How Product Code Works in Sage BusinessVision Overview Product codes have a wide variety of uses. First and foremost it can help categorize parts into various types, giving the user the ability to segregate parts into various products they stock or maintain on a regular basis. Secondly, product codes can be used to give discounts, structure margin percentages, and produce reports based on product code criteria. Lastly, product codes can use used in the e-commerce module to separate products in the specific categories. In this way they can be displayed as Text only, ImageRich, ImageRichDetailed, or NoDisplay. These settings will directly impact the category detail within the webstore. Product Code Setup Sage BusinessVision 7 with ABC Electronic Components added to the company selection list. Make sure that variable name 3 is set correctly in System Setup. The Name/Value that you type in will be used to represent the field. Exercises In the sample company ABC Electronic Components Inc, create a new product code called CPU. Although the maximum length is 10 alphanumeric characters, these exercises will be based on 3. Outcomes will be the same. 1. Click Edit from the main menu. 2. Click Product Codes. 3. Type CPU in the Product Code field. 4. Type in Central Processing Unit for the description. 5. Give it a 10% margin. 6. Click the Save icon. 7. Open Inventory Detail. 8. Create a new part number Intel 2.4GHz Processor. 9. Enter a description. 10. Choose CPU as the Product code. 11. Click into the current cost field and you will notice that 10% margin is automatically populated. 12. Put in a current cost price of $90. You will notice that the selling price will be automatically set at $100. This maintains the margin between current cost and selling price. 13. Add an on-hand quantity of 5. 14. Click the Save icon. 1 of 5
Within this exercise you would have created a product code and have assigned it to a new part number. In addition you have seen that the margin is automatically maintained when establishing a current cost. This can be done by modifying the inventory item after it has been added simply by bringing up the part number, changing the current cost, tabbing through the margin to reestablish a new selling price. In the following exercise you will see how running reports based on product codes can be beneficial to inventory control. The bulk of inventory reports can be run by product code criteria. They are as follows: Available serialized inventory Committed and backordered inventory Inventory labels Inventory value by sales department Items on hold Items on promotion Non-moving stock list Physical inventory Price list Raw Materials list Re-order listing Serialized inventory purchase history Serialized inventory sales history Stock Status/Summary Unit sales by period Vendor specific costs by item Even though some inventory reports do not have the product code criteria, they can easily be modified using the Report Designer to include it. For this example we will run through a stock status summary report. 1. Click File. 2. Click Print Reports. 3. Select Inventory. 4. Select Stock Status Summary. 5. Leave the default values. Notice that All product codes are checked. Click OK. 6. Notice that 51 items are selected on the report. 7. Run the stock status summary report again but this time uncheck all product codes and select CPU from the product code browse icon. 8. Notice only 1 product appears on the report. 2 of 5
This result is common if CPU is selected as the product code in the other reports mentioned above. For this example we will generate an order with Intel 2.4GHz Processor as the part number we are selling to customer DAVIS. We will then see how the Product Code module can list all inventory, orders, invoices and purchase orders with a certain product code. 1. Open Order Details and select DAVIS as the customer. 2. Add Intel 2.4GHz Processor as the Part number with a quantity of 1 ordered and shipped. 3. Save the order but do not invoice. 4. Click under Edit and then Product Codes. 5. Select CPU as the product code. 6. Click the Inventory tab. Notice that the Intel 2.4GHz Processor shows as part of the list. 7. Click the Sales Orders tab, again notice that the part number shows. 8. Go back into Order Entry and invoice the order. 9. Repeat steps 4 and 5. 10. Click the Sales Orders tab again; notice that Intel 2.4GHz Processor is no longer part of the list. 11. Click the Sales History tab, notice that it is now here. 1. Create a P.O with the Intel 2.4GHz Processor part number. Save and issue the P.O. Check the Product Code module under P.O s tab. 2. Receive and close the P.O. Notice how the P.O moved to the P.O History tab. 3. Setup CPU product code with percentage discounts of 1% to A and 2% to B. Go into order entry and select Intel 2.4GHz Processor. Order 1 and ship 1. Notice that the current selling price is $100. Select the customer ACME, notice the selling price drops to $99. Select the customer CANSPK, notice the selling price drops to $98. Select the customer DSNDM, notice the selling price drops to $96. Next exercise is to reestablish the selling price based on the product code margin percentage. 1. Go into Inventory details. Choose INTEL 2.4GHZ PROCESSOR and change the Selling price to $95. Notice that the margin is now 5.26%. Click Save. 2. Click File and then Reorganize Data Files. 3. Choose Inventory and select Adjust Prices to Margin %, round to 5 decimal places, and choose the Product Code as CPU. 4. Proceed with the inventory reorganize. 5. Check INTEL 2.4GHZ PROCESSOR, notice that the selling price has been reestablished on the CPU margin of 10%. The price is now correct at $100. 3 of 5
Perform another inventory reorganize. Adjust costs by 1% and a rounding to 5 decimal places. Adjust prices by 2% and rounding to 5 decimal places. Select CPU as the product code. Proceed with the reorganize and then check INTEL 2.4GHZ PROCESSOR. What happened to the current cost and selling prices? Create a non-physical item and select the Product Code as CPU. Add in a selling price and cost price. Save the inventory item and run a stock status report with the CPU Product Code. Notice that still only one part number appears on the report even though we have two part numbers with CPU Product Code. This is because non-physical items are not included in the stock status report. The next exercise involves the use of validating product codes. This option is enabled under User Details and will check for a valid product code before an inventory item is saved. This feature is very useful for controlling the inventory and the types that can be added allowing more error free maintenance, 1. Click Utilities. 2. Choose System Manager. 3. Click User Details. 4. Click under Settings 5. Choose Validate. 6. Enable Product Code validation. 7. Click the Save icon. Create an inventory item and save it with CPU as the product code. Is there an error validating the product code? No. Because CPU exists as part of the product codes file. Create another inventory item with CTU as the product code. Is there an error validating the product code? Yes. Because CTU is not part of the product codes file. BusinessVision will validate the product code before saving. It has determined that CTU is invalid. Create another inventory item and specify no product code. Is there an error validating the product code? No. BusinessVision will only validate the product code field if it is populated. 4 of 5
FAQ Q: What are the benefits to having product codes as part of inventory setup? A: It allows inventory to be added or modified with correct product codes so as to manage inventory more effective and with less errors. It can set specific discounts to specific customers with discount codes. It can be used in the e-commerce add-on module to determine how inventory is displayed on the web store. Q: Why are validating product codes valuable in inventory setup? A: Validating product codes in inventory is beneficial in that it reduces the amount of invalid product codes that are added or modified. Q: What files primarily use product codes? A: Files that primarily use/store product codes are: Inventory Product Code Sales Orders Physical Inventory Inventory Reporting Purchase Orders Q: What benefit does product codes have when reorganizing the inventory file? A: Reorganizing the inventory with product codes have the benefit of re-establishing the margin percentage based on the product code. Q: What benefits do the product codes have on inventory reporting? A: Product code criteria can be selected with most of the inventory reports. This gives the benefit of only showing a select number of inventory records rather than all types of inventory. Q: Why are non-physical items not included in inventory reports even though a product code is specified? A: A non-physical inventory is one that cannot be warehoused and shipped like regular, tangible items. Unlike normal inventory items, quantities for non-physical items are not tracked in the inventory module. 5 of 5