Most free-form fields are fields that you fill in without having to look up codes; that is, you can key in anything you want. Other fields defined as free form are fields that have a drop-down selection list (for example, Yes, No, and Conditional); from the list, you need to select one choice. However, even in this case, there are no codes behind the selections, so there are no lookups.
This page is used to define the free-form fields you will find in [i] Merchant. It is separated into two basic sections: Product and Customer. Product free-form fields deal with products; customer free-form fields pertain to customers.
Author First: This is simply where you key in the first name of an author. Pertains to books.
Author Last: This is simply where you key in the last name of an author. Pertains to books.
Author Code: This is where you key in the author's short name. The short name must be unique; that is, you cannot have any duplicate author short names. Think of the short name as a "code" by which [i] Merchant will instantly recognize an author.
Available Date: This generally only applies if there is a problem receiving a product, for example if it is on back order, and your store has not yet received it. In such occurrences, an available date can be attached to the product, letting you know when the product will be available again.
Buying Price: This is the price your store pays for a product--normally from a vendor. You need to key in the buying price. If you leave this field blank, it will automatically fill in with the retail price.
CopyRight This Year: This is where you key in the copyright date for a book.
Cost: This is the total cost value of onhands for a particular product. For example, if you purchased 20 copies of a book from a vendor at $3.00 each, your Cost would be $60.00 ($3.00 x 20 copies). Note: Even if the onhand value of a product is negative, the Cost value will never be negative.
Create Date: This is the date the product was added to your [i] Merchant system.
Cust Order Allocate: This field is informational and fills in automatically on the Product Properties screen. The amount displayed represents the total number of copies allocated to fill outstanding Customer Orders.
Cust Orders Needed: This field is informational and fills in automatically on the Product Properties screen. The amount displayed represents the total number of copies still needed (to be allocated) to fill outstanding Customer Orders. (The system calculates this value using the following formula: Cust Order Total - Cust Order Allocate = Cust Orders Needed.)
Customer Order Summary Box: This is an informational grouping of fields that can be placed on the Product Properties screen. Please click here for more information.
Cust Order Total: This field is informational and fills in automatically on the Product Properties screen. The amount displayed represents the total number of copies that have been ordered to fill outstanding Customer Orders.
Description: This is where you key in the description for a product. For a book, this would be the title--or an abbreviated version of the title. You can key in anything you want. For clothing, you can key in the style of clothing and brand name, or anything else. Key in what makes the most sense to you. There is a control in Tools-Options that causes the system to automatically make the Description and Formal Description fields to be the same.
Discount: This is a field that provides you with four selections. These selections define when a particular product in your store can be discounted for your customers. Use the dropdown arrow at the right of the field to display the four selections, then choose the one you want for the product. The four selections are: Always, No, Not when on Sale, and Best Savings. If you select Always, then the product in question can always be discounted, even if there is a special sale price, too. If you select No, the product in question can never be discounted. If you select Not when on Sale, the product in question can only be discounted if it is not already on sale. If it is on sale already, no further discount will be allowed. Finally, if you select Best Savings, POS will evaluate the sale price as well as the discounted price for the product in question. Whichever of the two prices is lower is the price that will then be used.
Display From/To Date: These two fields work together. Essentially, the dates in this range represent a date range where a particular product can be sold--for example a weekly magazine. Perhaps the magazine in question can hit the newsstands on 7/10/06 and remain there until 7/17/06, at which time it needs to be removed for the following week's issue. So, the Display From Date, in this case, would be 7/10/06; the Display To Date would be 7/17/06.
Edition: This is a user-definable field. Very straightforward. Simply key in the edition of the product. For a book, 1st edition, 2nd edition, etc.
First Receive Date: This is the date a particular product was first received into your [i] Merchant system. The system generates this date automatically.
First Sale Date: This is the date your store first sold a particular product via your [i] Merchant system. The system generates this date automatically.
Formal Description: This is where you can key in the full description or title of a product. For example, if in the Description field, you abbreviated the title of a book, you might want to key in the unabridged title here in the Formal Description field. It is optional. If you leave the Formal Description field blank, it will fill in with whatever you keyed in the Description field. There is also a control in Tools-Options that causes the system to automatically make the Description and Formal Description fields to be the same.
Industry: Each product must be placed within a specific industry. When you add a new product to [i] Merchant, a New Product message box appears. This is where you select the appropriate industry. Simply click on the down arrow at the right of the field, then choose the correct industry from the list.
