Chapter 16. Inventory
Prism 1.14.7 User's Guide Chapter 16. Inventory PDF
Prism 2.0 User's Guide Chapter 16. Inventory PDF
(Note: This topic is currently under construction; check back later for an update)
Inventory Overview
Prism's Inventory area helps you track, find, add, edit, and group your merchandise in a convenient and efficient manner. Inventory can contain up to 999,999 unique items. Instead of adding items one by one, retailers frequently group merchandise into families of related items, called styles. Prism's Inventory area enables you to view and work with Inventory as Item Details or Style Details and easily switch between them.
- Items can be tracked by UPC or ALU and individual units or groups can be tracked by Serial Number and/or Lot Number.
- Assign a Department and Vendor to items. Departments enable you to group items logically (e.g. "Men's Pants"), or by physical location (e.g. "Register Area"). Assigning a Vendor Code to items enables Retail Pro to track vendor performance as merchandise is ordered, received, transferred, and sold.
- Several Description fields are available. Description 1 is considered the primary description field. Description 2 to Description 4 fields are available for adding more information, if needed. A Long Description field stores descriptions up to 2,000 characters long.
- Prism includes powerful pricing tools:
- Price Levels: Each price level represents a complete set of inventory prices. Useful for things like separate prices for VIPs, Employees, etc.
- Price Rounding and Adjusting: Fine tune prices to always end in a certain value (e.g. .99)
- Price Manager: Adjust the prices of a group of items by a certain amount or percentage.
- Max Discount Percentage: Limit the percentage of an item's price that can be discounted.
- Various Cost-related preferences and fields (e.g., Order Cost) give retailers flexibility in controlling and tracking item cost.
- You must select the Inventory resource in the Prism day-to-day replication profile for new/changed items to replicate. If the resource is not selected, new/changed items will not replicate.
Inventory Management Considerations
Each store has its quantities updated by its documents. Any parent in the enterprise to which those documents are replicated will also update its quantities for the origin site based on those documents. Depending on how replication is set up this could be to a site's direct POA, or all the way to the root authority. Depending again on how the enterprise is set up there may also be replication inventory down from a POA or root authority to the site, and that data would overwrite the data in the store.
Here are some questions regarding Inventory Management to consider when configuring Prism:
Does Merchandise Arrive at Store Pre-Tagged, or Does Store Print Tags?
If merchandise tags need to be printed at individual stores, you can create the tag designs using Document Designer. You can then assign a default tag design to individual items. Note: You can also assign a tag design to an entire department. This is useful for items such as jewelry, which have smaller tags than other items.
Does All Merchandise Have a UPC?
UPC is the standard method for tracking inventory items in Prism. You can enter the UPC for individual items.
How is Merchandise Tracked? By Item? By Style? By Serial/Lot Number?
Prism makes it easy to track inventory using a variety of methods.
You can simply import/create a list of individual items. You can also group related items into styles. A style is a group of inventory items that possess similar characteristics, but vary in size, color, or some other attribute. For example, a sweater that is sold in four sizes and two colors comprises a style of eight items. For items such as cellular phones and bicycles, you can track items by serial number. For items such as pharmaceuticals, you can track items by lot number, including expiration dates.
What type of Style Descriptions Are Used?
Prism provides four description fields for each item (Description 1-4). When using styles, you can select which description field to use for the style description: Description 1, Description 2, or Both.
Are Alternate Lookups Used?
Some retailers use a different tracking system than UPC. These alternative identifiers can be entered in each item's ALU (Alternate Lookup) field. You can optionally copy the description information in an item's Description 2 field to the ALU field.
User-Defined (Custom) Fields Needed?
Prism provides up to 14 user-defined fields in which you can store custom information. One of the fields is a date field, the rest are text fields.
What Tax Codes Are Assigned to Items?
You define each of the tax codes that are required by your tax jurisdiction in Admin Console > Preferences & Settings > Node Preferences > Taxes. You can then assign any of these tax codes to items.
Inventory Cost Consideration
Preferences that can influence Cost
The 2 preferences below and their functions are important with regards to understanding how they might influence inventory cost. They are both found in Admin Console > Node Preferences > Purchasing.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Cost to use for POs and Voucher | This is simply the pre-populated cost in the Cost field on a new voucher. Inventory cost: For any Voucher or PO, the ‘Cost' field will display the Inventory cost. Order cost: For any Voucher or PO, the ‘Cost' field will display the Order cost. Order Cost: The ‘order cost' value is initially populated from Inventory cost (when an item is new). After that, it displays the ‘cost' value of the last PO/Voucher |
| Inventory costing method | The mechanism used to value the company inventory The ‘Cost' field on POs/Vouchers can affect cost of an inventory item if that cost is different than the current inventory cost. Options are: ‘Leave' - Do not let a different cost on a PO or Voucher affect the inventory cost ‘Overwrite' - Overwrite the Inventory Cost with the Cost on the PO/Voucher ‘Average' - Modify the inventory cost to be an average between the current inventory cost and the PO/Voucher cost. Calculation for Inventory Costing Method ‘Average' The basic calculation is: InvnC$ = [(invnC$ * InvnQty) + (VouC$ * VouQty)] / [InvnQty + VouQty] Example: Inventory Item 555 has a qty of 5 and a current inventory price of $5. On a new voucher, we are receiving a qty of 10 with a new cost of $4.75. Our new Inventory cost (InvnC$) for item 555 will be: [($5 * 5) + ($4.75 * 10)] / [5 + 10] => [$25 + $47.50] \ 15 => 72.50 / 15 = $4.83 Had the Inventory Costing Method in the above example been ‘Overwrite', the new Cost$ would simply have been $4.75. |
Inventory Views
When you first access the Inventory area, you will see a search area for defining search criteria.
By default, the user is in "Item Lookup" and the search filters will be applied to searching for items.
To search for styles, click the Style Lookup button.
Item Lookup
The dropdowns at the top of the screen enabling filtering by Subsidiary, Store, Price Level, or Season.
In the Filters area, you can filter the list by department, vendor, description, or by a specific item identifier (UPC, ALU, Serial, Lot). Click the check mark of an item and then click the Item Details button to view detailed information for the item.
Choose an operator (e.g., "Equals" or "Contains") for the search.
In the example below, the user selected "UPC" in the Search By dropdown and entered "17" for the value. The operator was set to "Contains". The search results display items with a UPC that starts with "17".
Select an item in the list and click Item Details. Item Details shows the individual item's information, while Style Details shows information for the style to which the item belongs.
The item record shows key information for the item. The item details are grouped into a set of tabbed pages:
| Tab | Description |
|---|---|
| General | DCS Code, Vendor Code, Description fields, Cost, Price, UPC (or ALU), and Tax Code. |
| Price/Cost | Price, cost margin, tax and price level information. |
| Qty | The on-hand quantity at each of the subsidiary's stores. |
| Purchasing | In this area, you can define things like Order Cost, Minimum Order Quantity, Orderable Date, and other values related to purchasing. |
| UDF | User-defined fields. The UDF field labels and available dropdown selections are defined in Admin Console > Node Preferences > Merchandise > Inventory > UDF. |
| Misc | Style information, Package and Kit item information, loyalty info, Sellable Date and other fields. |
Example Inventory Item Details
When you select a different tab, the left-hand side information persists. For example, if a user clicks the Price/Cost tab, a view like the one below is displayed. The Item Details are always present.
