We use to only enter a serial number when we were posting an invoice in SO-G,  now that the MBA guy has us entering finished production we find that DBA asks us once again to for a serial number when entering finished production. Why would we even need to enter a serial # in WO-I if we just entered the SN in SO-G?  We can bypass serial number entry when releasing a Sales Order in  SO-E. so why cant we bypass entering a serial number in WO=I?  
 
We do NOT want to have to reenter a serial number in WO-I.      
I may have missed a default. Is there a default that turns off sn entry in WO-I, but still allows us to enter serial numbers in SO-G?
 
Any and all help appreciated.  
Thanks
Laura  

How could you ever have used the program without running WO-I?  Your inventory would be a mess.  You have to make things, put them into stock (even if just for a few minutes) and then ship.   The MBA guy is right.

We enter the serial numbers in WO-I, then tag the ones we are shipping for a specific shipment at the time of releasing the order.

So if we enter finished production before we post an invoice then we will not be asked for the serial number again as we post?
 
I know we have been doing it wrong, but we posted and then entered finished production and we were asked to enter the Serial number at both places,  when we posted and when we entered finished production.
 
It is going to be hard to enter finished production before we post an invoice because we often do not have all our costs in from vendors.***** It is my understanding that you dont want to enter finished production until after you have entered all your costs ....or  SA-B will be wrong.
 
I would appreciate clarification.
Laura  
 
*** Our SA-B has been wrong (not matchng JC-A) because we enterered finished production after we posted the invoice.
 
It is going to be hard to enter fin production before we post the invoice because we often do not have all the labor posted or we may not have received invoices from our vendors.  We dont like to receive raw material POs without the vendors invoice because they are notorious for not matching due to the vendors pricing methods.  

No, because you may have 50 units in stock and only be shipping 5 and you have to indicate which ones are being shipped.  You can select from the list, you don't have to type the number in.

If you convert SO to WO and are shipping everything you make there is a new default that you can turn on that when the Serial numbers are entered in WO-I they are also attached to the Sales Order so you don't have to re-enter them when invoicing.