Inventory Summary Box: This is an informational grouping of fields that can be placed on the Product Properties screen. Please click here for more information.
Last Cost: This is the last unit cost on file for a product that has a zero onhand. In other words, if a product with an onhand of zero is returned, the system will look at the Last Cost field to determine what the cost of the product should be. This field is updated automatically by the system, though you do have the option of telling the system to update it within the onhand changes window in Product Properties.
Last Receive Date: This is the date a particular product was last received into your [i] Merchant system. The system generates this date automatically.
Last Sale Date: This is the date your store last sold a particular product via your [i] Merchant system. The system generates this date automatically.
LCCNx: This is where you key in the Library of Congress Catalog Number.
Life Returns: This is system-generated. It represents the total quantity of lifetime returns for a specific product.
Lifetime Sales: This is system-generated. It represents the total quantity of lifetime sales for a specific product.
List or Net: This is a selection field, where you must choose List or Net. If you choose List, when you change the retail price in Receiving, the buying price will be updated with the retail price. If you choose Net, then when you change the retail price in Receiving, the buying price will be updated with the received cost value of the item in question. For specific information on changing the retail price in Receiving, please click here.
Additionally, when an item is first added to a PO, if the item is assigned as Net in Product Properties, then the Cost fields for the item on the PO work screen will default to the Buying price, the PO Retail field will default to the retail price, and the discount will not be applied. This behavior only occurs when an item is first added to a PO. Once it has been added, any of the fields can be altered, if wanted.
Manf Reorder Code: The Manufacturer's Reorder Code is a free-form field that represents the manufacturer's (often the vendor) code for a product--in other words, how the manufacturer would identify the product in question. (For a book, the Manf. Reorder Code would be the ISBN.)
Manufacturer: This field is where you list the product's manufacturer (or publisher if a book). Simply click on the icon at the right of the field. The Find Vendor screen appears. Using the Find Vendor program, choose the appropriate manufacturer.
Manufacturer Price: The Manufacturer Price (MSRP) is the manufacturer's suggested retail price for a product--but you do not need to abide by it.
On Hand: This is the quantity of a particular product in your store. This is updated automatically by [i] Merchant as you buy and sell copies of the product. You can only manually alter the onhand amount in Product Properties if you have security access to do so. Note: Onhands can theoretically be a negative value. If items come in and are not received in the system, and then subsequently sold, the resulting onhand value can be negative.
Product Number: This is a unique value that you give every product you add into your system. When you scan a product in, the Product Number field will automatically fill in with the barcode value you scanned (but you can then change this, if desired). If you leave the Product Number field blank, the system will automatically assign a value. Think of Product Number as an electronic fingerprint. It is the way [i] Merchant can identify a specific product--each Product Number is unique. Under one Product Number, multiple items (with the same Product Number) can exist. When a book is scanned or hand-keyed into the system, [i] Merchant will automatically convert the product number to a 13-digit ISBN.
Publication Date: This is simply the date a book is published. Pertains only to books.
Purchase Order Summary Box: This is an informational grouping of fields that can be placed on the Product Properties screen. Please click here for more information.
Regional Info: This is a user-definable field. Fill it in with any pertinent regional information.
Retail Price: The Retail Price is simply the price your store charges for a product at the POS. You can automatically discount the Retail Price for new books imported from Venstock, if you want to. For information on this feature, please click here.
Shelf Under: This is a field you can use to list the shelf under which you will place the product. So, for example, for a gardening book, you might, simply, put "Gardening" in the Shelf Under field.
SKU: This is system-generated; you cannot change it. Essentially, this is the number that [i] Merchant will print on the barcode label for the product in question, when the barcode label is produced. Generally, the SKU field is filled in automatically by the system when you scan the product.
Unit Cost: This is the average cost per unit for onhands for a particular product. For example, if you purchased 20 copies of a book from a vendor at $3.00 each, your Unit Cost would be $3.00. Another example: If your total Cost for a product is $100.00, and you have five copies in your inventory, then the Unit Cost is $20.00 ($100.00 \ 5 copies).
User Defined Free-form Fields (PD_Fields, Prod_Fields, and PA_Fields): These fields are user-definable; that is, you can name any of them anything you want and use them for anything you want. User-definable fields are essentially additional, optional fields you can use to help further classify your inventory. They provide you with increased flexibility. (The PD_Fields and PA_Fields are at the item level for a product; the Prod_Fields are at the product level.) If you want to use one of these fields, select it in Screen Designer, rename it, and define it. We will have some of these fields already named and set up for you (such as Edition), but you can rename and redefine these as well, if you want.
