UAT Testing for Epicor Kinetic: A Guide for Implementation Teams

Epicor Kinetic is a manufacturing-first ERP. That distinction matters for UAT because manufacturing processes, job costing, production scheduling, and shop floor data collection introduce testing complexity that generic ERP UAT guides simply do not address. A go-live that fails to validate production workflows will surface its problems exactly when the business can least afford them: on the first day of live production.

This guide is for implementation teams running UAT on Epicor Kinetic. It covers what to test across finance, manufacturing, and supply chain, the Epicor-specific challenges that cause most post-go-live issues, how to structure test cases for shop floor workers, and how to get the sign-off that actually means the system is ready.

1. What Makes Epicor Kinetic UAT Different

Most ERP UAT guides focus on finance and supply chain because those are the dominant modules in the most widely deployed ERP platforms. Epicor Kinetic is different. Its core differentiator is manufacturing, and manufacturing UAT is fundamentally more complex than financial UAT for three reasons.

• Manufacturing processes involve physical operations: unlike posting an invoice, which is a purely digital act, a production job involves physical material movement, machine time, labour recording, and output that must reconcile with inventory. Testing production scenarios requires realistic job data, populated BOMs and routings, and testers who understand the factory floor
• BPM-driven configuration is everywhere: Epicor's Business Process Management (BPM) layer allows consultants to add custom validation, automation, and field behaviour throughout the application without writing traditional code. BPMs work well on the tested path but introduce unpredictable behaviour on edge cases. Every BPM customisation needs explicit testing, not assumed coverage
• Multi-site scenarios add serious complexity: many Epicor Kinetic implementations span multiple production sites or warehouses. Inter-site transfers, site-specific costing rules, and consolidated reporting all introduce dependencies that single-site testing simply cannot validate

2. What to Test in Epicor Finance

Finance in Epicor Kinetic underpins every other module. GL posting groups, cost of goods sold accounts, work-in-progress accounts, and variance accounts all need to be validated through real transactions before go-live.

General Ledger

• Journal entry posting: create and post manual journal entries across all key accounts. Validate that book codes and GL controls route entries to the correct books
• Period control: confirm that fiscal periods open and close correctly and that transactions cannot be posted to a closed period
• Consolidation and reporting: run a trial balance and confirm that all module-generated postings appear correctly. If using multiple books, validate that the book hierarchy consolidates as expected

Accounts Payable

• Invoice entry and matching: enter a supplier invoice and match it against a purchase order receipt. Validate that three-way matching rules are enforced correctly and that variances are handled as configured
• Payment processing: generate a payment batch, confirm the payment suggestions are correct, and post the payment run. Validate that supplier ledger balances update correctly
• Credit notes and adjustments: process a supplier credit note and confirm the AP balance and GL postings reverse correctly

Accounts Receivable

• Invoice generation from shipment: confirm that invoicing a shipped sales order generates the correct AR entry and that the customer balance updates
• Cash receipt application: record a customer payment and apply it to the correct invoices. Test partial payments, overpayments, and discounts
• Aged debtor reporting: run the aged AR report and confirm that balances and ageing buckets are correct against the test transactions created during UAT

Bank Reconciliation

• Bank statement import: import a test bank statement file and confirm that the import process maps transactions correctly
• Reconciliation completion: match bank transactions to GL entries, confirm that unmatched items are visible, and complete the reconciliation. Validate that the bank account balance in Epicor reconciles to the statement

Cost Accounting

• Standard cost updates: if using standard costing, run a cost roll-up and confirm that updated standard costs flow correctly to work-in-progress and finished goods accounts
• Variance analysis: complete a production job and confirm that material, labour, and overhead variances are posted to the correct variance accounts

3. What to Test in Epicor Manufacturing

Manufacturing is where Epicor earns its reputation, and it is where the most damaging go-live failures occur. Production testing must involve people who understand the physical process, not just the system configuration.

Jobs and Work Orders

• Job creation from sales orders: confirm that make-to-order jobs are created correctly from sales demand, with the correct BOM and routing attached, and that the link to the originating sales order is maintained
• Job release and scheduling: release a job to the shop floor and confirm that operations are scheduled correctly based on work centre capacity and routing sequence
• Material issue: issue components to a job and confirm that inventory is reduced correctly and that the job's material cost accumulates as expected
• Labour and machine time recording: post labour and machine time against job operations and confirm that hours are recorded against the correct operation, employee, and cost code
• Production output and job completion: report a quantity complete on a job operation and confirm that the output moves to the correct inventory bin. Close the job and confirm that final costs are captured and variances posted

Bills of Material and Routings

• BOM accuracy: create a job for a finished part and confirm that the BOM explodes correctly, pulling in the right component quantities and substitutes where configured
• Routing operations: confirm that routing operations appear in the correct sequence on the job traveller, with the correct work centres, standard times, and any operation-level costing rules applied
• Engineering change control: if engineering change orders are in scope, process a change and confirm that the updated BOM is applied to new jobs whilst in-progress jobs retain the revision they were created with

Production Scheduling

• Finite and infinite scheduling: run the scheduling engine and confirm that job operations are assigned to work centres within their available capacity windows
• Scheduling board visibility: open the scheduling board as a production planner and confirm that jobs, operations, and work centre loading are displayed correctly and that manual schedule adjustments save correctly

Shop Floor Data Collection

Shop floor data collection (SFDC) is one of the most frequently under-tested areas of an Epicor implementation. The users are shop floor operatives who may have limited system experience, the devices are often industrial terminals or tablets rather than office PCs, and the workflows need to be fast and intuitive under production conditions.

