If your company manufactures, combines or assembles items using other physical items you store in your company’s inventory, you can specify which items—or components, in Accounting Plus terms—you use to build the items. The term used to describe an item built from components is finished item. Once you’ve specified the finished item’s components, or auto-build information, you can use the Auto-Build view of the Item Information window to automatically create, or build, the item in your Accounting Plus records.
An item you use only as a component to build other items
Before you create a finished item, you’ll need to create the components that are used to build the finished item.
A “service” item
If your business provides services, you can create item records for each service, and then enter the “service items” on item layouts. This is particularly helpful if you bill your customers for both physical items and services; using this strategy, you can include all your billable costs on the same type of sale.
An item whose information you copy from another item
If you want to create an item similar to one you’ve already created, you can simply copy the original item’s information into the new item record. All information from the first item record will be copied to the new item record except the item number, item name, item description, vendor item number, auto-build information and item history information.
An “item” that serves a special purpose
If you want to include a blank line between line items on an item sales and purchases layout, you can set up a special “item” in the Inventory Command Center to give you the space you need.
A special “placeholder item” for tracking reimbursable job expenses
If you want to create a special “placeholder item” for tracking reimbursable job expenses on your item layouts, you can set up a special “item.”
Other considerations when creating items
Be careful using the backslash character
The backslash character (\) serves a special purpose in Accounting Plus—any item number that begins with a backslash can be included on sales and purchase forms, but they won’t appear on printed forms. These item numbers can be used to add blank lines to forms, for example.
Choosing linked accounts for items
Many businesses use a single account to track the cost of sales, income and value with their physical items. If you’d like to do this, be sure you enter the same account numbers in the linked account fields for every item you record in the Accounting Plus system.
Entering buying and selling units of measure
In the Buying Unit of Measure field, you’ll enter the item’s buying unit of measure—that is, the method by which this item is packaged when you purchase it. The unit of measure can be printed on purchases.
In the Selling Unit of Measure field, enter the item’s selling unit of measure—that is, the method by which this item is packaged when you sell it. The unit of measure can be printed on sales.
Some typical units of measure are Each, Pair, Case, Gross, Hour and Day. For example, assume one of your items is a lamp set that’s always sold or purchased in pairs; this item could be assigned a unit of measure of Pair.
The primary vendor’s item number, not your item number, is set up to print on item purchases
Accounting Plus item purchases are currently set up so your vendors’ item numbers appear on the purchases you print using Accounting Plus. If you use a different system of numbering your items than your vendor, this might seem confusing to you when you first print your purchases. If you wish to change the way your item purchases print—in other words, if you want to print your own item numbers on the purchases—you’ll need to customize the item purchase form.
Click below for the step-by-step procedure:
To print your item numbers on an item purchase
To create a record for an “item” that serves a special purpose on a sale or purchase.
Adding additional details and custom information (optional)
Entering a description of the item
You can choose to enter a description of the item up to 255 characters in length. Simply enter the description in the Description field located on the Item Details tab. If you want this description instead of the item name to appear on sales forms and other forms, you’ll mark the selection Use Item Description on Sales.
Entering Optional Restocking Information for the To Do List
If you want an alert to appear in the To Do List window whenever the item’s quantity on hand falls to a specified level, enter that information in the fields that appear in the lower half of the Buying Details tab.
Entering historical information
You can enter history for up to five years before you began using Accounting Plus. You can enter an item’s history up to the current month of your current fiscal year.
Warning: If you change an item’s history
Accounting Plus uses the figures displayed in the History view of the Item Information window on some reports. If you change an item’s history in this window, keep in mind that the change you make may not accurately reflect your actual totals.
Use care when making changes to the amounts displayed in this window. If you make a change and then want to use the previous amount, Accounting Plus cannot automatically reconstruct the monthly totals.
Click below for the step-by-step procedure:
To enter historical information about an item
To copy pricing level information from another item record
Entering pricing level information for an item
If you set different selling prices for different types of customers and for sales of greater quantities of an item, you can set up pricing levels for the item using the Selling Details view of the Item Information window. When you create an item layout that includes the item, the selling price that appears automatically on the sale reflects the item’s pricing level for the quantity you’ve entered on the sale, as well as for the pricing level of the customer card you’ve entered.
Here are some facts about Accounting Plus’s pricing levels:
- You can set a selling price at each level that you’ll charge for the same item bought in larger quantities, and you can specify those quantities.
- You can set a price for each type of customer or at each pricing level.
- You can set an item’s selling prices for up to six pricing levels.
- The default labels for pricing levels are “A” through “F,” but you can label your pricing levels in any way you like using the Custom Field and List Names window found under the Setup menu. See To label a pricing level for steps for more information.
