists go back as a Prophet 21 import or API call where one exists, or keyed by your team from what Lunica prepared. A return the vendor accepts becomes a credit only when a person posts it.
What a week looks like.
- Every item with no sales in months, with its value, by branch and vendor.
- Returns requested inside the vendor’s window, not after it.
- Transfers between branches before a markdown, and markdowns before a write-off.
- The write-down known quarter by quarter, not discovered at year end.
Questions
Does it change costs, prices or quantities in Prophet 21?
No. The markdown and transfer lists go into Prophet 21 as a Prophet 21 import or API call where one exists, or keyed by your team from what Lunica prepared, and the return is posted by a person when the vendor’s credit arrives.
How does it know what the vendor will take back?
From a rule you set per vendor: the return window, the restocking fee, whether special orders count. Lunica reads the receipt date and PO from Prophet 21 and checks each item against the rule.
What about seasonal items?
An item is judged against the same months last year. Something that sells every winter and not in July is not on the list in July.
Can it tell a special order from stock?
Yes, where Prophet 21 marks it. A special order that was never picked up is its own list, with the customer and the order on it, because the call to make is different.
Does it send the return request?
No. It drafts one per vendor with the items, quantities, receipt dates and PO numbers. The buyer reads it and sends it.
What does the controller see?
The value by branch, by vendor and by age, and what was decided. The write-down that is coming is visible each quarter instead of at year end.
How much data does the model see?
The rows behind a decision: the items for one vendor, their receipts and sales. The list itself is built from Prophet 21’s numbers, not by a model.
Does it need a server?
Lunica runs on one Windows server inside your network, or beside your hosted Prophet 21, set up and maintained by Lunica. It reads Epicor Prophet 21 through a read-only login to the Prophet 21 SQL Server database. There is no inbound connection from outside your network.
What does Lunica read in Prophet 21?
The customer master, open items and terms, purchase orders and receipts, the item master, quotes and order history, as each workflow needs them. Read-only, and only the rows a task is about.
Can it post to Prophet 21?
Nothing lands in Prophet 21 without a person. What belongs in Prophet 21 goes back as a Prophet 21 import or API call where one exists, or keyed by your team from what Lunica prepared.
What about our documents?
Invoice copies and scans keep living in Document Link. Lunica reads them when a workflow needs one and never writes to them.
The same workflow, on another ERP.
Slow-Moving Inventory is written for every system on the list. You’re reading the Prophet 21 version.
Lumber and building materials
Wholesale distribution
- Epicor Prophet 21
- Epicor Eclipse
- Infor CloudSuite Distribution
General business
Another system? Tell us which →
See it on your Prophet 21 data.
Thirty minutes. We walk the workflow on Prophet 21 data, then map it to yours.