GP2013 Obsolete vs Inactive

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I cannot get comfortable with the understanding of the difference between making an Item Obsolete and making it Inactive.

What are the differences of their respective effects and functions?

Thank you

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Frank Hamelly | MVP... 46,625 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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There is no Obsolete status in GP. What status you assign an item in GP depends on your desired disposition of the item. If you have slow moving inventory, or obsolete inventory that you can still sell, you change the Item Type to Discontinued. This allows you to deplete existing inventory but not build or buy more of it.

Setting an Item as Inactive prevents any kind of transaction processing against it, unless you change the status back to Active.

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Bron 4 on at

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Frank

I think he's referring to the obsolete status in item engineering data (manufacturing series).

I have never studied or documented the various conditions possible in both mfg and inventory settings - example inactive in item maintenance and active in mfg...........etc. I think the mfg dictionary controls both mfg transactions and some GP transactions - example PO entry..........

If anybody has experience please share..........the two screens do seem redundant and MBS probably should consolidate the functions when a user has mfg loaded........

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I apologize for not provided more detail. We do have the Mfg Series implemented.

Thank you Frank for identifying the gap. So this seems to take things to a higher level.

How do the settings of Item Status in IED interact with the settings of Item Type in the IM? And then how does selecting the Inactive Box in IM of an item affects things.

Thank you

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Mahmoud Saadi 32,738 on at

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There is a wide misunderstanding when it comes to the item status on the inventory control level, and manufacturing level. Theoretically speaking, managing the item card; as an "inventory entity" associated with all other supply chain modules, shall be accessed from one window. Although, the logic of the system is justified as follows;

On Inventory Control Level:

Item Status: Sales, Discontinued, Kit, Miss Charges, Services and Flat Fee. | These types affect how to deal with the item (For instance, quantity versus cost tracking options). Standard or Extended Priciing for Sales items ... etc

Inactive/ Active Item. The item can be inactivated in order to prevent the item from being sold, purchases. On the other hand, there are still conditions to consider before inactivating an item (Find them on the help documentation of the window with illustrative explanation) As shown below;

On the Manufacturing Level, you can still manage the item by assigning status to the item, which affects what you can do with the item

Obsolete Status: You can't manufacture these items anymore on the manufacturing module

When entering transactions for "Obsolete" Items, warning message will pop up by the system to warn you but not prevent you from selling or purchasing the item. As shown below on the Sales Entry or Receiving Transaction Entry warning (For an obsolute Item) but you can still continue the transaction.

I have never seen customers using "Item Status" on the Item Engineering Data, managing items on the Item Maintenance Window would be more than enough to handle all the associated cases that a business might encounter.

Hope this helps,

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Frank Hamelly | MVP... 46,625 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Sorry Duffy, my primarily-Distribution brain didn't make the jump to MFG :) Mahmoud has given you a pretty good explanation of the differences between Obsolete and Inactive in MFG. I have not seen any customers using these statuses either.

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Thank you

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Richard Whaley 25,195 on at

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The manufacturing status of Obsolete assumes that an item will never be built again. It prevents the creation of an MO.

Inactive items are items that, generally, have not been used recently. They are marked this way to limit their use but not restrict it. You can purchase an inactive item but not an obsolete one.

Consider the following. There are parts available from your vendor you no longer use and parts no one makes any more (tubes for radios, perhaps? 1865 Winchester Rifles!). You can buy the first but you don't so they are inactive. You cannot buy obsolete items except in antique stores.

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