Inspection Certificates

Purpose

Inspection certificates document the quality inspection results for products that are shipped to customers. The certificates are created from the quality tests recorded during production and contain the inspection results that belong to the quantity being shipped.

The inspection certificate process links production quality assurance with the shipping process and helps ensure that the correct inspection documentation accompanies each shipment.

Before You Begin

Before an inspection certificate can be created:

• The required test plans should have been completed.
• Quality Managers should have entered the required measurement and inspection results in Quality Tests.
• The relevant production quantities must be available for shipment.
• The sales order line must require an inspection certificate.

How Inspection Certificates Are Created

Inspection certificates are normally created automatically from the sales order.

Immediately before shipping, warehouse or shipping personnel run the Fill Qty. to Ship action on the sales order. The action proposes the quantities to ship and creates or updates inspection certificates for the applicable sales order lines.

Only quality tests that belong to production output with a positive quantity to ship are assigned to the inspection certificate.

If no qualifying quality tests exist for a sales order line, no inspection certificate is created.

Beginning and Ending Texts

An inspection certificate can include text before and after the inspection result lines.

Use the Text (Before Lines) field to select the text that appears before the inspection results. Use the Text (After Lines) field to select the text that appears after the inspection results.

Both fields refer to a Standard Text. When a standard text is selected, the system copies its applicable extended-text lines to the inspection certificate.

The appropriate extended text is selected according to the certificate date and language code.

Available Wildcards

The beginning and ending texts of an inspection certificate can contain wildcards. When the certificate text is displayed, printed, attached, or sent by email, the system replaces each wildcard with the corresponding value from the inspection certificate or its related sales order line.

Wildcards use the format %1, %2, and so on. The following wildcards are available:

Example

The following beginning text:

Inspection Certificate %1

We confirm that the products for sales 
order %3 were inspected.

Customer: %6
Service: %19 - %20
Quantity: %13 %14
Customer reference: %17

could be displayed as:

Inspection Certificate IC-000145

We confirm that the products for sales 
order SO-10482 were inspected.

Customer: Alpine Components Ltd.
Service: SRV-100 - Surface treatment
Quantity: 250 PCS
Customer reference: PO-45871

Important Information

• Wildcards are replaced when the certificate text is generated. The stored standard text continues to contain the original wildcard.
• Date, quantity, and number values are formatted according to the current Business Central language and regional settings.
• If a referenced field does not contain a value, the wildcard is replaced with an empty value or the field's default value.
• Use only the wildcards listed in this table. Other wildcard numbers are not supported.

Editing Certificate Text

The copied beginning and ending text lines belong to the inspection certificate. They can therefore be reviewed and adjusted without changing the original standard text.

Changes to the original standard text do not automatically update text lines that have already been copied to an existing inspection certificate.

Selecting a different standard text replaces the existing text lines of the corresponding section.

HTML Output

The beginning and ending text lines can be provided to the inspection certificate report as HTML-formatted text.

Non-empty text lines are combined into continuous text. An empty text line creates an HTML line break. This allows the standard text to be divided into paragraphs by inserting blank extended-text lines.

For example, the following extended-text lines:

We hereby confirm that the supplied products were inspected.

The inspection results are listed below.

are rendered with a line break between the two paragraphs.

The report layout determines how the generated HTML text is displayed in the printed certificate, document attachment, or emailed document.

To learn more about available HTML formatting, visit Use HTML formatting (RDLC reports)

Quantities

The quantity fields on the inspection certificate are maintained automatically by the system and cannot be edited manually.

Before the shipment is posted, the certificate shows the proposed quantity and number of items based on the available production output.

When the shipment is posted, the system updates the certificate with the actual posted shipment values.

• Quantity shows the posted shipment quantity.
• No. of Items shows the number of items included in the posted shipment.
• Scrap Quantity shows the related scrap quantity.
• Scrap No. of Items shows the related number of scrap items.

Scrap values are recorded separately and are not included in the delivered quantity.

Inspection Certificate Status

Inspection certificates can be prepared and reviewed before they are certified.

After an inspection certificate has been set to Certified, its protected information can no longer be changed. Certification and other restricted status changes require the appropriate Quality Manager permissions.

Updating an Inspection Certificate

If shipment quantities change before the shipment is posted, run Fill Qty. to Ship again.

The system reuses and updates an existing open inspection certificate whenever possible. It updates the certificate information and assigns the quality tests that belong to the current quantities to ship.

Certified inspection certificates are not intended to be changed by the shipment preparation process.

Printing and Sending

Inspection certificates can be printed using the configured report selection for inspection certificates.

When a shipment note is sent by email, the system combines the shipment note and the inspection certificates into a ZIP archive..

Only inspection certificates related to the shipment are included.

The ZIP archive contains:

• The shipment note as a PDF file.
• A separate PDF file for each related inspection certificate.

The inspection certificate files are stored in the Certificates folder within the ZIP archive. The ZIP archive is attached to the shipment email and is named using the shipment number.

If the shipment does not have any related inspection certificates, the shipment note is sent using the standard document-mailing process.

Depending on the available actions and setup, you can also:

• Send the inspection certificate by email.
• Save the inspection certificate as a document attachment.
• Print the certificate using the assigned document-sending profile.
  
  For further information about document-sending profiles, visit Set Up Document Sending Profiles

Deleting an Inspection Certificate

Only an editable inspection certificate can be deleted.

When an inspection certificate is deleted, the system also:

• Removes the certificate reference from the related sales order line.
• Removes the certificate assignment from the associated quality tests.
• Deletes the copied beginning and ending text lines.
• Deletes comments belonging to the inspection certificate.

Typical Workflow

1. Complete the required production operations.
2. Record the measurement and inspection results in Quality Tests.
   
   See Test Plans for JOP Extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central for more information.
3. Open the relevant Sales Order.
4. Run Fill Qty. to Ship .
5. Open the created inspection certificate.
6. Review the customer, order, quantity, quality-test, and certificate-text information.
7. Adjust the beginning or ending text if necessary.
8. Certify the inspection certificate.
9. Print, attach, or email the inspection certificate.
10. Post the shipment.