The NCAS provides an integrated set of financial and materials management modules for managing business functions. The Inventory module is linked to the Purchasing (PS), Accounts Payable (AP), Budgetary Control (BC) and the General Ledger (GL) modules as follows:

• Stock items are requested, purchased and received from vendors through the Purchasing module. When a stock item is requested through Purchasing, the on-order quantity in the Inventory module is updated. The system also checks the maximum allowable quantity for each item. When a stock item is received, the system reduces the on-order quantity and increases the on-hand quantity. Using the PO unit price at the time of receipt, the system also automatically recalculates the item's average cost.
• The Accounts Payable module receives information such as prices and quantities from Purchasing for matching invoices. AP updates the average cost of an item in the Inventory module with any variances between the PO price and invoice price.
• The Budgetary Control module checks to see if an accounting distribution has sufficient funds for a purchase of additional inventory (expense) or the issue of inventory (consumption). The BC module contains the Available Funds File (AFF).
• All financial information is passed to the General Ledger through the Financial Controller. When a stock item is received, the NCAS automatically updates the appropriate General Ledger asset balance. The information in Inventory also allows the reconciliation of the asset balance in the GL with the perpetual item balance maintained in Inventory. Cycle count results from the Inventory module are posted to GL asset accounts.