SETTING UP INVENTORY
Now that you have set up the vendors, we can create master records for the goods you purchase from vendors to maintain your inventory. We will set up these inventory items using the Inventory File Maintenance form (Figure 30) found under File Maintenance 
Inventory Inventory File.
Let’s begin with the six textboxes that run along the top of the form:
The Description, Brand, and Pack fields are combined as a full item description on most forms and reports. Keep this in mind when entering data in these fields. You probably don’t want to include the “4/1 Gal” in the Description field, because it will be duplicated on invoices, etc., where both the Description and Pack are printed.
Note also that the labels above the Item and Description fields have buttons on either side with arrows pointing left and right (<< and >>). When you see this above a textbox, it means that you can move forward and backward one item at a time through the list of items in the database. In other words, clicking on the button with the two right arrows above the Item field would move you to the next item in the database. Clicking on the button with the two right arrows above the Description field would move you to the next item based on an alphabetical listing of the items by description.
Below the Item field you will see the Qty On Hand section. The three fields in this section update automatically to reflect current inventory levels as activity is posted in the system. When entering new items, you should see nothing but a “0” in the CS field.
To the right of the Qty On Hand section are four checkboxes:
To the right of the four checkboxes are two text fields with the captions SKU and Mkt SKU. In the SKU field you are going to enter the number of Stock Keeping Units, or saleable units, in each pack.
The Mkt SKU field is used for calculating item cost when that cost is based on quoted markets. The SKU for this purpose may not always be the same as the SKU for your purposes when selling the item. For example, you may sell a half-case of loose large eggs that contains 15 dozen eggs. Because the eggs are on flats which are packed in a box this product is usually sold as a single unit. So your SKU for a half-case containing 15 dozen loose large eggs would be “1.” However, egg wholesale prices are usually based on market quotes, and these quotes are normally given as a per-dozen price. Therefore, when you enter a cost for the item based on a market value, you need an appropriate “market SKU” to which you can apply that price. In the case of eggs, the market pricing unit is one dozen, so the market SKU for a half-case containing 15 dozen eggs would be 15.
Below the two SKU fields are two checkboxes with the captions Sell by Unit Only and Include In Mkt SKU Totals. Checking the Sell by Unit Only box flags this item as one sold only by units and never in cases, and quantities of this item will appear on reports, invoices, etc., in the "Units" column rather than the "Cases" column. The SKU and Mkt SKU fields must be set to "1" if you select the Sell by Unit Only option. You want to check the Include in Mkt SKU Totals box if you want this item to appear on sales reports run using Market SKU totals.
All the way to the right of the form you see six textboxes with drop-down arrows, most of them labeled UnAssigned. These textboxes allow you to enter the item into user-defined inventory categories so that reports and queries can be customized to view specific categories of inventory.
Moving back to the left of the form, below the Qty On Hand section, you see three textboxes displaying the default Sales G/L, Cost G/L, and Inventory G/L. These are the default G/L accounts you entered when you filled out the Configuration File Maintenance form. Any of these three codes can be changed now if you want transactions involving this inventory item to impact accounts other than those set as defaults. The F3 SEARCH KEY can be used in these three fields.
To the right of these three textboxes are two more textboxes labeled Bin 1 and Bin 2. These two optional fields allow you to specify the location in your warehouse where you usually store the item (Bin 1) and where you would store overstock of this item (Bin 2). This information will appear on certain reports, such as the Vendor Re-Order Report and the Route Picklist report.
Below the six category textboxes on the far right of the form is a textbox with a drop-down arrow which allows you to assign a status to the item. This status can be Active, Inactive, Non-Stock, or Special Order. The default is Active.
Which brings us to the large, tabbed box that dominates the bottom half of the form. We are going to start with the tab furthest to the right, Other Information (Figure 31), and work toward the left one tab at a time.
Click on the Other Information tab (Figure 31). There are three textboxes on this tab which allow you to set up a redemption value for the inventory item. The dollar amount of the redemption charge is entered in the top field, and you select the appropriate Ledger Code in the second field. The bottom textbox automatically populates with the description of the ledger code when you enter that code above.
To the right of the Redemption Value section is the Par Levels section. The minimum and maximum inventory levels you enter here appear on the Inventory Re-Order Report, and you have the option of printing an Inventory Re-Order Report which only shows those inventory items with current levels below the minimum par value.