Style Management
Styles enable you to group inventory items that possess similar characteristics, but vary in size, color, or some other attribute. In a style, each size and color combination is a separate item. For example, a sweater sold in four sizes and two colors comprises a style of eight items.
Styles have the following characteristics:
A style can be made up of only one item if the item has a unique DCS Code, Vendor Code, and Description 1.
You can view members of a style as a group in Style View.
You can apply price and cost changes to all items in a style
Style UI Elements
The following interface elements in the Prism Inventory area enable you to work with styles:
Style Lookup/Item Lookup toggle button in Inventory. This button enables you to switch easily between working with style-level information and item-level information.
Style Details screen for adding/editing styles
Style grid that can be pivoted to display key values for style members (e.g. OH Qty, Price, Cost, Margin).
Grid format preferences that enable users to customize style lookup
Functionality to create and edit grid scales
Style Definition Fields
Each member of a style shares the same DCS Code, Vendor Code and either Description 1 or Description 2 or both. These fields make up the style definition.
Normally, Description 1 is used as the description field for the style definition. Some retailers prefer to use the Description 2 field (or both Description 1 and 2). You can set the Style Definition field in Admin Console > Preferences & Settings > Node Preferences > Merchandise > Inventory. When you enable the option in Node Preferences > Merchandise > Inventory, Prism automatically creates unique item style definitions using the entry in the Description 2 field. You can assign Description 1, Description 2 or both as style definitions.
New Style
Navigate to the Style Lookup area. Click New.
Fields marked in red (e.g., DCS Code) are required.
Enter the DCS Code, Vendor Code , Description 1, Price and Cost.
In the Scale field, select a scale from the dropdown.
The Style Grid for the scale is displayed. Enter an OH Qty for each attribute/size combination. (Note: Quantity adjustment memos will be created.) If the items will be received into inventory via a receiving voucher, enter a "0" for the quantity in the style grid.
Click Save.
Sample New Style screen:
Entering OH Qty
By selecting OH Qty in the Style Grid drop-down, you can enter an on-hand quantity for each item in the style
When you add a new item, Prism checks if your entry matches an existing style in inventory. If it matches, a dialog box informs you that the style already exists and gives options to join this item to the style or to cancel. If the new item is part of an existing style, add it to that style.
Style Lookup
When you first go into Inventory, the Item Search screen is displayed. Click the Style Lookup button on the bottom menu.
On the Style Lookup screen, select a style lookup element and operator.
Enter search criteria and then click the Search button.
In the screenshot below, the user has selected Desc 1 from the Search By dropdown. This adds the Desc 1 element to the Filter. Enter search criteria. In screenshot below, the user is searching for styles that contain the word "lookup" (case insensitive) in the Desc 1 field.
From the search results, select the desired style and click the Style Details button.
Edit the style, if needed.
When finished, click Item Details to return to the item record.
Sample Style Details:
About Grid Scales
A grid scale is a user-defined array of sizes and attributes that you can use as a template when creating new styles. Each scale can be used for an unlimited number of styles. When a style is created using a grid scale, resulting style grid can be used to display a variety of values. By default the style grid displays the on-hand quantity for each size/attribute combination, but other values can be displayed (e.g. Price).
Grid Scales with Sizes only
For some merchandise, attributes vary from style to style, and from season to season. In this case you typically will not know what attributes you need until you order the items. As an alternative, you can define scales with sizes only. This gives you the flexibility to define specific attributes for each style while avoiding repeated manual entry of your commonly used sizes.
Modifying Styles created with Grid Scales
If you modify a scale by adding more sizes or attributes, Prism adds those sizes and attributes automatically to every style grid that was built using that scale. If you modify an individual style grid in the same manner, the original scale is not affected.
New Grid Scale
In the Style Details area, click the Scales button.
In the Scales dialog, click the Add button.
Enter a name for the scale. Click OK.
A modal for entering details for the scale is displayed. To add sizes/attributes: Click the plus sign. A blank row is displayed. Type the attribute. Click the plus sign again to add another attribute.
Add Sizes in the same manner.
Click Save when finished.
Edit a Style
Navigate to Store Operations > Inventory > Style Lookup. Find and select the style that you want to edit and then click the Edit button.
Make any necessary edits in the item fields and save the changes.
About the Track Changes checkbox
If checked, changes in style grid cells are color-coded. If unchecked, all cells are shown without color-coding. This enables users to see, if they want, the changes made in the style grid.
To update the screen display with the changes, click the Show Changes button.
The Track Changes checkbox is only editable when the user is in Style Details and in edit mode.
Notes:
When "Track changes" is checked, updating Style grid cells will have a delay when switching between cells using keyboard direction buttons(up,down,left,right)
When "Track changes" is unchecked, switching between cells is instant and faster
Editing Attributes and Sizes
If necessary, you can edit the attributes and sizes of a style, including adding additional attributes/sizes. In the Style Details screeen, click Edit Attr/Size
Edit the attributes and/or sizes as needed.
Click OK.
The newly attribute or size is marked with an asterisk (*). Click Save.
Discard Pending Changes warning
If you have any pending changes, a warning is displayed.
Pivoting Style Grid and displaying different values in Style Grid
By default, style grids display sizes across the top row of the grid, and attributes in the first column of the grid. You can click the Pivot button to switch the layout and put attributes on the top row and sizes in the left column. By default, the cells of the grid display OH Qty. You can select a different value from the drop-down (e.g. Price or Cost).
Inventory Permissions
You can control employee access to individual Inventory features area using the following permissions. Configure permissions in the Admin Console > Permissions area. Please note that for several Inventory permissions, the Override option is not available.
Permission Description
Inventory > Activate Item Allows group members to edit the Active field for items.
Allow Manual Entry of UDF Values Allow group members to type UDF values in item UDF fields. If not assigned, users must select a UDF value from the drop-down.
Inventory > Assign Lot Type Allows group members to edit the Lot Type field for items. This allows users to change the setting (Full Control, Partial Control, None).
Inventory > Assign Serial Type Allows group members to edit the Serial Type field for items (Full Control, Partial Control, None).
Inventory > Change Special Order flag Allow group members to edit the Special Order flag, which indicates the item can be listed on a special order.
Inventory > Change Subsidiary Allow group members to change the subsidiary of an inventory item or style.
Inventory > Create Item Allows group members to create new items by using the New button or the Copy button If not selected, users are prevented from creating items.
Inventory > Deactivate Item Allows group members to deactivate an item. Only active items can be listed on transactions.
Inventory > Edit Item Allows group members to edit item description fields. Note: Editing of quantity, price, cost and order cost is handled by separate permissions.