• Clock-in and clock-out: test employee clocking against job operations on the actual device type that will be used on the shop floor. Confirm that labour records are created correctly
• Quantity reporting: report good and scrap quantities against job operations and confirm that the production dashboard updates in real time
• Non-conformance reporting: log a non-conformance from the shop floor and confirm it routes to the quality team correctly with the job and operation details populated

4. What to Test in Epicor Supply Chain

Supply chain testing in Epicor must follow the physical flow of materials, from purchase order through to goods receipt, put-away, and eventual consumption in production or dispatch to a customer.

Purchase Orders

• PO creation and approval: create purchase orders manually and via suggestions from MRP. Test the approval workflow and confirm that orders at or above the approval threshold are routed correctly
• Receipt of goods: receive goods against a purchase order and confirm that inventory is updated, landed cost is applied if configured, and the receipt is available for AP matching
• Supplier returns: process a return to supplier and confirm that inventory is reduced and a debit memo or return authorisation is created correctly

Inventory Management

• Bin and warehouse management: if using directed warehousing, test put-away directed by system-suggested bin locations and confirm that bin contents update correctly after each transaction
• Stock adjustments: run a physical inventory count and process the resulting adjustments. Confirm that count variances post to the correct adjustment GL accounts
• Part tracking: if using serial or lot tracking, receive serialised or lot-tracked parts and trace them through receipt, inventory, issue to job, and shipment. Confirm the part tracker reflects the correct history at each step

Demand Forecasting and MRP

• MRP run and suggestions: run MRP with a representative set of demand (sales orders, forecasts) and confirm that the suggested actions (purchase orders, job orders, transfer orders) are logical and reflect the correct lead times and safety stock levels
• Forecast entry and consumption: if using demand forecasting, enter forecasts and confirm that they are consumed correctly when actual sales orders are entered and that MRP reflects the net requirement

5. Epicor-Specific UAT Challenges

Beyond module-level testing, there are Epicor-specific technical areas that consistently cause problems in UAT and post-go-live. These need dedicated test coverage.

6. How to Structure Test Cases for Shop Floor Workers and Production Managers

Shop floor workers are a critical test audience for Epicor UAT and the hardest to engage effectively. They are not office workers. They are not comfortable with written test scripts. They are often operating in noisy environments on shared terminals, and they need to get back to production work quickly.

Keep Test Cases Visual and Task-Based

Write shop floor test cases as task cards rather than formal test scripts. Each card covers one task: "Clock on to Job 12345, Operation 10." "Report 50 units complete on Operation 20." "Log a scrap reason: material defect." Short, specific, action-oriented. Include a screenshot of the screen they should see at each step where it is useful.

Run Testing Sessions on the Shop Floor

Do not bring shop floor workers to an office for UAT. Take the testing to the shop floor, using the actual terminals, barcode scanners, and printers that will be used post-go-live. Testing in a different physical environment with different equipment will not reveal the practical issues that matter.

Involve Production Supervisors in Scenario Design

Before writing manufacturing test cases, walk through the production process with a supervisor. They will identify the edge cases that no consultant will think of: what happens when a job is partially complete at shift changeover? What if an operation needs to be split across two work centres because one is broken? What is the process for a rejected batch that needs to go back through production? These scenarios need to be in your test plan, and only the people who run the shop floor can define them.

7. How LogicHive Helps with Epicor Kinetic UAT

Epicor implementations involve a wide range of testers: finance managers, production planners, shop floor supervisors, warehouse operatives, and buyers. Managing UAT across all of these groups using a shared spreadsheet is genuinely difficult. Test results get overwritten, defects get lost, and the project manager has no real-time view of where things stand without chasing individual testers.

LogicHive centralises the entire UAT process. Test cases are organised by process area and assigned to the correct testers. Results are recorded directly in the platform. Defects are logged against the specific test case that failed, with severity ratings and resolution tracking built in. The project manager and client stakeholders see a live readiness dashboard showing pass rates, outstanding defects, and sign-off status by area.

Critically, LogicHive has no per-seat fees for client-side testers. On an Epicor project where you need ten finance users, eight production planners, and fifteen shop floor workers all testing concurrently, per-seat pricing makes UAT tools prohibitively expensive. LogicHive is priced from £72.99/month with unlimited client testers, making it practical to include everyone who should be testing.

See our Epicor testing platform page for details on how LogicHive supports Epicor Kinetic implementations specifically. For a broader look at features, visit the LogicHive features page. For guidance on structuring your sign-off process, read our guide on the UAT sign-off process.