Engineer to Order (ETO) FAQs


General

  • Can you easily create and monitor budgets?
  • Does the system have powerful Job document management features to keep all documents, emails and transmittals for a project in one easy to find location? (AutoCAD, Word, Excel)
  • Does the system support multi currency sales and purchases including automatic calculation of foreign exchange gains and losses?
  • Does your company only deal with only ETO scenarios. What about configure to order, make to order and make to stock scenarios? How about spare parts and equipment loaners?
  • Do you require standard costing, price lists and customer discounts?
  • Do the financial modules support Sarbanes Oxley?

Estimating

  • Can you create an estimate in the system without first creating an item master record?
  • Can you create an estimate using “buckets” of time and money?
  • Does the system have a Product Configurator for products with many options, sizes, colors, features?
  • Does the system allow you to process an order from order entry to invoicing without first creating a part number?

Billing

  • Can you combine multiple shipments onto one invoice?
  • Does the system allow you to bill the customer based on reaching a specific milestone or on percent complete?
  • Does the system allow you to recognize revenue to support Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP)?
  • Does the system automatically create an invoice based on reaching a milestone rather than final shipment?
  • How is freight, installation, field service and warranty tracking handled?

Project and Job Costing

  • Is the planned and actual cost recorded against that project?
  • Can you assign and track scrap to re-work?
  • Can you plan requirements for purchased items by project?
  • Does the system allow you to link all service costs back to the original project if required?
  • Does the system allow your project managers to enter the estimate-to-complete in both time and money?
  • Does the system distinguish between estimated costs, engineered costs, actual costs and cost to complete?
  • Does the system integrate with a project management tool, such as Microsoft Project?
  • Does the system provide comprehensive project reporting so you know exactly how much profit contribution each project is estimated to make?
  • Does the system reflect the true actual cost?
  • Does the system show both the original planned cost and the actual cost?
  • Does the system track Project Change Orders including quoted and actual costs?

Purchasing

  • Can the engineer create a purchase requisition?
  • Can you issue Vendor RFQ’s from Estimating, Production or Purchasing?
  • Can you purchase material directly to a job or project?
  • Does the system allow you to buy or make a part for one time use, without creating an item master record?

Production

  • Can you combine requirements for multiple projects onto a single work order?
  • Is there an Engineering Change Module with Revision control on both an item and project level?
  • Can you issue multiple work orders and sub work orders to a project?
  • Can you Ship directly from a BOM directly to client site?
  • Can you transfer from stock to WIP or from WIP back to stock?
  • Does the system allow you to ship finished products directly from WIP without completing an inventory transaction?
  • Does the system automatically create a serialized master record with warranty and service information?
  • Does the system handle make to stock sub assemblies?
  • Does the system offer a fully integrated Sub Contract module for operations such as sending out material for heat treat, painting or welding?
  • Does the system require a detailed BOM and routing before processing a work order?
  • Is there a audit trail of all bill of material changes during the project.?
  • How does the system deal with bill of material changes that will affect existing items on purchase order?

CAD

  • Can the drawing be viewed by all appropriate persons? Can they make notes on the drawing without changing the original drawing?
  • Can the engineer create a parts list in the CAD system and automatically create a BOM from the drawing without re-keying the data?
  • Is the CAD system fully integrated with the rest of the system? Is the link two-way, or only one-way?