Inventory > Edit Item Cost Allows group members to edit the Cost field for items.
Inventory > Edit Item Order Cost Allows group members to edit an item's Order Cost field. Order Cost indicates the cost of the item from the vendor. The Override option is not available.
Inventory > Edit Item Prices Allows group members to edit an item's prices (each price level). The Override option is not available.
Inventory > Edit Min/Max Allows group members to edit an item's Min Qty and/or Max Qty. The Min/Max values are used to determine when it is time to reorder inventory and the maximum amount to reorder. The Override option is not available.
Inventory > Edit OH Qty without S/LN Allow group members to edit the OH Quantity of items without providing a serial or lot number. If not selected, users must enter a serial or lot number when changing on-hand quantity.
Inventory > Edit On-Hand Qty Allows group members to edit an item's on-hand quantity in Inventory. The Override option is not available.
Edit Regional Flag Allow group members to edit the Regional flag. The Regional flag indicates the item is a regional inventory item under the control of the master subsidiary.
Edit Serial/Lot Numbers Allows group member to edit serial/lot numbers in Inventory.
Inventory > Item Access Allows group members to view Item Details for Inventory.
Inventory Preferences
Inventory preferences are subdivided into two areas: General and UDF.
Inventory > General Preferences
In the Merchandise > Inventory > General area of preferences, define various options related to creating new inventory items. Note: You must set these preferences at the Subsidiary or Store level. Double-click the desired Subsidiary record or select the desired Subsidiary and click the Set Context button.
Refer to the following table for information about the available settings:
Preference Description
Margins Affect Select either Price or Cost to have changes to Margin affect that value. If a user edits the Margin $ or Margin % value for an item, the Price or Cost will be automatically updated based on the selection.
Style Definition Field Select which descriptive field to use for defining styles: Description 1, Description 2 or Both. The descriptive field(s) you choose, combined with the DCS Code and Vendor Code fields, define the style and make it unique.
Default Maximum Discount The maximum accumulated discount percentage is the combination of item discount, global discount, customer discount, etc., that is applied to an item on a receipt. Enter as a number without the "%" symbol. The percentage entered here does not impact existing items. It is only applied to new items.
Populate Max Discount From This preference controls which value will be displayed in the Max Discount % field:
Max Discount %: If selected, the Max Discount % field in Prism to control an item's maximum discount.
Max Accumulated Discount: If selected, the Max Discount % field in Prism Inventory will display the Max Accumulated Discount % value and at POS will use that value to control an item's maximum discount.
Cost Difference Threshold If the Enable Cost Difference Threshold checkbox is selected, enter the desired threshold amount here.
Enable Cost Difference Threshold Select to enable the Cost Difference Threshold feature, then enter a percentage in the Provide Warning When New Cost Differs From Old Cost By field. If this preference is selected, when receiving items, if the new cost differs from the old cost by more than the specified percentage, a warning will be issued. You will still be allowed to complete and update the voucher.
Alert when Item Price differs with Style Price If selected, an alert will be displayed to users when a change is made to an item's price such that the price is different from other members of the same style.
Allow Negative Quantities When enabled, allows manual change of item quantity to negative values.
Enable ALU Sequence (must be set at subsidiary level) This preference is for retailers who use Alternate Lookup identifiers in addition to, or instead of UPCs.
If selected, the ALU field is assigned the next sequential ALU (as defined in the Subsidiary record). Default = Selected.
Allow Duplicate ALU Select to allow the same ALU to be assigned to more than one item. If not selected, each item's ALU must be unique. Default: Not Selected
Allow Duplicate UPC If selected, multiple items can be assigned the same UPC. If not selected, each item's UPC must be unique. Selecting this setting enables the reuse of UPCs. Best Practice: Deactivate the old item whose UPC you want to reuse. Create the new item and assign the UPC. Default = Not Selected,
Enable UPC Sequence (must be set at subsidiary level) If selected, the UPC field is assigned the next sequential UPC (as defined in the Subsidiary record). Default = Selected.
New Inventory Item
The following steps explain how to add a new item to RP Prism inventory.
Navigate to Merchandise > Store Operations > Inventory.
On the Item Lookup screen, click the New button.
Enter item details. Refer to the table that follows for a description of the available fields. The only required fields are DCS Code and Description 1; however, users typically also enter Vendor Code, Attribute, Size, Cost, Price and UPC.
Click the Save button when finished. A confirmation is displayed. Click Yes.
Assuming you entered a Price and Cost for the new item, adjustment memos will be created. Select a Cost Reason and Price Reason, and then click Continue. The necessary memos will be generated based on the price/cost/quantity values entered
Select a Department or Create a Department
The Department is a required field for new items. You can assign an existing department or add a new department on the fly. To assign a Department to a new item, click the dropdown arrow. You can select a Department code from the dropdown list or type a value in the text box.
To create a new department, click the Create DCS button.
Inventory UI Notes
Inventory Search:
"Specific Search" checkbox is selected by default
Description 1 is default sort
Active flag is passed as Boolean (not as 1 or 0)
DCS Code
DCS Code uses a drop-down selection with paging and search
Inventory UDF
Uses a drop-down with paging and search
A button near the UDF dropdown enables you to toggle between manual and selectable entry
Note: Manually entered UDF options currently are not added to the UDF options table.
Inventory Search defaults to Specific Search
If Specific Search is selected, the search is performed against the exact string. If you will be using a wildcard, you should clear Specific Search. By default, the checkbox is selected. Previously the default was not selected.
DCS drop down with paging and search.
When adding or editing an item, click the right-arrow in the DCS Code field and select a department from the displayed dropdown menu. You can type a DCS Code in the text field to do a search. Use the scroll bar and pagination buttons to navigate among the DCS Codes.
Adjustment Memos for New Items
When a user creates a new item and enters a Price, Cost and/or Quantity, adjustment memos will be created. This is a requirement of Prism. To make sure this requirement is fulfilled, when a user saves a new item, the last step is a prompt for selecting adjustment reasons. Whether or not you are required to select adjustment reasons will depend on how Adjustment Reason preferences are configured (Admin Console > Node Preferences > Merchandise > Adjustments).
By default, Prism is configured to require adjustment reasons on memos any time Price, Cost, or Quantity is changed. Prism's default Adjustment Reason settings have "Null" set as the default adjustment reason for Price, Cost and Quantity adjustments. This means that if Prism is left at its default settings, when saving a newly created item the user will be prompted and required to select an adjustment reason for each value changed. You can configure Prism preferences to not require a reason or assign a Default Reason to each of the adjustment memo types. Either of these configurations saves the user from having to select an adjustment reason when creating a new item. The user can simply click the Continue button.
Price memos are generated for a specific price level. Cost memos are generated at the company level for the Subsidiary where the item was created. Quantity memos are for a specific store.
Use Case 1 - Do not Require Adjustment Reasons on Memos
If preferences are configured to NOT require memos, then when a user creates a new item, the prompt is displayed. The user can simply click Continue to finish saving the new item.
