Approved Workman Database
Info and Training => FAQs => Topic started by: Annette on June 06, 2013, 02:35:03 PM
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This post is applicable in the Cloud database's Windows App as well as in the Legacy database.
Issues:
We have always struggled with the inventory. There are just too many items, with various versions, etc. I know you have to offer everything just in case, but I would love to see a simpler way to keep track of supplies. It's never worked right for us.
I would like a much more user friendly way to use the inventory. After 2 years I still have not found an efficient way to use this so we are just using excel instead.
I would like to be able to only have inventory for what we use such as books, uniforms and bags. I currently don't use this to create the invoices because you have to search through so much stuff. I have tried to go in and click the inventory items that we don't use, but there are too many and it is very cumbersome.
Solutions:
Indicating which items are 'in use' by your club will limit selections. For example, when assigning handbooks and uniforms, the initial choices are items marked as "in use". This prevents scrolling through a lot of T&T uniforms to find the one your club always uses. [Warning: We recommend NOT deleting inventory items. Simply set them to 'not in use'.] In the Inventory Module, indicate which items are used as follows:
- Select Show: Items we use. For items you DON'T use, select the record(s) and choose Mark the selected record(s) as Not In Use from the Action menu or the right click pop-up menu.
- Select Show: Items we don't use. For items you DO use, select the record(s) and choose Mark the selected record(s) as In Use
Customizing the inventory will take an initial investment of time but should not be cumbersome. Use the following tips to speed up the process:
- Manipulate the records in the grid in ways that limit the records (filtering, grouping, etc.) It is quicker and easier to scan through a small list of related items than to go item by item through a long random list.
- Use the right click pop-up menu or action menu to mark in use status instead of opening individual inventory records
- Select multiple records at once before marking as in use or not in use
Here is an example:
{This video shows an example of this process: https://www.approvedworkman.com/forum/index.php?topic=2216.0 (https://www.approvedworkman.com/forum/index.php?topic=2216.0)}
Your club does not run Journey, Trek or Puggles, so all items related to those clubs are not used. Drag the Base Club column header up to the grouping area. Expand the Journey records. Click the first item record, scroll down to the last record and SHIFT+click. With the pointer on the selected area, right click and choose "mark selected items as not in us". Repeat for the Trek and Puggles items.
You do run T&T, Sparks and Cubbies. Expand those records. There may be a lot of items in some of the groups. Create a second grouping to help. Drag the Category column up to the grouping area (to the right of the base club grouping). Expand each one and work through those by multi-selecting rows and using the right click pop-up menu. Whole categories of items can probably be quickly updated. Continue expanding records and marking the 'in use' status.
There may still be some groups with large quantities of items. Use the Search inventory (on the toolbar) to identify similar items across clubs. For example, if you do not use Spanish materials, type "Spanish" into the search and press ENTER. Multi-select the records and mark as "not in use". It may be helpful to use the 'is book', 'is uniform' or 'is award' columns to filter the records for these common items. [Note - scroll to the right to find these columns.]
For more information on setting up the inventory and automatic inventory reduction/ordering, see this post: https://www.approvedworkman.com/forum/index.php?topic=1510.0.