STEPS NECESSARY TO RUN LIFO-PRO SOFTWARE

The following is an outline of the steps to be followed to run IPIC method LIFO calculations using the LIFO-PRO program once the software and data files have been installed.

IPIC Method LIFO steps:

1. Prepare Excel input schedule listing year end FIFO or average cost balances with PPI or CPI commodity code assignments – The LIFO-PRO program is not a spreadsheet template but the most convenient way for the software to read the necessary FIFO or average cost balances by PPI or CPI commodity code is to prepare an Excel file containing this data. The following are generic formatting instructions for these schedules. You should follow these rules in preparing the FIFO balances by PPI or CPI category schedules that can be read by the LIFO-PRO software:

The cell A2 entry should specify the year end for which the indexes are to be calculated; December, 2010, for example.
The rows 5-7, columns A-E column headings and rows should be exactly as shown in the table below.
The column A codes should be the commodity codes used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Make sure the leading zeros are shown where applicable for PPI or CPI codes. You can do this by using the apostrophe(‘) Excel label notation or by preformatting column A as text.
The column B entries should be the year end FIFO or average cost inventory balances associated with the column A code. The column B entries can be entered directly or populated by formula reference to cells in another sheet as long as the formula are not too complicated to be readable when loaded in LIFO-PRO.
The column C category names are for reference purpose only; these are not required.
You can enter anything you want in columns D and those to the right of it such as item names, etc.
All inventory balances for a PPI or CPI code need not be entered on a single row because the program automatically sums repeats of the same code.
You can give this file any name and it can be located anywhere.
This file can contain multiple sheets; only the sheet visible will be read by the software. If you have a single company you are making LIFO calculations for, you may want to use the same Excel file for all years and create new sheets for each years’ inventory balances. The advantage of using the same Excel input file each year is that this Excel file will automatically load in step 4 below.
This file should be prepared in Excel and read from LIFO-PRO after it has been prepared. Data can be entered in this file from LIFO-PRO but the spreadsheet control built into LIFO-PRO does not have many standard Excel features such as copying sheets. Both .xls & .xlsx Excel files can be read by the LIFO-PRO software beginning with Version 5. Large spreadsheets are read much quicker if they are saved as .xls files.
When the retail LIFO method is used, the retail inventory balances are to be entered in column B and the cost FIFO balances are to be entered in column C.
The Excel input file need not include a column to specify the applicable LIFO pool for each data row when the IPIC pooling method is used. When the IPIC pooling method is not used, column B of the Excel input file must specify the applicable LIFO pool for each data row and the inventory balance column(s) must be shifted to the right. The required column headings when a pool number column is required are Pool in cell B6 & Number in cell B7.
Shown below is an example of the proper column heading formatting and rows to use when preparing the Excel input files for IPIC Pooling method and non-retail LIFO method.

	A	B	C
1	IPIC DATA INPUT SHEET FOR Sample Company
2	FOR YEAR ENDED:December, 2010
3
4
5	BLS	YEAR-END
6	CATEGORY	INVENTORY
7	NUMBER	BALANCE	CATEGORY DESCRIPTION
8	09150123	12,465,412.00	Sanitary paper products, including stock

2. Start the program - Start LIFO-PRO. From the Company Selection Menu, click on one of the company names displayed to the right of the folder icons. If the company you want does not appear, click on the Specify Top Level Data Path top menu bar option and select a folder that contains the .dat LIFO-PRO data files.

3. Make sure the PPI or CPI index files are updated through the most recent month - All files necessary to run pool index calculations are automatically downloaded from our web server. If you do not have the most recently published PPI or CPI indexes, the software automatically tries to download the most recent files (PPI or CPI index release dates are shown at the bottom of the right side of the IPIC Menu) when you click on the IPIC… command button at the lower right of the Main Menu. If you do not have Web access or a firewall blocks FTP downloads of files from the Web, you will get a message to this effect at that time. If you have an unblocked access to download files via FTP file transfer (through port 21 or 22), the updated PPI or CPI files should be downloaded within a minute or so. If the files download properly, a message to this effect will appear and these files will be displayed on the right side of the IPIC Menu Screen and the months' indexes included in the files are displayed. If the files cannot be downloaded automatically you should download these files from the Downloads page of the www.lifopro.com Web site. To do this, click on the ppifiles.zip or cpifiles.zip file download link and download this file using the new (in 2010) password. Extract these files to the folder shown on the top row of the PPI or CPI files listing on the right side of the IPIC Menu, overwriting existing files with the same names if they are already present. If you have a company firewall blocking the automatic file downloads, your IT department will need to provide an exception so that file downloads from this site are not blocked. We will send you the IP address and other information about our Web server if you need to do this.

4. Load Excel input schedule prepared in step 1 - Close this file in Excel before you load this in LIFO-PRO (to prevent a file sharing violation). To load this file, click on the top command button on the IPIC Menu labeled FIFO $s input. The last Excel file loaded should appear but if it does not, a File Open dialog box will appear and you should locate this file and click OK to load the file. If the last Excel file loaded appears but this is not the file that includes the inventory balances for the period end for which you want to make a calculation, click on the Load Different File command button and select the proper file. Make sure the row 2 year specified is December, 2010 or whichever year end is applicable. The software reads the data from the Excel sheet that is open.

5. Run IPIC pool index calculations - Once the input file is loaded and the proper sheet is visible, click on Calculate Pool Indexes command button. If this file was modified after it was loaded, you will be prompted to save the data file. Click on No if no changes were made. Click on Yes to save any changes made. When the calculations are complete, a screen with three or four separate IPIC reports will be displayed for your review. Make sure the total year end FIFO or average cost inventory balance per the first report 23S ties to the input file total.

6. Print IPIC pool index calculation reports - A screen with three or four separate IPIC reports will be displayed for your review. These report numbers 23S, 23, 24 (& 25 in some cases) should be printed to document the IPIC pool index calculation. These reports can also be printed later because the .xlp files (Excel files with a .xlp extension) these reports are saved as can be printed when they are viewed from the Main Menu or IPIC Menu.

7. Close this year end - Click on this Command Button at the top of the IPIC Reports screen. The pool indexes and FIFO balances calculated in the IPIC Reports will be used to update the LIFO layers history.

8. Enter UNICAP (Sec. 263A) rates, when applicable - This is done by going to the UNICAP Rates Screen (accessed from the Main Menu by selecting the command button with this caption). When you print or view the With UNICAP versions of the reports, all the with UNICAP versions of the reports show balances both before and after UNICAP costs so you do not need to run two sets of reports (both before & With UNICAP) since the with UNICAP reports show both before & after UNICAP balances.

9. Print LIFO-PRO history reports -These are reports 16 through 19. The reports can be printed individually or all at the same time. To print all reports at the same time, click on the top menu bar option labeled Print Standard Reports Automatically.

10. Unclose year-end -This step is necessary if any of the current year data used when closing the year-end was not correct. Select the Main Menu command button with this caption to do this. Follow the steps above to input the correct data and close the year-end again.

11. Midyear projection - The software allows users to make quick projections of the next year's IPIC method LIFO expense using the same inventory mix and balances the prior year end actual balances using the most recent PPI or CPI indexes available. The steps for using the software to make projections are described in detail on the LIFO Projections page of our website. The following is the URL for this page:

http://lifopro.com/lifoprojections.html.