Use Case 2 - Require Adjustment Reasons on Memos - Default Reason set to Null
If reasons are required, but the default reason is set to null, users will see the prompt and must manually select a Reason for each memo type. This is the default configuration for Prism and requires the most user interaction.
Use Case 3 Require Adjustment Reasons on Memos - Default Reason Selected
If a default reason is selected, then when the user saves a new item, the adjustment reasons are already entered. The user simply clicks the Continue button.
New Item Fields
Refer to the following table for information about the available fields when adding a new item to RP Prism inventory.
Field Description
DCS Code (Required) The full Department Code consisting of Department (D), Class (C), Subclass(S): Combined, the DCS field can be 3-9 characters long. Select the desired DCS from the dropdown.
Vendor Code The user-defined code assigned to the vendor of the item (3 to 6 characters). The code must be the same for all members of a style. Select the desired Vendor Code from the dropdown.
Entry of a vendor code is not required; however, it is typical. The Vendor Code is part of each item's style definition.
Description 1 (Required) A description field usually used as the style description. As such, it must be the same for all members of a style.
Description 2 Description 2: A description field usually used for recording any additional information to describe this particular item, such as a vendor's catalog number.
Attribute Attribute: A field used to describe an item, typically color or a second size.
Size Size: The size of an item.
Store OH Qty The quantity on hand in inventory. The Qty field is automatically updated each time an item is received, transferred, or sold, and when completing a physical inventory.
Cost The cost of the item. This is the amount of money charged by the vendor for one unit.
Price The item's selling price. Note: If using Price Levels, you can enter a different Price for each price level being used.
Price with Tax Item Price with Tax. In a VAT environment, the Price with Tax field is used instead of the Price field.
UPC Universal Product Code: The item's unique UPC/EAN/ISBN identifier. This field can be up to 18 characters. Entries of less than 13 characters will be converted to a 13-digit form.
ALU Alternative Lookup: A user-defined field that can be used to lookup items (instead of UPC). This field can contain text descriptions, catalog numbers, etc.
Join Item to Style
A style is a group of related items, for example, a shirt that comes in a variety of sizes and colors. When you click the Save button to save a new item that has the same Department, Vendor and Description 1 values as another item, a confirmation is displayed. To join the item to the style, click Yes. A dialog will be displayed for selecting adjustment reasons. Click No in the prompt to keep the item as a standalone.
Item Identifiers (ALU, UPC)
Note: UPC and ALU sequences are only available at the Subsidiary level.
Universal Product Code (UPC): Retailers typically use the Universal Product Code (UPC) identifier for items.
Alternate Lookup (ALU): Some retailers use their own custom identifier. These identifiers can be entered in the ALU field.
Create DCS
When adding a new item, you may want to add the item to a Department that does not yet exist. When adding a new item, users can click the Create DCS button to create a new department on the fly. The item will be assigned to the newly created department.
Create Vendor
When adding a new item that is sold by a vendor not previously used before, users can create the vendor record on the fly. Sometimes when adding a new item, the item's vendor does yet exist in the Prism database.
Description, Size and Attribute
In addition to a Department and Vendor, each item typically has a Description. Although an item Description is not required, it is rare to add an item without one. There are four item description fields available. By default, Description1 is used for the primary item description; however, you can configure preferences to use Description 2 instead of Description 1, or use both Description 1 and Description 2. Description 2 through Description 4 can be used as needed to provide additional information about an item. The Size and Attribute fields are used with clothing. The Attribute field can be used to store the item's color or other info (e.g. a second size).
New Item Price and Cost
RP Prism provides the following price and cost fields when adding a new item. Note: The ability to edit Price and Cost is controlled by security permissions.
Field Description
Price The Price field is typically used to store the item's Manufacturer's Suggested List Price (MSRP).
Price with Tax The item's price with tax, based on the tax rate for the user's assigned store. If using VAT, the Price with Tax field is used instead of Price.
Cost The amount paid to the vendor for each unit.
Order Cost The cost of the item as charged by the vendor. If you are using Trade Discounts (future release), then the Trade Discount % is applied to each applicable item's List Cost to calculate Order Cost. If using Trade Discounts, Order Cost is automatically used on purchase orders and vouchers, and vouchers are unable to update an item's Order Cost.
Price Levels Using the Price Levels feature, you can define separate prices for sales to employees, VIPs or other situations.
About Price Levels
Some stores use different price levels for retail sales, wholesale sales, sales to employees, and so on. By default, prices used when listing items on documents are taken from the currently active price level in inventory (shown in the status bar). When making a transaction billed to that customer, prices will be taken from the customer's assigned price level. If you use multiple price levels, the suggested selling price of an item can be taken from different price levels depending on system configuration. A preference setting enables users to select the desired price level to use for calculating discounts.
Margin Information
Margin is the difference between price and cost. It can be expressed in three different ways in Retail Pro Prism. Refer to the following table:
Field Description
Margin % Margin percentage. The cost as a percentage of the price.
(Price - Cost) / Price
Markup % The percentage difference between the cost and the price.
(Price - Cost) / Cost
Coefficient Coefficient. The Price as a percentage of the cost.
Price / Cost
Enforce Original Price Tax
If selected (default setting = not selected) , the Force Orig Tax flag will be automatically selected when the item is listed on a receipt or sales order (the flag can also be set from the receipt). With the flag selected, Tax for the item is calculated based on the original (non-discounted price) rather than the discounted price. That is, the Price for the currently active price level in Inventory is used to calculate the Tax % and Tax Amt for the item.
If the Force Orig Tax flag is NOT selected for an item on a receipt or SO, the tax amount for the item is calculated based on the discounted price. Important! The Force Orig Tax flag does not affect global (document-level) discounts or Percentage Reward programs.
On-Hand Quantity
When adding a new item, the quantity is zero. To add quantity to inventory, receive items on a voucher or create a quantity adjustment memo.
Checking O/H Quantity at POS
A preference setting, if selected, will alert the Associate when an item is listed on a transaction at a quantity that exceeds the current on-hand quantity.
Decimal Quantity (Case Qty, Units/Case)
Some retailers sell certain items by either individual units or by the case. For these items, select the Use Qty Decimals checkbox and enter a Units/Case value. When ordering these items, you can enter a case quantity and Retail Pro will automatically calculate the number of units (or vice versa).
View Item Qty at other Stores
To view the item's quantity at other stores in the Subsidiary, select the Qty tab. The table lists the item OH Qty, Min Qty and Max Qty at each other store in the Sub. You can sort the list by any of the fields on the quantity grid. This is useful for checking if a nearby location has available inventory for a hot-selling item.
Sample Quantity tab for Prism inventory
Min/Max Quantity
Min/Max values play a vital role in deciding whether or not to reorder merchandise and how much to reorder. When adding a new item, you can enter the item's Min Qty and Max Qty for the Store. To define Min/Max values, select the Purchasing tab and scroll down to the Store Min/Max area.
