Introduction

You can fully integrate the Purchasing (Sales) System with the Inventory Management System, letting you process transactions through your Sales or Purchasing System (Item Ordering and Invoicing).

 

Item categorisation

There are two Item categories:

• Product Items (Inventory): These are physically counted as part of stock. You can track them and maintain a system average cost.
• Services, Non-Stock Items (Non-Inventory): These are not physically counted as part of stock. Services include items such as consulting hours while non-Stock Items refer to non-quantity tracking products such as service charges. However, service types do not remember the previous cost while non-stock types do, displaying it at Purchase Order or Item Invoice entry.

Services and non-stock items come from the same table. Stock items come from a separate table with extra defaults, such as location, sub location, stock movement, and stock control GL Codes.

Pre-requisite Master Records

Before you can use Sales or Purchase Orders and Item Invoices, you need to create Master Records for the products or services. These records hold static information about each of your Products or Services which you need to keep up to date. As you engage with new Products and Services, add their details to the master data tables.

Pricing algorithm

The pricing algorithm lets you operate the Purchasing (Sales) system as both a fully functional Stock system and an Item Price Catalogue. This allows for:

• the setup of up to eight prices per individual Item or Service.
• a range of Customer-specific prices based on sales volume and individual price lists.

See:

Items Bulk Update (5.2) - AIQ Academy 

Service Non Stock Queries (5.3) - AIQ Academy

 

Using the Stock (Inventory) System

How do I Use Code Maintenance to Control the Behaviour of the System?

Maintaining your Price Lists

Maintaining the Stock (Inventory) System

Adjusting Stock (Inventory) levels

 Carrying out a Stock (Inventory) Take

Adding and viewing Items

The Services and Product Items listing grids lets you:

• Add new or maintain existing Products/Services.
• View or edit Stock movements and quantities on hand by location.
• Attach or view product/service-related documents.
• Maintain product/service pricing.

Adding Product Items

To add a new Product Item:

• Go to Items > Product Items > New Product Item.

Adding Service/Non Stock Items

To add a new Service/Non Stock Item:

• Go to Items > Services/Non-Stock Items > New Service/Non Stock Item.

Viewing an Item

To view an existing Item:

• Go to Items > Services / Non Stock Items or Product Items. Click on any of the Item Codes in the grid. 

Item Maintenance: General

Item Maintenance is the same for Product and Service/Non Stock Items with the exception that Product contains an Inventory tab.

Complete the tabs as follows:

• Active: This will automatically update once you use this item.
• Code: Use this code when entering future orders or item invoices. It must be unique, under 50 characters, alpha numerical, and have no spaces or special characters (except a hyphen ‘-’). A warning message will display if the code is already in use. 

• Description: Enter your Supplier’s (Vendors) description. This will appear in orders and invoices for this item. 
• Sales Description: This can be different to the description of the item. Enter a description you want to see in the sales invoice. If you leave the field blank, the text from the Description field will automatically copy into this field when saved.
• Type: Service Type does not track quantity or Last Cost. Similarly Non-Stock Type does not track quantity but does track the last cost. 
• SalesPricing: Ensure the price category names are relevant to your business. To change them, go to Setup > Codes Maintenance > Price Category and link them to the relevant customer. Once linked, the relevant price will appear in the sales order or item invoice screen. Each item can have up to eight categories which you can assign those to specific customers. The price will then be prepopulated on any orders or invoices raised for that customer using this item.
• Last Cost: Enter details in Last Cost, if relevant. This is calculated from the last invoiced Purchase Order or from last Purchase Invoice. This field updates automatically in orders or invoices for this item. You can enter this manually to set the last cost for new items.
• Average Cost: The system will calculate stock adjustments using the weighted average model every time a stock item is sold. See help for further details.
• Margin %: Enter the minimum sales margin and flag "issue warning if user tries to sell below margin" to warn users against selling below this. Enter as a percentage, i.e. 5% should be entered as 0.05
• Issue warning if user tries to sell below margin: Used with "Margin" to warn if the sale price is less than the cost plus margin. If you leave it unticked, the system will produce a warning but will still allow the use of the offending Price.

To complete:

• Click Process.

Item Maintenance: Inventory (Product Items only)

Item Maintenance is the same for Product and Service/Non Stock Items with the exception that Product contains an Inventory tab.

Complete the tabs as follows:

• Qty On Hand: System calculated quantity of items physically in stock, ie, purchase items ordered and received plus sales items ordered and delivered Opening balances should be entered via stock take or stock adjustment. This cannot be amended.
• Qty On Purchase Orders: System calculated Total of all items included on purchase orders, not yet received. This cannot be amended.
• Qty On Sales Orders: System calculated Total of all items included on sales orders, not yet delivered. This cannot be amended.
• Available Stock: Items physically in stock less items reserved on orders (reserved stock is not available for other orders). This cannot be amended.
• Re-Order Level: Enter the Qty that the item should be re-ordered, this can be viewed in the item listing grid and stock reports. This cannot be amended.
• Weight: Enter weight of this item for reporting purposes. This cannot be amended.
• Last Count Date: Date of the last stock count. This cannot be amended.
• Default Location, Default Sub-Location: Use these to help with stock takes or inventory checks and for Sales Analysis purposes. 
• Stock Control Account: This is the Balance Sheet account representing the value of stock at a period end. This will default to the GL Account Code set up in Item Defaults, but you can update it for each item.
• Stock Movements: This is the Profit and Loss Account showing the cost of sales. This will default to the GL Account Code set up in Item Defaults, but you can update it for each item. If you want to permit negative Stock, the System does not make the automatic Cost of Sales and Stock Control Account postings (System Accounts). You must do this yourself manually through Journal Entries and/or Stock Adjustments.

To complete:

• Click Process.

Item Maintenance: Defaults

The data in Defaults will automatically pre-populate if you select an item. You can change these settings when entering orders and invoices.

Complete the following:

• Tax Code: This default is from the tax tables. It will take the priority over supplier’s VAT code. It prepopulates in orders and Invoices for this item. You can override it at Order or Invoice entry stage. 
• Item Group: This is for Sales Analysis purposes. 
• Item Sub Group: This is for Sales Analysis purposes.
• Sales GL: The default GL code for this item when used in sales orders and invoices. This will default to the GL Account code set up in Item Defaults but can be updated for each item.
• Purchase GL: The default GL code for this item when used in purchase orders and invoices. This will default to the GL Account code set up in Item Defaults but can be updated for each item.
• Franchisor Item: This flag indicates if this item is maintained at Franchisor level and can be sent to linked franchisees to facilitate ordering. See help for details of how to use Franchisor Items.

See:

How do I, as a Franchisor, Interact with my Franchisee Companies [ED1] 

To complete:

• Click Process.

Item Inventory: Notes (optional)

Once you have created the item you can add notes and attach documents.

To complete:

• Click Process.

Item Maintenance: Custom Fields (optional)

Custom Fields

In Custom Fields you can hold additional information (in Text, Date, or a Number form) that you can use for additional reporting. You can also create a set list of values to appear in the dropdown.

To complete:

• Click Process.

See:

How do I Review the Company Details & Settings 

How do I Maintain Products and Services Type Items (Sales)