Allocated: The Allocated field resides on the Customer Orders screen. Fill it in with the number of onhand copies of a product to be set aside, or allocated, to fill a Customer Order.
Charge and Send: This is checkbox field located on the Customer Orders screen. Very simply, leave the box unchecked if the customer plans on picking up the item. If you will ship the item to the customer, check the box.
Closed: When creating a new customer in Customer Maintenance, leave this field blank. This is strictly an informational field that holds the date when this customer became inactive. If you fill this in for a customer, the customer will still be on your system. It is just an informational tool that you can use for your benefit. When filling this field in, either key in the desired date or click on the arrow to the right of the field and select the date from the calendar that appears.
Complete: The Complete box, on the Customer Orders screen, is a check-box field--either the box is checked or unchecked. The Complete box will automatically insert a checkmark itself once the product ordered by the customer is picked up or shipped to the customer. The Customer Order will be completed at the POS. You can check the Complete box manually for a partially filled ordered amount (i.e., customer ordered quantity of 5 for a product, but purchased only 3, and does not want the remaining 2). But generally, you will not need to worry about this box. When the ordered quantity of the product is sold at the POS, it will fill in automatically.
Customer PO: On the Customer Orders screen, enter the customer's PO number. Generally, this will apply if the customer making the order is a business. If the customer has a PO number, they will provide it to you. If not, ignore the field.
Date: On the Customer Orders screen, the Date field defaults to the current day's date. This field cannot be changed.
First Name: On the Customer Maintenance screen, key in the customer's first name in the First Name field. If the customer is a business, key in the business name in this field.
Last Name: On the Customer Maintenance screen, key in the customer's last name in the Last Name field.
Needed By: On the Customer Orders screen, in the Needed By field, key in the date the customer needs the product(s) he or she is ordering. The date defaults to the current date. If you don't want to key the Needed date in, click on the arrow to the right of the field. A mini-calendar appears. From this calendar, select the desired date. It will automatically appear in the Needed By field.
Opened: The Opened field resides in Customer Maintenance. The date in this field defaults automatically to the current date. This is the date the customer was created in [i] Merchant. If you need to change the date, simply key in the desired date or click on the arrow to the right of the field and select the date you want from the calendar that appears.
Ordered: The Ordered field, on the Customer Orders screen, will automatically fill in with the default quantity, as established in Tools-Options. Most likely, the default quantity will be 1. But that is entirely up to you. Whatever the default quantity is, you can change the quantity as needed.
Order State: This field resides on the Customer Orders screen, and you can ignore it, for all intents and purposes. It is informational. When a Customer Order is completed (picked up or shipped out), this field will automatically fill in with the "Complete" option.
Promised Price: In the Promised Price field on the Customer Orders screen, key in the promised price, if different from the retail price. For example, if a business calls and orders 100 copies of a product, you may give them a discount. If the retail price for the item is $10.00 per item, maybe you lower it to $8.00 per item.
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If there is a discount attached to the product, and if you have established a promised price, the discount will be taken off of the promised price, not the retail price. Example: The retail price for a product is $10.00. However, you set the Promised Price field at $8.00. You also have established a discount of 20%. The final price, then, will be $6.40 ($8.00 x .20). |
Sales Person: The Sales Person field, on the Customer Orders screen, automatically fills in with the PC User's name ([i] Merchant assumes this is the person taking the order). This field cannot be changed.
Shipped: The Shipped field is informational and will fill itself in with the amount of copies of a particular product picked up to complete a Customer Order. When the product is sold at the POS, the Shipped field is automatically updated. You can change the value in this field if necessary.
Short Name: If you leave this field, located in Customer Maintenance, blank, [i] Merchant will fill it in automatically with the next available customer number or default customer short name (first and last name of customer merged together), making it unique to every customer in [i] Merchant. If it is not unique for some reason, the system will prompt you. To determine whether you want the system to set a customer number or a short name, set up the default in Tools-Options. The default in Tools-Options is short name. Of course, you can key in anything you want in this field as well, so long as it is unique.
User Defined Free-form fields (CA_Fields1-3 and Cust_Fields1-5): The CA_Fields pertain to address fields in the Address section of Customer Maintenance. The Cust_Fields can pertain to anything else. User-definable fields can be used (or not used) any way you want, and you can rename the fields in ways that make the most sense to you. These fields are designed to provide you with greater flexibility.