Company Min/Max
User-Defined Fields
You can define user-defined fields for inventory in preferences and then assign UDF field entries to individual items as needed.
Max Item Discount
You can control how much of a discount can be applied to an item. This is important because some vendors require that certain items not be discounted or limit the amount of discount below MSRP. If zero is entered, then discounts are not allowed. If 100 is entered, the item can be discounted up to the full selling price.
Tax Code
Each item is assigned a Tax Code. The Tax Code, combined with Tax Area rules, determines the item's tax rate at POS. By default, items are assigned a Tax Code of TAXABLE. If an item is exempt, you can assign the EXEMPT Tax Code.
Tax Amount Info
The Tax area of the item record shows the tax information for item, based on the tax area information for the current user's store.
Activate/Inactivate Items
Only active items can be listed on a transaction. If necessary, you can inactivate an item. For example, if the item is only to be sold during a certain season and that season has passed.
Salesperson Incentive Fee (SPIF)
Each item can have a Salesperson Incentive Fee (SPIF). The SPIF is a specific amount that the primary Associate will earn when the item is sold. Commissions are not currently supported in RP Prism.
Inventory Tabs
Additional Inventory fields are available via a set of tabs:
General
Price/Cost
Qty
Purchasing
UDF
Misc
These tabs are explained in more detail in the sections that follow.
General Tab
Field Description
DCS Name The user-friendly name for the DCS Code.
Vendor Name The user-friendly name for the Vendor Code.
Description 3 Additional Description field for items. Can be used to store additional descriptive information.
Description 4 Additional Description field for items. Can be used to store additional descriptive information.
Department The first tier in the full department code, typically used for the broadest classification.
Class The second tier in the full DCS Code, typically used to assign merchandise within each department to a narrower category or class.
Subclass The third segment of the DCS Code.
Non-Inventory If the Non-Inventory checkbox is selected, it indicates the item does not have a physical on-hand quantity. This field enables retailers to add things like gift-wrapping or repairs as line items with a defined price but with no on-hand quantity.
Qty Decimals If selected, the item uses quantity decimals. This is common for items that are sold by the case or carton and by individual units. If you select the Qty Decimals check box, then you should also enter a Qty per Case value in Inventory.
Max Discount % Each item's Max Disc % determines the maximum discount percentage that can be applied to an item. By default, new items have a Max Disc % of 100, meaning that the entire price can be discounted.
Note: If a promotion calls for a discount greater than an item's Max Disc %, the discount amount for the promotion will be adjusted to the Max Disc %.
Tax Code The tax code (e.g. TAXABLE, EXEMPT, etc.) for the item. The tax area and the tax area determine the tax percentage applied to the item.
Price/Cost Tab
The Price/Cost tab has a variety of information related to price and cost, including:
Read-only information about store and company quantity and extended price/cost information
Margin information
Tax rate in the currently active tax area
Price levels
Sample Price/Cost Tab
Price/Cost tab fields
Field Description
Store
OH Qty The current on-hand quantity for the item at the user's store.
Ext Cost The extended cost for the item at the store (Cost x OH Qty).
Ext Price The extended price for the item at the store (Price x OH Qty).
Ext Price WT The extended price with tax for the item at the store.
Company
OH Qty The current oh-hand quantity for the item for the entire company.
Ext Cost The extended cost for the item for the entire company (Cost x OH Qty).
Ext Price The extended price for the item for the entire company (Price x OH Qty).
Margin
Percent Margin percentage. The cost as a percentage of the price.
(Price - Cost) / Price
Amount Margin Amount: The profit amount for this item (excluding tax).
Margin Amount = Price - Cost
Amount with Tax The item's margin amount when using Price with Tax instead of Price.
Ext Amount The item's extended Margin Amount at the store. (Price - Cost) x OH Qty
Ext Amount with Tax The item's extended margin amount, including tax. (Price WT - Cost) x OH Qty
Markup % Mark Up %: The profit expressed as a percentage of the cost.
MkUp% = price - cost X 100
cost
Coefficient Coefficient: This number is equal to the price divided by the cost of the item. It can be used to calculate price if it is multiplied by cost. Coefficients are typically used by retailers in countries that have VAT.
Coefficient = Price / Cost
Tax
Tax 1 Percent and Amount (read-only) The tax rate applied to the item for the user's store. Based on the tax rate assigned to the tax area of the user's store.
Tax 2 Percent and Amount (read-only; Multi-Sales Tax environments) Tax rate for the second tax area assigned to the store.
Extended Tax Amount Extended tax amount for store OH Qty.
Price Level
Price Level Identifies the currently active price level.
Level Name The user-friendly name for the price level.
Season (Seasonal pricing) The season to which the item is assigned. When using seasonal pricing, the price level assigned to the season becomes active when the season starts.
Price The item price for the selected price level.
Qty Tab
The Qty tab displays On-Hand, Min, Max, Sold, Received and On-Order information for the item at other stores in the subsidiary.
Purchasing Tab
On the Purchasing tab, you can view various information that can help when deciding whether to place a new order for the item.
Sample Purchasing tab:
Purchasing tab fields
Field Description
Order Cost The cost of the item as charged by the vendor.
Note: If using Trade Discounts (future release), the Trade Discount % is applied to each applicable item's List Cost to calculate Order Cost, Order Cost is automatically used on purchase orders and vouchers, and vouchers are unable to update an item's Order Cost.
Orderable Date The date when the item can first be ordered. This enables retailers to define new items ahead of time, with the restriction that the items cannot be ordered on Purchase Orders until the Orderable Date.
Discontinued Date The date after which the item can no longer be ordered. This prevents the ordering of items that are being phased out of inventory.
Unorderable If the Unorderable checkbox is selected, the item cannot be listed on Purchase Orders. This is useful for items that are being phased out. The items can continue to be sold but new orders are not allowed.
Minimum Order Qty The minimum number of units that can be entered on a purchase order.
Case Quantity The items current case quantity (OH Qty / Units per Case)
Units/Case The number of individual units that comprise a single case, carton, or other form that enables the sale of multiple units to a customer.
Store Min/Max
Min Qty The minimum number of units to keep on-hand for the store.
Min Ext Cost Item extended cost at the store Min Qty (Cost x Min Qty).
Min Ext Price Item extended price at the store Min Qty (Price x Min Qty).
Min Ext Price with Tax The item's extended price with tax at the Min Qty.
Max Qty The maximum number of units to keep on hand.
Max Ext Cost Item extended cost at the store Max Qty (Cost x Max Qty).
Max Ext Price Item extended price at the store Max Qty (Price x Max Qty).
Max Ext Price with Tax The item's extended price with tax at the Max Qty.
UDF Tab
User-defined fields enable retailers to capture inventory information that is not available in the many predefined inventory fields that come with Prism. With UDF fields, you define a field label and a list of field values that will be available for selection. Prism provides 14 user-defined fields for inventory records: one date field and 13 text fields.
In the screenshot below, a custom label has been entered for the UDF2Name. The custom label is not displayed in the dropdown.
