Inventory Categories

[HiDbLevel]

Note: This post is applicable in the Cloud database's Windows App as well as in the Legacy database.

Rather than doing "store night" we started a new thing this year of having a club catalog for Sparks and T&T (Cubbies receive a quarterly gift/reward).  In other words, rather than having just one night every quarter or so where the kids have to spend points, they can save their points and order anything from a catalog that we developed.  So far it's had a great response!

I decided to include the "purchased" items in their household account statement for tracking purposes.  As a result, I went through and changed the category of a little over 100 items (mostly from the Awana catalog).  I also changed the invoice amount to zero and put the point value in the notes section.  This has worked out great for us.  I love that the software is flexible enough to allow for these kinds of modifications.

My question:  When you do your next update that will include Awana's pricing updates, will the update over-write everything that I have done or will I have the option to only allow our cost to change?

[Rick Leffler]

Very clever!  Please keep us informed about this as I imagine other clubs may want to consider something similar.

Did you create NEW Inventory Item records, thus having your own Inventory Item Number values that are different from those in the Awana Supply Catalog? (the existing records in the Inventory List grid have been entered directly from the Awana supply catalog)

Basically, if you have different Item Numbers, then those records will NOT be affected by any update(s) that are relevant to the Inventory records.  If you have edited existing records with a valid Awana Item Number, here is how they may/may not be affected by future updates, such as the big annual update I send out each Summer once the new supply catalog is available from Awana HQ: 

New catalog items will be added, and matching items (based on Item Number) will be updated to reflect relevant changes to the following fields:     

   Short Description, Detailed Description, Cost, Sell_Price*, Status, Pkg_Qty, Multipack_Availability, Multipack_Item_Number,  Multipack_Description, Multipack_Qty, Multipack_Cost, Is_Fee, Is_Award, Obsolete, Base_Club, Vendor_ID, Category, Base Club,  and Photo.   

* Note: Your Sell_Price will only be changed if the Cost has changed and your Sell_Price is currently > 0.01 (implying you would  have a charge for the item) and the new Cost is higher than your old Sell Price, in which case your Sell_Price will be set = the new  Cost.    Values in the following fields will NOT be changed: Qty_InStock, Order_Level, In_Use, and Notes.   

[HiDbLevel]

I wanted to be able to leave the item number alone so that the secretary ordering the items could easily pull it up for the PO to Awana HQ.  If I create a new item number, then HQ wouldn't know what item we want and there would be a strong possibility of the inventory records getting confused.

I wonder about this possibility...

In the inventory I currently have the option to select multiple items and mark them as In Use.  Would it be possible to select multiple items and change their category and change the sell price.

Or a second possibility....

When you release the update that includes the updated inventory, could you include a "custom" option that would allow us to select what gets updated?

I know this is a unique situation so I'm also not opposed to just changing it all manually either.  In fact, it probably only took me about an hour to hour and a half to go through each of the item records.

Thanks for your consideration and yes I'll certainly keep you updated on how this club catalog works.

[Note: the ability to set the Expense Category and the Sell Price from the pop-up menu was added as an enhancement. akj]