- You can assign a pricing level to each of your customer cards using the Credit Terms window. See To assign a pricing level to a customer card for more information.
- You can copy the pricing levels that you’ve entered for another item into the item record you’re creating.
Before you can enter pricing level information for an item, you must enter its selling details using the top part of the Selling Details tab.
For information about entering names for your pricing levels see Using pricing levels.
Note: Be sure not to undercharge when using pricing levels and volume customer discounts
If you enter pricing level information for an item, be sure to take into account your customer’s volume discount so you don’t inadvertently undercharge for some items. For example, if you assign the “wholesale” pricing level to a customer card so prices at that level only will appear on item layouts for that customer, don’t enter your company’s wholesale discount in the Volume Discount% field found in the Selling Details view of the Card Information window. Any volume discount you enter for the customer will be subtracted from the item’s “wholesale” price.
Click below for the step-by-step procedure:
To label a pricing level
To enter pricing level information for an item
Creating custom lists and fields entries
You can make entries for the custom fields you’ve named and choose which custom list you want this item to be displayed on. See Using custom lists and fields for more information.
Linking a picture to an item or card record
You may wish to link a picture -- a bitmap file -- to an item or card record. You can display the picture of an item in the Item Details tab of the Item Information window, and you can link a picture to a card record and display the picture in the Card Details tab of the Card Information window.
The pictures aren’t stored in your data file. They’re stored in the Graphics folder in the directory where your data file is located. If the picture you link isn’t already located in the Graphics folder, a copy of the graphics file you select is placed in the Graphics folder. If you move your data file, you must move the Graphics folder to the same location if you want to display the graphics in the Item Information window.
When you only remove the link between the item or card record and the graphics, the graphics file remains in the Graphics folder, which is located in the same directory as your Accounting Plus data file. If you haven’t linked the graphics to any other item or card records, you may want to delete the graphics file. For information about deleting files, refer to the documentation for your computer’s operating system.
Enter the item’s opening quantity and value
When you’ve entered all of your items into Accounting Plus, you’ll indicate how many items you have in stock and how much each item is worth.
If you’re working with many items and need to know the exact count of your items, consider printing an Inventory Count Sheet report, which you can use to help you count your actual items.
Changing items
Occasionally, you might need to make a change to an item in your Accounting Plus records. You can make your changes using windows in the Inventory Command Center.
Changing basic item information
Depending upon whether you’ve used an item in a transaction, you can change most of the basic information you originally set up for the item. When you change an item’s number or name, all the information that was recorded using the item’s previous number or name will change to reflect the new information you entered.
You can quickly change the selling prices of many—or all—of the items that you sell using the Set Item Prices window. See To change the price of many items at one time to learn how to update the base selling price of many items at once.
Idea: Make a backup before you update prices
Before changing the price of multiple items, choose Backup from the File menu to make a backup copy of your data file containing your current prices and other data. (We recommend that you give the backup file an easily recognizable name so you can distinguish this backup file from others you’ve created.) If you don’t want to use the new prices that are calculated during these procedures, you can return to the previous prices by choosing Restore from the File menu. See Backing up and restoring data files for further information about making backups.
You can also use the Pricing Shortcuts window to update multiple item prices at the same time, based on a percentage or other type of change. It’s a great way to re-price your items to reflect changing costs or to prepare for a sale.
Note: You can’t use pricing shortcuts for items with a cost of $0.00
If an item in the Set Item Prices window has a cost of $0.00, its selling price can’t be updated using the Pricing Shortcuts window. These items must be updated manually because there is no cost basis for the calculation of an updated price.
Inactivating items
If you have items that you create for a one-time sale or purchase, for example, inactivating them after their one-time use will remove them from the selection windows. Your list of items will be shorter, and selecting the item you need will be easier.
If an item is marked inactive, however, you may still use the item in transactions by manually entering the item. Inactive items will still appear in the Items List window. You can also return the status of the item to active so that it will appear again in the selection windows. No matter what the status of an item—active or inactive, transactions recorded using the item will still affect all of your financial records.
Two reports, the Items List (Summary) and Items List (Detail) will display and print item information with or without inactive items. Use the Report Filters window to unmark or mark the selection Include Inactive Items.
Removing items
If you have an item that has no quantities or inventory value and hasn’t been assigned to any sales and purchases, you can quickly remove its record from the MYOB system.
You can’t delete an item until all sales and purchases that use the item are deleted or purged. Once the sales and purchases are deleted or purged, you can then remove the item. (See Purging information that’s no longer needed to learn how to purge sales and purchases.)
You also can’t delete an item that has a current quantity or value. To remove an item’s quantity and value, create an inventory adjustment with negative quantities and values to “zero out” an item’s quantity and value. (See Determining the type of inventory adjustment you need to learn how to create inventory adjustments.)