A button next to the UDF dropdown enables you to toggle to manual entry vs. selectable entry.
UDF tab fields
Field Description
UDF1Date The UDF1 field is a date field. This field can be used to store a date related to the field.
UDF2Name - UDF6 Name UDF text fields
Aux1Name - Aux6 Name Additional (auxiliary) user-defined fields.
Defining Inventory UDF fields
Define Inventory UDF fields in Admin Console > Node Preferences > Merchandise > Inventory > UDF Fields.
Maximum Number of UDF fields
The UI allows users to define more than 14 Inventory UDF fields; however, only the first 14 are available for use in Prism.
Maximum Number of UDF Values per UDF field
Users can define as many UDF values per UDF field as needed; however, during replication of UDFs, the server checks how many UDF values belongs to eac UDF. If more than 500, the UDF values are not replicated at all. This applies to UDF values assigned to customer/inventory/vendor/employee.
Misc Tab
The Misc tab includes many fields and users will have to scroll to view them all.
Sample Inventory item Misc tab:
Misc Tab fields
Field Description
Long Description This field can store a long description up to 2,000 characters in length.
SPIF Salesperson Incentive Fee. An amount that will be recorded as being earned by the Associate for selling the item. SPIF is for informational and reporting purposes only. The SPIF does not affect transaction amounts.
Sellable Date This field enables retailers to prevent items from being sold until a certain date. Not currently implemented in Prism.
Created Date/Time The Date/Time the item record was created (saved).
Modified Date The Date/Time the item record was last edited.
Last Sold Date the item was last sold.
First Received Date the item was first received into inventory on a receiving voucher.
Last Received Most recent date the item was received into inventory on a receiving voucher.
Special Order If selected, indicates the item can be listed on a special order.
Packages and Kits Information If the item is part of a package or kit, that information will be displayed here.
Text 1 to Text 10 Text fields. Maximum length 255 characters.
Length Item length. Used to record shipping dimensions for an item. The units (e.g., inches, feet, centimeters, meters) the entered number represents are up to the user. Can be displayed to two decimal places (e.g., 37.12)
Width Item width. Used to record shipping dimensions for an item. The units (e.g., inches, feet, centimeters, meters) the entered number represents are up to the user. Can be displayed to two decimal places (e.g., 37.12)
Height Item height. Used to record shipping dimensions for an item. The units (e.g., inches, feet, centimeters, meters) the entered number represents are up to the user. Can be displayed to two decimal places (e.g., 37.12)
Loyalty Information If the item is part of a loyalty program (e.g., Item Reward loyalty program), then that information will be displayed here.
Filtering and Searching Inventory
When you select Store Operations > Inventory, the Search screen is displayed.
To find a specific item or group of items: Enter filter criteria and press the Search button (Enter key) to view the desired items in list view.
To view the entire Inventory list: Search by UPC. Type the wildcard character (*) in the UPC field and then click the Search button. The asterisk is the wildcard symbol. When the UPC field has only an asterisk, all items are returned.
You can search inventory by any or all of the following values: DCS, Vendor Name, Description 1, UPC, or Vendor (Vendor Code)
Steps Instructions Screen Elements
1. Navigate to Store Operations > Inventory.
2. By default, any search will be performed on Active items only. If necessary, you can click to search for Inactive only, or both Active and Inactive (All button).
3. Select a search field. For example, select UPC if you have the barcode or know the item's UPC.
4. Type the search criteria in the field. You can use a wildcard
5. Important, if the Specific Search check box is selected, the search is performed against the exact string. If you will be using a wildcard, you should clear the Specific Search checkbox.
6. Click the Search button
7. Click the check mark for the desired item.
If necessary, you can scroll the list and navigate between pages if multiple pages of results are returned.
8. Click the Item Detail button.
Item List/Item Details button
The Item List/Item Detail button is a toggle that you can use to switch back and forth between viewing a list of items and viewing a single item in details. To view an item in detail view, select the check mark for the item and then click the Item Detail button. To return to the Item List screen to do a different search, click the Item List button.
Viewing the Entire Inventory List
Clear the Specific Search checkbox. Add the UPC field as a filter. Enter the wildcard character (*) and then click Search.
View Item Info for a Different Store
New items are added at the global level. By default, the Store field is set to the current logged-in user's default store. If necessary, you can view quantity information for a different Store. Select the desired store from the drop-down at the top of the screen.
Clear Search in Inventory
Click Clear to display an unfiltered view of the inventory items.
Options Button in Inventory
Click the Options button to access a menu of common tasks that users can perform from the Inventory area. This enables users to perform the selected task without having to back out of Inventory.
Refer to the following table for information about the currently available options:
Option Description
Print Tags Click to print merchandise price tags for the selected item.
Packages and Kits
About Packages and Kits
Packages and Kits offer two alternative methods (instead of styles) for grouping, discounting, and selling items together as a set. The items that make up a package or kit are referred to as components.
A package brings two or more component items to a receipt or sales order. A package item is not a true inventory item and has no quantity. Rather, it is a reference item used for the convenient grouping, listing, and discounting of multiple components at the time of sale. Packages are ideal for grouping components at a discount but also giving the customer choices for one or more component items. For example, a men's suit package might include jacket, slacks, shirt, belt and tie components, but the customer can choose desired styles/brands. The price of package component items can be proportionally adjusted based on the user-defined package price. When a receipt listing a package is updated, the component items are deducted from inventory in the normal manner.
A Kit also groups two or more items to be sold together as a set, typically at a discount. Kits differ from packages in these ways:
Each kit item must be pre-assembled before it can be sold
A kit item is a real item in inventory with its own cost, price and quantity
When a kit is assembled, the component items are deducted from inventory and adjustment memos are created
Listing Package/Kit Items on Transactions
Scan or type the item's UPC, ALU or Item Description in the Item Lookup field.
Kit Items: Only the Kit Item is listed (component items not listed).
Package Items: The package item is listed above the component items. The package item and its components are labeled as such.
Sample Package Item and Component:
Component Item Selection
When configuring a package, you can designate multiple choices for each component. If multiple choices are available, a dialog is displayed for you to choose the desired item. Highlight the desired item and then touch or click the Select Item button.
Sold, Ordered, Returned Quantity
The Sold, Ordered, and Returned quantity totals for the transaction use the sum of component item quantities and ignore package items completely. Example: selling a suit package of one jacket, one pair of pants, and two shirts would have five line-items (the package item itself and the four component items) but the Sold Quantity would display "4." Sales tax is calculated based upon the individual tax codes of the component items.
Returning Package/Kit Items
Package items: You can return individual components of package items. When performing the return, select the component item(s) being returned. The component item price is subtracted from the transaction total.
Kit items: You cannot return individual components of kit items. Instead, you must return the entire kit. When performing the return, select the Select All button.
Removing Package Component Items not Allowed
A package component item cannot be individually removed. If a component item is highlighted when you click Remove Item, a prompt is displayed, asking if you want to remove the entire package or cancel the action. You can remove all items in the package or cancel the action.
