Product
Managing products On Stock-Tracker
Can we manage differing prices and descriptions for a single product?
What is a product group and how do I set one up?
Can I see a full list of my products?
How do I edit product information?
Can I organise my products into ranges?
How many different catalogues (price lists) will Stock-Tracker allow me to have?
How do I create a new catalogue?
How do I add individual products to a catalogue?
Can I add products to a catalogue in bulk?
How do I edit catalogue products and prices?
How do I delete products from a catalogue?
Can we manage differing prices and descriptions for a single product?
Stock Tracker is designed to allow you to have multiple prices and descriptions for each product you sell. For example you may stock an oak table but sell it on 3 different websites with 3 different prices and descriptions.
Stock Tracker manages this by only featuring one list of products but associating as many price lists, or ‘catalogues’ as you like against each product.
A product will have key information like size, colour, stock quantity, suppliers and purchase costs. A catalogue stores a sale price and an alternative description (if required).
How do I add new products?
New products can easily be created using the new product wizard which is found on the main screen.
The only information required to create a product is a part number and a description. It is, however, worth adding as much information as possible about the new product as this will make it easier, for example, to answer customer questions or to produce information relating to sales margins.
Each field on the wizard is explained below:
| Part Number* | This is a key field and is used to uniquely identify each product. You can specify your own part number or Stock Tracker will generate one for you. |
| Description* | This is your description of the product. The description may be different for your customers or suppliers but this field is how Stock Tracker will display the product in reports and on screen. |
| Product / Service |
|
| Range | The product range, if this product is for example part of a furniture range. |
| Colour | The colour. You can use the colour manager to add swatches or colour codes or simple type the colour if you don’t require that level of administration. |
| Material | The material the product is made from |
| Configuration | For example ‘3 seater sofa’ or ‘Fully assembled’. How you use this field is entirely up to you |
| Dept | Department. This for a clothing company may be Mens or Ladies. |
| Manufacturer Part # | This is the part number the manufacturer will recognise if you place an order with them |
| Manufacturer Description | This is the description a manufacturer would recognise. |
| Cartons/Pieces | This is the number of boxes or parts which make up this product. |
| Length/Width/Height/
Volume (m3) / Weight |
Size fields. The dimensions within these fields are specific to your own requirements. Stock Tracker also includes 2 blank size fields which you use to put industry specific sizes such as ‘seating positions’. The blank labels can be changed in the admin screen |
| Product Group | Assign your product to a logical group, ie tables or televisions etc. |
| Attributes | If you have added attributes to your product groups you can select these here. An attribute helps you find similar products if the one required becomes unavailable / obsolete etc. |
| Supplier | The main supplier of this product. You can add multiple suppliers after you’ve created your product. |
| Purchase Currency | The currency you use to buy this item from the supplier above |
| Purchase Price | The purchase price is known. This can be left blank if the price changes often or if you do not need to monitor sales margins etc. |
| Stock Line | Do you physically stock this product. Ticking this option allows you to work with re-order levels and quantities. Not ticking this product does NOT stop you from holding it as a stock line. |
| VAT Code | One of your specified VAT rates. |
| Add To Catalogue | This allows you to add the new product to one or more of your existing catalogues once it is created. You should tick the catalogue and specify the sale price. Also select whether this price is inclusive or exclusive of the VAT rate selected above. |
| Upload Product Image | You can upload an image for your product. This image should be in JPEG format. You can ad further images once you have created your product. |
| Custom Fields | You can specify in the admin section upto 5 custom numeric and 5 custom text fields. If these have been specified you can enter the values here.
Custom fields are good for storing a variety of information specific to your business. |
| Full Sales Description | This field is a free text field which can be used to store a full sales description of your product. This may be for example the text shown on your website or printed in your catalogue. |
| Opening balance | If this item is already in stock you can enter an initial opening balance here so you can start selling it straight away. |
Once created, your product is available to view within Product Maintenance section, found in Stock->Product Maintenance.
What is a product group and how do I set one up?
A product group is simply a group of products that are the same or similar. For example, within the furniture industry product groups maybe beds, sofas, dining tables or coffee tables.
A new product range can be created by going to System Admin->Groups->Product Groups / Categories
Can I see a full list of my products?
A full list of your products can be accessed via the the product maintenance tab. From here you can filter or search products, and by double clicking a product view it’s details in full.
How do I edit product information?
Product information can be edited by selecting an individual product on the product maintenance screen. By double clicking on a product you will be taken to a product edit screen and this includes all the information Stock-Tracker holds on the product. This section gives you full control to change or add information about your products.