Now click on the Cost Information tab (Figure 32). The textboxes found on this tab allow us to set up the cost of the item for pricing purposes. The first textbox on starting from top-left has a drop-down arrow and the caption Cost Method. Clicking on the drop-down arrow, you see there are three cost methods: Market, PO, and Average.
When you choose the PO cost method, The Application looks for the last price paid for that item in the purchase order file and uses that price for the Actual Cost figure you see to the right on the tab. When you use the Average cost method, The Application averages the prices of all instances of this item in the current inventory and places that calculated price in the Actual Cost field.
It is probably obvious that neither of these methods is going to work when you enter an inventory item for the first time. You have no purchase orders in the system for the PO method to use, and there are no previous examples of the item in inventory for a calculated cost using the Average method. The Application allows us to work around this by selecting either the PO or the Average cost method and then manually entering a value in the Actual Cost textbox.
Select PO as the cost method. Note the four textboxes below the Cost Method field are locked and you cannot enter data or activate the drop-down arrows. All four of these textboxes pertain to the Market cost method and are enabled only when that option is selected. You can, however, access the Actual Cost textbox to the right and enter a dollar value there.
You can go into the Inventory File Maintenance form at any time and change the Cost Method field to one of the other options. Once you have posted a purchase order containing this item, the PO cost method will work properly, and once you have created markets using the Market File Maintenance form as described in Section II G, you will be able to utilize the Market cost method option.
We have now generated an “actual cost” figure to which we can add two additional components before arriving at the final cost figure used in calculating the resale price. These two additional components are Pad and Freight. The Pad component is calculated as a percentage of the Actual Cost figure. The Freight component is entered as a dollar value. Note the Sales Cost figure automatically updates to reflect Actual Cost plus Pad and Freight (also note the percentage entered in the Pad field is applied to the total of the Actual Cost and Freight figures, not just the Actual Cost figure). The Sales Cost figure is what will actually be used to calculate the resale price.
Moving one tab to the left, you can see the Vendor Information tab (Figure 33) allows us to enter data pertaining to the vendor from which we buy this item. This might be a bit laborious if we did not have the ever-handy F3 SEARCH KEY to turn to for assistance. Click on the field labeled Vendor and hit the F3 key. Select the appropriate vendor from the list and the fields in the vendor section are instantly populated with the vendor information. You need only enter the Vendor Item number if you want that information to appear on the tab.
Finally we come to the Pricing Information tab (Figure 34) all the way to the left. Along the top of this tab are two textboxes with drop-down arrows. The one on the left is labeled Bracket Price Type and clicking the drop-down arrow gives you three options from which to choose: Percentage Markup, Dollar Markup, and Dollar Amount. The Percentage Markup and Dollar Markup options utilize the Sales Cost figure we created on the Cost Information tab as the basis for the resale price. The Dollar Amount option allows you to set a fixed resale price that makes no reference to the cost of the item. After you select one of these three options, you can then create up to five Price Brackets for the item. If you choose the Percentage Markup option, you enter percentages into the Price Brackets section, each percentage being applied to the Sales Cost to calculate a sell price. If you choose the Dollar Markup option, you enter the dollar amount you want to add to the Sales Cost in each Price Bracket field. If you choose the Dollar Amount option, you will enter the actual sell price in each of the Price Bracket fields. After choosing the pricing option and entering the percentage or dollar figures in one or more of the Price Bracket fields, you can click on the Show Prices button to bring up the Inventory Price Search inquiry (Figure 35). This inquiry shows you the actual resale price in each bracket according to the pricing structure you have created.
When we set up customers later, each customer will be assigned to one of the Price Brackets (or to a sixth pricing category, Cost Plus).
The second textbox along the top of the Pricing Information tab is labeled Unit Pricing Method. The drop-down arrow gives you the choice of either SKU or Mkt SKU. This field allows you to change the way pricing is displayed on your invoices. When we discuss market pricing and market SKU’s we will return to this. Leave it as SKU for the time being.
Below the Unit Pricing Method textbox, you see a textbox labeled BC Upcharge. In this field you will enter the percentage additional charge to be added to the price of the item if the customer requires a “broken case,” i.e., the customer requests delivery of less than one SKU.
At the lower right of the tab is the Global Ad Pricing section. Here you will enter any special advertising price that applies to all customers and the date range in which the special price is in effect. The price entered here is not a markup, but a total sell price.
After completing the data entry for an item, click Save.
 Setting Up Markets
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Setting Up Salespeople
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