Changing Component Item Type not Allowed
If you select a Package Item in the item list and then select the Item Type button and change the Item Type, all component items are automatically changed to the same item type. If you select a component item in the item list and then select the Item Type button, the user is informed that the entire package must be changed. Click Change entire package to change all components and the package item, or click Cancel to return to the transaction.
Fulfilling Orders that have Package Items
On an order, fulfilling a package item for sale will automatically select all component items. If instead you select a component item to fulfill, a prompt is displayed to confirm you want to fulfill the entire package.
When you select "Fulfill entire package," the Qty to Fill is automatically populated. Click OK to return to the document.
Break a Kit
Breaking a kit enables the cashier to remove unwanted component items and sell only the desired component items from the kit. Note: When a kit is broken, all the component items not purchased by the customer are returned to inventory.
Step 1. List the item on the transaction. The item will be identified as a Kit item.
Step 2. Go into Item Details. On the Item Details tab, click the Break Kit button.
Step 3. A confirmation message is displayed. . Click Yes.
Step 4. The item is marked as a broken kit. Remove individual component items as needed and then complete the transaction.
Viewing Package/Kit information in Store Operations > Inventory
When viewing item information for a package or kit item in the Store Operations > Inventory area, users can select the Packages/Kits tab to view information about the package or kit item and its component items.
Print Options for Packages and Kits
A total of five preferences provide control over the printing of package items, kits items and prices. These preferences are in Node Preferences > Transactions > General.
The following table has information about how each preference operates:
Preference Description
Count Package as a single sale item If selected, when printing a transaction with a package item, the package item is treated as a single sale item (Qty = 1) rather than multiple component items. If not selected, when printing a transaction with a package item, the quantity listed represents the quantity of the component items that comprise the package.
Print Package (component) Items If selected, when printing a receipt that has a package item, both the package header item and the component items are printed. If not selected, only the package header item is printed.
Print Package Item Prices If selected, when printing a receipt that has a package item, both the package header item price and the component item prices are printed. If not selected, only the package header item price is printed.
Print (broken) Kit Items If selected, when breaking a kit at POS, both the Kit header item and the individual component items are printed.
Print (broken) Kit Item Prices If selected, when breaking a kit at POS, both the Kit header item price and the Kit component item prices are printed.
ALU, UPC Sequences
You can set ALU and UPC sequences at the subsidiary, store or workstation level. Configuring sequence numbers is a two-step process:
1. In Node Preferences > Sequencing, select the desired sequencing level for ALU and/or UPC: Subsidiary, Store or Workstation.
2. Next, define the starting number for the sequence in the appropriate subsidiary, store, or workstation records as needed.
Node Preferences > Sequencing
By default, duplicate ALUs and UPCs are not allowed. These preferences There are other preferences related to UPCs and ALUs that you need to be aware of. You need to be especially careful about what level these preferences are set.
Preference Description
Allow Duplicate ALU If selected, multiple items can have the same ALU value.
Enable ALU Sequencing If selected, the sequencing instructions defined for ALUs will be applied to new items.
Allow Duplicate UPC If selected, multiple items can have the same UPC value.
Enable UPC Sequencing If selected, the sequencing instructions defined for UPCs will be applied to new items.
Store and Workstation Level Sequence Ranges
If there is a mismatch between the sequencing level and the level at which the "Allow Duplicate UPC/ALU" preferences are set, you must be careful to set aside sequence ranges for each store (or workstation). If the range is too small, then there is a high probability that duplicate ALU/UPC errors will occur at some point.
Here are a couple of examples to see how different sequence ranges can be assigned. When defining your own sequence ranges, adjust as needed to reflect the true volume of business at your store(s):
1) Store level context, user needs to distribute the ALU and UPC sequence into predefined multiple slots based on the store count. Let's say we have 5 stores and want to use a separate UPC sequence for each store so the expected configuration could be:
Store # Sequence # Sequence Range
Str-000 1 1 to 10000
Str-001 10001 10001 to 20000
Str-002 20001 20001 to 30000
Str-003 30001 30001 to 40000
Str-004 40001 40001 to 50000
2) Workstation level context, user needs to distribute the ALU and UPC sequence into predefined multiple slots based on the store and workstation counts. Let's say we have 3 stores and 3 workstation at each store and want to use a separate UPC sequence for each workstation. In such a case, the expected configuration could be:
Workstation # Store # Seq# Sequence Range
Wks-001 Str-000 1 1 to 10000
Wks-002 Str-000 10001 10001 to 20000
Wks-003 Str-000 20001 20001 to 30000
Wks-004 Str-001 30001 30001 to 40000
Wks-005 Str-001 4001 40001 to 50000
Wks-006 Str-001 50001 50001 to 60000
Wks-007 Str-002 60001 60001 to 70000
Wks-008 Str-002 70001 70001 to 80000
Wks-009 Str-002 80001 80001 to 90000
Use Next Available Sequence if Store exceeds its Range
If a store or workstation exceeds its max range, then it must create a new slot. For example, in 2) if Wks-003 exceeds the max range, then the next sequence to be used is 90001. The user must be careful of this type of situation when using the Store/Workstation context levels.
See Item Cost
Users with the required "See Item Cost" security permission can view item cost information at POS or when viewing an item record in Store Operations > Inventory. The cost paid to the vendor for an item is sensitive information and is typically only viewable by managers and other necessary employees. Using the "See Item Cost" permission, retailers can ensure that only authorized users have access to item cost information in RP Prism.
Cost-related information can be viewed by authorized users in the following areas:
New Transaction > Item Details > General
Store Operations > Inventory > Item Details (Price/Cost and Purchasing tabs)
Viewing Item Cost in New Transaction > Item Details > General
1. Start a new transaction and list the item. Select the item and click the Details button (Item Details).
2. Select the General tab. If a user has the "View Item Cost" permission set to ALLOW or OVERRIDE, then a View Cost button is available on the interface. When a user clicks the View Cost button, a log-in dialog is displayed so that a user with the required permission can log in. If the permission is set to DENY, Inventory Cost is not displayed in the UI.
Viewing Item Cost in Store Operations > Inventory > Item Details:
1. Access the Store Operations > Inventory area. Search for and select the desired item.
2. Click the Item Details button. Click the Price/Cost or Purchasing tabs. If the "See Item Cost' permission is set to ALLOW or OVERRIDE, a log-in dialog is displayed. A user with the required permission can log in.
Print Inventory Tags
Use this process for printing tags from Inventory when you have an individual or limited number of tags to print. For example, if the price tags on one or more items were torn off, fell off or were damaged.
Steps Instructions Screen Elements
1. Select the Retail Pro button in the lower-right corner.
2. Click the Store Operations button.
3. Click the Merchandise button.
4. Click the Inventory button.
5. Enter search criteria for the desired item(s) and click the Search button.
6. Select the check mark for each item for which tags will be printed.
7. Click the Print Tags button.
8. Select a Print Design and Printer.
9. Select the number of tags to be printed.\
Note: You can use the Quantity Multiplier buttons to increase the number of tags to print for the selected item(s).