The screen is organised into ‘tabs’ each holding different information about the product.
| Product Details | Key information about the product including size, range and product images. |
| Ordering Defaults | How the product is ordered and stocked, who supplies it and re-ordering information |
| Full Description | The full sales description of this product |
| Scratch Pad | A free-hand note section. You can add anything you like into here, it is not shown on reports or to the customer in any way |
| Stock | Show the current stock levels at each warehouse and for stock items shows the stock history. |
| Purchase History | Past and present purchase orders you have created for this product |
| Factsheets | Allows you to attach external files, such as spreadsheets, PDF factsheets, word documents etc. |
| Current Catalogues | Shows where this product is being sold, it’s sale price and if the purchase price has been entered it will also show margins |
| Sales | A 3 year chart showing the number of units sold each month. |
| Sales Orders | Any sale which has included this item |
| Custom Fields | These are custom fields, defined in the Global System Settings screen. |
Can I organise my products into ranges?
If you sell ranges of products you can manage them from the Range Management screen found in Stock->Product Ranges.
Double click a range to view and edit a range description and all the products in that range. You can add/remove product from a range by editing the product.
New ranges can also be added using the File dropdown menu of this section and are also created when you type the name of a new range in the new product wizard or on the product edit screen.
How many different catalogues (price lists) will Stock-Tracker allow me to have?
Stock-Tracker allows you to have an unlimited number of catalogues (or price lists). So if you have just one price list and need just a single catalogue or you have a different price list for every customer Stock-Tracker can accomodate this.
You can view your catalogues by clicking Sales->Catalogues
You can create new catalogues using the File menu drop down. You can view catalogues by selecting the catalogue from the list and clicking View.
How do I create a new catalogue?
You can create new catalogues using the File menu drop down. This will show the screen below.
The description is the name for your catalogue, in this example ‘My Retail Catalogue’.
The short code is used to create your catalogue specific part number. A product with part number PT12345 would become PT12345-RC in this catalogue. The short code is used to differentiate between different catalogues so your customer has the correct price.
The price description tells you how or why this catalogue has been created and if it is for reference only.
Currency is the sale currency. If you sell to Eurpoe for example you may want a Euro priced catalogue.
Brand is the brand for this catalogue. By default, the catalogue you use for an order determines the branding to use.
Click Create Catalogue to create this empty catalogue.
How do I add individual products to a catalogue?
A product (as seen in product maintenance) can only be sold if it is in a catalogue. The simplest way to add products to a catalogue is using the product wizard. You can however add products to catalogues at any time by either viewing the product within the product edit screen and clicking Catalogue->Add To Catalogue:
Alternatively you can view the catalogue from the Products menu drop down (within the catalogue edit screen) by clicking Add product:
In both cases you will be asked to enter a sale price for this product. The product will be given a default part number made up of the part number plus the catalogue code. If this code already exists in this catalogue the part number will be suffixed with a number.
<Product Part Number><.x>-<Catalogue Code>
You can add the same product to a catalogue more than once, this is particularly useful if a product is being discounted for a limited period. In cases such as this, add the product in the normal way with the discounted price. Once created you will be asked if you want to view/edit this new entry.
Can I add products to a catalogue in bulk?
If you are adding a large number of products to a catalogue there will almost certainly be a quick way to do it. Please contact us to discuss your requirements further.
How do I edit catalogue products and prices?
You can edit a catalogue product by double-clicking it from the catalogue. When you have double clicked on a product you will be presented with a screen that gives you some quick details about the product including its price, size, stock availability and similar products.
You can edit the part number and description at any time and it won’t affect existing orders but will appear on new orders when they are placed. In most cases the part number and description are fine but in instances where you have the product appearing in the catalogue more than once it may be helpful to change them. You could, for example, add SALE in front of the description if this product is on sale. You could also change the part number to SALE001 to make it easier to advertise and find.
Stock Status information
From this screen you will also be able to identify the stock status of a product. Three different stock statuses are displayed:
In stock – The actual amount of product in all warehouses / stock locations
On Order – The amount of product on order but not yet received.
Supplier – This is your suppliers stock levels and will be populated if you have live supplier stock feeds set up for this product.
Sale Price information
In addition to stock levels you can also edit bulk selling pricing levels via this screen. For example a unit may sell individually for 10p or at 9p for 100+ items. This can be edited by clicking Edit->Sale Prices.
The first section allows you to set a single unit price.
The second section you can fill out with bulk quantity pricing. The Qty column is the threshold at which the price changes, in this example the item costs £6.00 each until you purchase 100 or more when it is reduced to £5.50, and then again to £5.20 if over 1000 units are sold.
The bottom of the screen has a VAT calculator to help you work out prices including and excluding VAT. Enter the Sale price include VAT in the first box and click the arrow to see the component prices.
How do I delete products from a catalogue?
Products can be deleted from a catalogue at anytime by clicking File->Delete from within the product edit screen within the catalogue. It is important to note that products can only be deleted if they have never been ordered by a customer. If you wish to remove a product from a catalogue that has previously been ordered then it should be set to inactive rather than being deleted.