You can let the system add items to the installed base as you sell them. Creating records this way minimizes the data entry required to update the installed base.

Invoice Post and Print creates installed base records for parent and component items from sales orders when these settings are in place:

The system creates the actual ISB record when you post the invoice for the sales order, minimizing the cleanup required if you find mistakes on the pending invoice. If sales shipment created the ISB record and you change the invoice later, the ISB record may be wrong.

When the system creates an ISB record during invoice post, it includes the sales order number, line item number, and invoice number. You can use these fields later as search criteria. Invoices created for both standard sales orders and RMAs create or update installed base records.

If Installed Base is Yes in Service Item Maintenance (11.3.7) for a sales order line item and the other settings are correct in the control programs, the sales order program uses default values to create ISB records. The system bases these values on data for the item in Service Item Maintenance. The end user is the ship-to address on the sales order.

Set SO Edit ISB Defaults to Yes in Sales Order Control to override default values during Sales Order Maintenance. The Installed Base Detail frame displays.

Some of the fields on this pop-up correspond to fields in Service Item Maintenance. The values there default into the corresponding fields in the pop-up: Update Installed Base, Installation Call, and Warranty Code. Edit the default values to control whether to include items in the installed base on a line-by-line basis.

The end user defaults from the ship-to address on the sales order. You can use Installed Base Location and Ownership to add information for the installed base record.

Use Parent Serial and Parent Item only if you want the item being sold added to the installed base as a component of another installed base item. If the item being sold is part of a configured item, you can specify a parent item and serial already in the installed base for the current end user, and the system adds the new item as part of that configuration.

The warranty start date defaults to blank. If you do not specify a date, the system uses the sales order ship date as the warranty start date when Invoice Post and Print creates the installed base record.

The system calculates the warranty end date by adding the warranty duration to the warranty start date. If you specify a warranty start date, the system uses it to calculate the warranty end date when it creates the installed base record. If the field is blank, the system bases the warranty start date on the sales order ship date during invoice post. If Invoice Post and Print creates an installation call, the system bases the warranty start and end dates on the call closure date.

The system updates the warranty start and end dates only if you have not specified a date. For the system to manage this date, leave the field blank.

The system obtains other information that is part of the installed base record from the sales order: item number, quantity, serial number, lot/reference number.

If you update the installed base from sales order shipments, you need to delete installed base records when a customer returns items. A negative order quantity on the sales order line indicates a sales order return. When you ship this line and post the invoice, the system can remove the installed base record.

For this to occur, the setting of SO Returns Update ISB in Sales Order Control must be Yes. The other conditions that update the installed base must also be true. For example, Ship to Installed Base must be Yes in Service Management Control.

Also, some quantity of this item must be in the installed base. To uniquely identify the item you want to remove, enter the installed base reference, which appears on the Installed Base Detail pop-up when you have satisfied the above conditions.

Sales Order Maintenance (7.1.1) or Pending Invoice Maintenance (7.13.1) are the only places you can specify the ISB reference, and you can specify only one reference per sales order line. This has two implications:

If the system cannot find the item, serial, and reference in the installed base for the end user on the sales order, a warning displays. A warning also displays when the installed base quantity does not match the line item quantity.

Posting the sales order invoice deletes the installed base record. When the system updates the installed base, it writes a message to the ISBPST.prn file confirming deletion or describing any error that prevented it.

You can change default installed base information in an RMA, just like a sales order by setting Edit Installed Base to Yes in RMA/RTS Control. For instance, if you need to define an end user on a line item that is different from that specified on the header, you can change the end user line-by-line.

RMA Maintenance adds records to the installed base and removes them. If you issue an item in place of a returned item, RMA Maintenance removes the old record and replaces it with the new.

When Invoice Post and Print updates the installed base, the system puts messages in your local directory about ISB records it created and errors it encountered. This file is ISBPST.prn.

The file lists items by customer and sales order (or RMA). This file is re-created each time you run Invoice Post, but the system adds data only when you update the installed base.

Messages in ISBPST.prn depend on the kind of update. The following messages may occur during delete from RMA and sales order returns.

ISB updates generate the following messages when Load Available Structure is Yes: