Valuing Material in CATS (Mark to Market)
Valuation Types
- Automatic - Use the Arrival Month to Futures Table to get an exchange position month and year for this contract item. Pull the differential from the Grade code table if applicable.
- Position - Enter the exchange position month and year to use for valuation on this contract item. No differential.
- Currency +diff+ position - Enter the currency, differential amount, and exchange position month and year.
- Allocated differentials - For a sale, use the differential from the allocated purchase. Should be used in conjuction with the Deferred P&L feature.
- Fixed valuation - Enter the specific price you want CATS to use for the valuation of this item.
Examples of a Contract
Here are examples of a contract valued at different types of valuations.
Valuation Aging
Use Inventory Valuation Aging to apply a specific valuation based on the inventory age of the material. The inventory age is calculated based on the date of the first purchase activity for that contract.
Valuation aging can give you a more accurate understanding of how the age of your inventory is affecting your profitability.
Adding/Reviewing Valuation Aging Records
From the menu on the Description codes/values scan, go to Tools > Valuation Aging.
This will bring up the scan for the Inventory valuation aging records.
Click on “Add” in the menu to create a new inventory valuation aging record.
Specify the Aging Group for the new record. This can be any non-blank value, but should be descriptive of how the Aging record will be used.
Aging records have a group and a number of days. The aging valuation will be applied to any inventory records based on their first purchase invoice activity.
The valuation can either be a fixed/stated level or a differential.
If entering the aging as a Differential Valuation, specify the differential level and any other details that should be applied to the record. Fields that are left empty will default to the values on the grade/description code.
If entering a fixed/state level, enter only the price and the basis. The fixed price can not be zero.
Setting Valuation Aging for a Grade/Description
Set the “Aging” field on the Description Codes/Values page (or in the scan).
How CATS Applies the Valuation Aging
If the Grade/Description Code is set to use an active valuation aging record then CATS will perform an aging calculation when it re-values the contract.
For aged contracts the valuation report will list the contract's inventory age and the applied aging group.
If aging is applied, CATS will automatically disable the deferred profit option on the contract.
On the contract itself, CATS will display that the Inventory aging valuation is being used.
You can override the aging on an individual contract by setting the valuation mode to one of the manual options. If the defer profit setting was enabled before the aging was applied, it will be re-activated when you change to a manual valuation.