Creating a stock item

Summary

The following article explains how to create a part number and enter all the recommended information for that item. If you have been supplied with a manufacturer's parts file, then the basic information will have been provided for you, and you may only need to change certain fields to fit in with your own methods of working.

More Information

Select " Stock Control Add or Edit Stock Items".

This will take you to a search screen. Press <F6> or click the [New] button.

The main fields and settings for creating a new part number are contained on these tabbed pages.

You may move around these pages by pressing <Page-Up> and <Page-Down> or by clicking on a page heading.

Details Tab

Descriptions

Enter your part number and press <Enter>

When creating your part numbers, it is important to have a written procedure laid down for designing part numbers that everyone follows so that there is consistency and structure. Avoid spaces, slashes, dashes and odd characters in your own part numbers.

Enter the description of the item. There are three lines available to describe the item.

Try to keep all the significant information on the top line of description since this is the one that appears on all searches and will be the main line for reporting purposes. The small tick boxes next to each line denote whether that line will be printed on external documentation such as invoices or delivery notes. This is useful if there is description you need on the stock code for searching or reporting purposes but do not want the customer to see.

Notes

You may enter up to 5 lines of notes about an item. If you need to add more notes press <Ctrl+F8>.

Sales prices

Click twice on the "Std retail price" and enter your recommended retail price excluding V.A.T. You can enter the price including V.A.T. and press <F2> to deduct the V.A.T. In most circumstances, it makes sense to run all your prices exclusive of V.A.T., particularly if you have manufacturers' price files on your system.

Cost prices

At the "Std cost price", enter your Cost Price.

When you create the part number, you can enter your own cost price here. Once you book the part number into stock, this price will generally reflect the cost price of the oldest item in stock, and you will not be able to edit it directly here. To alter the cost price, the items would have to be taken back out of stock and then booked in again at the correct price.

Groups/Analysis Tab

Grouping

Enter the Group for this item.

Usually this would be 'PTS' - Parts, 'ACC' - Accessories or 'CLO' - Clothing but you may have a different structure to this. Various reports can be produced based on this group field, e.g. Reorder Reports or Stock Takes so it is handy to put similar items into a group. If you end up with more than 30 groups, you may be over-analysing!

To choose from a list of groups, press <Ctrl+F1> then <Enter>. Highlight the appropriate group then click on [Choose] or press <F2>.
To create a new group, enter the code to use and press <Shift+F10>. Enter a description for the group then press <Esc> and <Enter> to save it.

Analysis

The analysis codes are another way of grouping common items together. The stock group may be sufficient, and you can skip this section if you do not have a use for analysis codes. If you put a letter in Analysis 1 then put the same letter in Analysis 1 on another stock item they would have a common link.

Move to the appropriate Analysis field then enter the code to use.
To choose from a list of codes press <Ctrl+F1> then <Enter>. Highlight the appropriate code then click [Choose] or press <F2>.
To create a new code, enter the single character to use. Please note this field is case sensitive so you can use the alphabet twice (upper and lower case), numbers 0-9 or characters.
Press <Shift+F10>. Enter a description for the code then press <Esc> and <Enter> to save it.

Invoicing Tab

Defaults

Choose the appropriate V.A.T. Rate from the list by clicking on the drop-down button at the end of the field.
Standard items should be left as 0 - No Default. The system will add V.A.T. to items unless told otherwise. Vat Rate 2 is for Zero Rated items and Vat Rate 3 is for Exempt items. Make sure this field is set correctly before you leave it by pressing <Enter>.
Enter the Cost Centre. This field defines where in the accounts system the value of a sale of this item should go. This will be a number, e.g. 100, and is commonly split into Sales of Parts, Sales of Accessories and Sales of Clothing. For hard parts that could be sold both over the counter and through the workshop, this should be left blank, since the system defaults will take care of this analysis for you. If you are unsure what to enter here, ask your accounts department.

Pricing

Move to the "Unit of sale" field. This represents the Unit of Sale and not how many you have in stock. Under most circumstances, you should leave this blank. If you deal in fasteners or other small items sold in large quantities, for which the price each is below 1p, then and only then might it be suitable to enter anything here.

Movements

"Update quantity?" should only be set to 'No' if you are creating a non-moving item - see How do I Create Non-Moving Items?.
"Batched?" should only be set to 'Yes' if you need to track and record specific information for the item such as when selling Chainsaws - see How do I Book in Batched Stock Lines?.

Saving your new part number

When you have finished creating a new part, either press <Esc> and <Enter> to save the record or click on [Done] (which will appear on the bottom right corner of your screen) then [Accept].

This is as far as you need to go at this stage but before you save the stock code you may want to set up your Reorder levels, Location and Supplier details.