Inventory: Items

This topic explains Inventory Items.

What you'll find on this page

• Overview

• Default View

• Getting Started

• Units

• Stock Checks

• Automatic 'Weighted Average Stock Costing'

• Setting up

• Accounting

Navigation

Main Menu > Items > Items > View > New/Edit > Inventory

Overview

By default, Items are not Inventory Items. If you wish to add an Item to Inventory, click Menu > Add Item to Inventory. This will create a default inventory item and enable the Inventory tab on the Edit Items form. You can add additional Inventory Items by clicking the Add button on the Inventory tab.

The Inventory module provides a global view of a company's stock holding. Values are displayed for the Current Date, a Start Date and End Date (Set in the Data filter) as well as the difference in Quantity and Value between the Start Date and End Date. A record is displayed for each Inventory Item. eg. If an Item is kept in 5 locations, 5 records will be visible for that Item - one for each Location.

The Data Filter can also be used to filter records by Customer, Category, Location and the Status of Items.

Data in the grid can be searched and filtered using the Find Panel and Filter Row which are opened from the Menu.

Drilldown functionality is provided to open the Item or the Transaction when applicable.

The Inventory module provides different views, these include:

• Default View - Current Inventory counts, Stock Checks and Stock Movement

• Price Update View - This View provides the functionality and actions to update Inventory Prices.

• Detailed Ledger View - A List of all the Inventory Accounting Transactions for the selected period.

Default View

In the Default view, the information is displayed in six Bands as follows.

• Detail - Includes detail of the Item, Customer, Location, Unit, Replenishment, etc.

• Stock Check - Includes the detail of the latest Stock Check before the End Date and linked to the Item as well as the discrepancy Gain/Loss on the Stock Check.

• Current - The current Stock levels.

• Start - Stock levels and Values as at the Start date (Set in the Data Filter)

• End - Stock levels and Values as at the End date (Set in the Data Filter)

• Variance (End - Start) - The Variance in Qty and Value between End and Start date. ie. The difference in Stock holding from one date to the next.

The Bands can easily be removed or added to the grid by clicking on the * at the top left of the grid.

Drilldown functionality is provided to the Item Summary and to Items.

The Data Grid can be exported to Excel (Menu > Export Grid) or the information can be Output to Print, PDF, E-mail.

The Inventory Unit Price can also be edited in this module - see Menu > Edit Unit Price. Full Access is required to edit the Unit Prices.

1. Location - Inventory Locations represent the different storage and work areas where stock items are kept. This functionality allows you to manage stock and replenishment levels for different Units and Locations. Items > Menu > Edit Locations.

2. Bin No. - This is the Bin No where the Item is stored in the warehouse / location.

3. Minimum - This is the minimum quantity that can be ordered from the Supplier.

4. In Stock - This shows how many inventory Items are in stock.

5. On Order - This shows how many units are on Order with Suppliers from a Purchase Order transaction.

6. Reserved - This shows how many units are reserved by being linked to a Sales Order or a Work Order.

7. Available - This shows how many units are available for new transactions.

8. Unit Cost - This shows the unit's cost.

9. Auto update - This checkbox allows transactions / Status changes to automatically update the inventory count.

10. Active - This determines if this Item is still active and in stock, or redundant and in stock.

Getting Started

The Inventory module is a fixed module that needs to be added to the Main menu or/and to the Tile menu using Setup > Menu Manager.

Access needs to be granted in Staff Settings > Items & Inventory > Inventory - Access Allowed.

General Settings > Filter - Accounts that update Inventory is used to identify Accounts that update the Inventory Accounts in the Ledger.

Units

There are two fundamental inventory scenarios that QuickEasy provides for:

1. Units are used for variations of a product - eg. Size or colour. In this scenario, the Item's Unit must be set to N/A and a separate Inventory item needs to be created for each unit.

2. Units are used for different measures or packaging units of the same product - eg. Beer: Case, 6 Pack, Can - or a product that is measured by weight could have Kg, g, mg as units. In this scenario, only one Inventory Item needs to be created which links to the same unit as the Item is linked to. Check the Stock Check column in the Units tab to select the Units in which the product will be counted.

On Transactions, users are able to select Inventory locations that have the same unit as the Transaction Item or that are linked to the Item's Base Unit.

Stock Checks

System Stock Checks are created when a new Inventory item is added or when the Unit on the Inventory item is changed. A count may be added to these stock check items and they can not be deleted. (TypeID = 0)

User Stock Checks are created manually in the Stock Check module and can be deleted. (TypeID = 1)

If an Item's Unit is changed, the corresponding Unit on the Stock Item will also be changed.

Automatic 'Weighted Average Stock Costing'

The weighted average cost method uses the average of the costs of the goods to assign costs. In other words, weighted average uses the formula: Total cost of items in inventory available for sale divided by total number of units available for sale.

For this to work automatically, inventory must be received at the actual cost and Issued at the 'Weighted Ave Cost'.

Setting up

Transaction Types that Issue Stock, need to be set to Pricing = Inventory

Transaction Types that Receive Stock, need to be set to use the same price as the Purchase Order - Pricing = Supplier Price (Even if the Transaction Type does not use Suppliers)

The Transaction Type that is used to procure items must be set to automatically update the Inventory Price, by selecting the option 'Inventory (Average Price). See Transaction Types > Cost Update.

NB. It is important that this Transaction Type accurately reflects the landed cost of the inventory items.

Accounting

The Stock Issue and Receive transactions can be set to automatically update the Inventory account in the Ledger.

Alternately, users can create periodical Journal Entries to reflect the difference in Stock holding over the period. These values are easily obtained from the Inventory module.