Purpose
This routine is used to establish the mandatory settings in relation to Products in the Distribution suite in Online. In particular the length of the Product Code to be used in Inventory, and other related settings like the use of Sizes and Colours. The settings established here are global across multiple modules throughout your entire Online Advantage system.
If a format has already been established then a warning message is displayed. Changing these formats once transaction processing has begun can cause problems in the accuracy and completeness of the data already established in the Online Advantage account. EXTREME care should be taken when adjusting an existing format.
Notes on the use of Sizes and/or Colour:
In the set up of Products, the use of Size and/or Colour is optional. A wrong decision to use Size and/or Colour can be troublesome to reverse. General guidelines are:
- Avoid the use of Size and/or Colour initially and add them later if required, rather than add them initially and try to remove them later
- An alternative to Size/Colour is linking separate products using the “Model” concept in Online
- Often the use of Size/Colour results in short term gain, long term pain so consider the choices carefully
Data Input
Step 1 – Product Options
Multiple Sizes Option
Choose “Yes” to allow multiple sizes to be processed and reported on for one product. If sizes are not required, choose “No”. Read more about Sizes here.
Multiple Colours Option
Choose “Yes” to allow a range of colours for a particular product. Read more about Colours here.
Length of Product Code
Enter the length of Product code. This entry has to be wholly numeric, a number from 8 – 15. Read more about Products here. You will notice that the length of the Product Code has a direct relationship to the length of the Product Description, as does the use of the Sizes and Colours options. If you are having difficulty with the length of the Product Description being allowed once you nominate the Product Code length you require you should contact your Online Advantage support or System Administrator to discuss options available to increase the length.
Length of Product Description
The length of the product description is calculated and displayed, based on length of product code.
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Step 2 – Description Details
You can optionally enter your own terminology for “Size”, “Colour” and Units of Measure. If you do not enter anything here the default terminology is used.
Size
Enter the short and long term for “Size”. This term is used on screens and in reports wherever the “Size” data appears. The default term is “Size”. Read more about Sizes here.
Colour
Enter the short and long term for “Colour”. This term is used on screens and in reports wherever the “Colour” data appears. The default term is “Colour”. Read more about Colours here.
Stock Unit
Enter the short and long term for Stocking units. E.g. “Store”. This term is used in product master. The default term is “Stock”.
Purchase Unit
Enter the short and long term for Purchasing units. E.g. “Outer”. This term is used in product master. The default term is “Purchase”.
Sales Unit
Enter the short and long term for Sales units. E.g. “Inner”. This term is used in product master. The default term is “Sales”.
Warehouse Unit
Enter the short and long term for Warehouse unit. E.g. “Pallet”. This term is used in product master. The default term is “Warehouse”.
Use Default descriptions
Ticking this option “resets” the entered descriptions to the default descriptions: Size, Colour, Stock, Purchase, Sales, Warehouse.
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Step 3 – Sort Sequence
Use the mouse to drag the sort options to the required sort sequence. This sort sequence is used in all product related reports. This sequence only applies to sorts within Product Groups i.e. most reports are sorted by Product Category and Product Group first and then by whatever sequence you nominate here.
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Step 4 – Label Options
Here you can enter up to 5 format options for Product Label Printing. If there are no options entered here, the default Product Label format is used when printing product labels. The options are entered as Name-Report ‘pairs’. The name is prefixed with the word ‘Print’ and suffixed with the word ‘labels’ when it appears on the Product Label printing function. The report corresponding to the name is the report layout that prints the labels. For example, if you enter “Wide” for the name, then the Product Label function will show “Print Wide labels” and will launch the corresponding report (which will be configured for wide labels).
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Step 5 – Other Details
The information displayed here is for informational purposes only. The length of the product, size and colour description is dependant on the length of the product code, so these lengths are calculated and displayed here for verification. The Sorting Description shows you how reports will be sorted in an “English-like” sentence.
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