Item Entities

You can define Entities as a thing with distinct and independent existence. These are not products that you sell, rather Entities are used to link related Transactions and Workflows.

Examples of Item Entities would include:

• Automotive Sector - Vehicles

• Property Sector - Properties

• Agricultural Sector - Farmland, Prize Animals, Machines and Plant

• Education Sector - Students

• Manufacturing Sector - Machines and Plant

• General - Campaigns or Projects

Getting started

Class

Create a Class to which user-defined fields and Items are linked. Set the Type = Entity. Once the user-defined fields have been created, set the formats to generate the Item Description and Specification

For more on Classes, click here.

User-defined Fields

Create the user-defined fields that will contain all the information related to the Entity by navigating to Main Menu > Setup > User-defined Fields. The user-defined fields can be used to generate the Entity Description and Specification.

For more on User-defined Fields, click here.

Item Category

Create a dedicated Item Category for each Entity type by navigating to Main Menu > Items > Menu > Edit Item Categories > Add. Link the Item Category to the Class.

Items

Entities are simply Items of Type = Entity. The only fields available on an Entity Item are the Description, Code, Image and Specification as well as the user-defined fields. Ideally users would only need to Enter a Code, capture an Image and populate the User-defined Fields which will in turn populate the Description and Specification. The Code should be a unique identifier eg. Vehicle Reg No, Student ID Number, Machine Serial No., etc.

1. Name and Description - This shows the name and detail of the Item. The layout of this Description is set in Setup > Classes > Format.

2. Code - This is a unique identifier for the Item, such as a student number, ID number or registration number.

3. Entities- If this Item is linked to an Entity, it will appear here.

4. Image field - An image can be uploaded for the Item.

5. User-defined Fields - These fields are used to capture any additional information pertinent to the Item. More on User-defined Fields here.

6. Specification - This shows a summary view of the Item's User-defined fields.

7. Menu - Additional functionality is included in the Menu button.

   • View Item Summary - This allows you to view a summary of the Item and transactions made against it.

   • Open BoM Check - This opens the Bill of Materials check.

   • Add to Inventory - This allows the Item to be listed as an Inventory Item.

   • Use Multiple Units - This allows you to use multiple units for the Item.

   • Change the Default Unit - This allows you to change the default unit for this Item.

   • Edit Code - This allows you to edit the unique identifier for this Item.

   • Edit Subcategory Lookup List - This allows you to edit the drop-down list that appears in the subcategory.

   • Convert to a Material Item - This allows the Item to be listed as a Material Item.

8. Instructions - Specific instructions can be listed here for the selected Item.

Transactions

Entities can be linked to Transactions by updating a few settings in Main Menu > Setup > Transaction Types > Item Entities as follows:

• Caption - This is the name used in Item Entity Summary, Supplier Invoices, etc.

• Position - This allows you to select the placement of the Caption. Your options are Hide, Left, Right, and Centre.

• Category filter - This allows you to select which Category is selected or relevant to this Transaction Type. Eg, = 55

To view more information about the Entity which is linked to a Transaction, click on Menu > View Entity Summary which opens a customised version of the Item Summary. The Transaction tab displays all the Transactions that are linked to the Entity (instead of displaying the Transaction Items which are linked to the Item).

The fixed and user-defined fields for the linked Entity can be output from a Transaction using the Trans_Entity and Trans_Entity_UDF Data Pipelines.

For more on Transactions, click here.

Workflows

Workflows can also be linked to an Entity or Items. When a Transaction is created from a Workflow, the Entity is copied to the Transaction.

For more on Workflows, click here.