Tips & Troubleshooting

Items tips

Changing the value of your finished items

The Build Items window does not allow you to change the price of finished items. If a finished item has greater value (because of the labor required to build them, for example), use the Adjust Inventory window to change their unit cost. For more information, see Making inventory adjustments.

Assigning a different unit of measure to an existing item

Once you’ve bought or sold an item, you cannot change the number of items in the item’s buying and selling units. If you want to change these units of measure, you need to create a new item record and transfer the quantity and value from the old record to the new record.

To do this, create the new item record with the new units of measure, then use the Build Items window to transfer the quantity and value from the old item record to the new one. For example, assume you buy an item in 12-can cases and you want to track purchases by individual cans. If you have 2 cases in stock, enter -2 as the quantity for the old item and enter 24 as the quantity on hand for the new item.

A transaction is out of balance

Before you can build items, the total value of the components and the total value of the finished items (displayed in the Amount column) must be equal. A transaction will be out of balance if:

■	you have not entered a negative number for the component items

■	the average cost of any of the items has changed. Adjust the amount for the finished item if this occurs.

Item value calculations

The total value of an item is always calculated based on the total value of the items divided by the number of units on hand. For example, if you have 100 units of Item 1 and the total value is $1,000, the cost of each item is $10. (1,0000 / 100 = 10).

Build items or adjust inventory

Use the Build Items window to:

■	create finished goods from component items.

■	transfer item amounts if you decide to track different item/unit quantities.

Use the Adjust Inventory window to:

■	increase the value of finished items (to include labor, for example).

■	record shrinkage, damage or loss of items, etc.

■	adjust item quantities without changing the total value of an item.

■	adjust an item’s value without changing the item quantities.

Automatically order items when your inventory is low

For each item you order, you can set a minimum restocking level and reorder quantity. Then, when you sell enough items to reach the minimum restocking level, a purchase order will appear for the item in Stock Alert tab of the To Do List window. From here, you can create a purchase order for the item.

You can set minimum restocking and reorder levels for an item in the Buying Details tab of the Item Information window.

Changing the price of an item when making a sale

To change an item’s price on a sale, enter the updated amount in the Price field of the Sales window. The new price will be applied only to the current sale and no change will be made to the item price in your inventory.

Changing an item’s history can affect some reports

Some reports in your software are based on an item’s history, such as the Item Sales History report. If you change an item’s history, you will affect the totals that appear on this report and you cannot automatically revert the amounts to their original totals.

If you want to revalue an item you currently have in your inventory, use the Adjust Inventory window.