10. Click the Print button.
Special Printer Configuration for Printing Jewelry Tags
When printing tags for jewelry items, the tags are very small and require special printer configuration. Our testing has found that the following settings are good guidelines for printing jewelry tags.
Setting Recommendation (in inches)
Width 2.30
Height 0.50
Label Spacing 0.20
Right and left margin 0.06
Top and bottom margin 0.00
Gift Card Items
This section has information about working with regular (non-central) gift card items (i.e., Stored Value and Prepaid) For information about working with central gift card items see the Prism User's Guide Chapter 31. Centrals. For information about taking gift cards at POS, see Chapter 6. Tenders of the Prism User's Guide.
Gift cards are cards that have a certain value associated with them that can be used to purchase goods and services in your company's stores. The cards can come with a predefined valued (pre-paid) or be assigned a value when the card is sold (stored value). Gift Cards work slightly differently depending on whether you are using prepaid or stored value gift cards; however, the basic process is that when a customer uses a gift card to buy something (redeeming), the cashier/associate swipes the card just like a credit card; the system reads the information and enters it on the receipt.
Prepaid Gift Cards are typically purchased from a third-party vendor (e.g., Givex) with the cards preloaded with a specific value (e.g., $20, $50, $100). The retailer will add a new Inventory item for each denomination of gift card, with the Inventory Type field set to Gift Card - Prepaid. The retailer has already paid for these cards, so the cards will have a defined Price in Inventory based on the card's value. The Cost will be $0.00.
Stored Value Gift Cards may be issued by the retailers themselves or by a third-party vendor. The Price and Cost in Inventory are set to 0.00. When one of the cards is sold at POS, the activation process loads the card with the specified value. These cards can also be "reloaded" to add value.
Typically, retailers would create only one item of "Stored Value" type and create as many items of "Pre-Paid" type as there are different denominations.
Sample Inventory Item record showing Inventory Type drop-down options.
Gift Card Preferences
These preferences can be set at the Corporate, Subsidiary, Store, or Workstation level. When set at the Corporate, Subsidiary, or Store level, the preferences are inherited by the lower levels.
Preference Description
Admin Console > Node Preferences > Transaction > General: Activate Gift Cards for Original Amount If the preference is enabled, gift cards can only be activated for the original amount at which the card was sold.
If the preference is disabled, then gift cards can be activated for an amount different than the original amount.
Pre-paid cards are listed as a line item on the transaction and sold/activated for a specific amount. A preference controls whether gift cards can be activated for an amount other than the original amount. If you use pre-paid cards, you probably want to select this preference.
Sample Node Preferences > Transactions > General:
Decimal Quantity Items
Some items are sold by decimal quantities. For example 1.5 units, 20.8 units.
When adding a new item to Prism inventory, you can select the number of quantity decimals to use for the item. The default setting is 0. If you change the setting so that the item has one or more decimals, then the item is a decimal quantity item. When editing the item's quantity in inventory or when listing the item on a document, you will be able to modify the quantity up to the specified number of decimals.
You can configure Prism preferences so that when listing a decimal quantity item on a transaction, a prompt will be displayed. If the "Prompt for decimal qty items" preference is selected (Node Preferences > Transactions >General), then a prompt will be displayed, enabling you to set the desired decimal quantity for the item.
Below is a sample of the prompt displayed at POS. Edit the Quantity and then click Add Item to bring the item at the specified decimal quantity to the document.
When editing Item Details, you can modify the decimal quantity, if needed.
Case Quantity Items
For items that are ordered and/or sold by the case, you can predefine the number of units per case in inventory and then display/enter the item's case quantities as well as unit quantities in inventory and on all documents (except memos). To display case quantities, you will need to enter the number of units per case. The Store OH Qty is divided by the Units/Case value to determine the item's Case Quantity. Note: In Prism Node Preferences > Purchasing > Purchase Orders, you can set an option to restrict orders of case quantity items to whole cases (Order by cases only).
Display the item in edit mode. Enter the number of units per case in the Units/Case field.
Sample item record showing Units/Case and Case Quantity fields
Non-Inventory Items
Non-Inventory items enable users to create line items for things like services or repairs that do not have a defined OH Qty. Select the Non-Inventory flag to designate individual items in Prism Inventory as "non-inventory" items. You can add a new item and designate it as a non-inventory item or edit an existing item. Note: If editing an existing item, you must create an adjustment memo to adjust the quantity to zero first.
Sample Inventory item with Non-Inventory flag selected:
Physical Inventory
A physical inventory (PI) is an actual count of the merchandise that is in stock. The retailer uses this count to determine exactly how much inventory they have and what loss has occurred. For example, RP Prism inventory might show an item has a quantity of eight, but two units were stolen or broken, and the quantity is really six. Retailers can conduct a PI on a large scale such as a store or warehouse, or on a small scale such as a single bin or shelf. RP Prism enables you to apply a filter when creating a PI sheet, restricting the PI to only the items that match the entered criteria. RP Prism doesn't prevent users from creating transactions for a store that has an active PI sheet, but we suggest retailers do not update any documents during the PI. See the Prism 2.0 Physical Inventory document.
Seasons and Seasonal Pricing
Seasons and Seasonal Pricing enable retailers to update prices of items based on calendar period. The preferences for adding/editing seasons are found in the Global Preferences > Seasons area. You can add a season to individual price levels and markdowns. For each season, define a three-letter season code, a season name, and define the Start and End dates. For example, when updating a scheduled markdown, you select a season. With seasonal pricing, you assign a season to inventory items. When the season's Start Date arrives, the item's price is automatically updated. When the season ends, the price reverts automatically to whatever it was before, unless there is another season starting, in which case the seasonal pricing for the new season will be applied.
Global Preference > Seasons:
Add New Season
Click the New Season button. In the displayed dialog, enter a Code and a Name for the season. The Code should be five characters or less. In the Name field, you can enter a longer, more descriptive name for the season (max 30 characters).
Use Seasonal Pricing
1. Make sure the Use Seasonal Pricing preference is selected in Node Preferences > Merchandise > Pricing > Price Levels. Make sure the Price Levels you will use are marked as Active.
2. Use Price Manager to create a Markdown. When adjusting prices for the markdown, assign the desired Season to the Markdown.
Assign Season to Subsidiary
You can change the season assigned to a subsidiary by editing the subsidiary record.
Managing Inventory Quantities
The management of inventory quantities requires special consideration. As a best practice, you should designate one location that serves as the definitive authority when it comes to reporting the actual on-hand quantities available at each store. Typically, this is the headquarters location, which is also the root point of authority for replication (handled by Connection and Enterprise Manager).
There are many factors that can cause inventory quantities to become inaccurate:
Vouchers that record the quantities received are incorrect or are not updated in a timely fashion
Shrinkage not being detected because of infrequent physical inventories
Making the same adjustment at multiple locations, instead of at a single central location.
Item and Style Images
Users can assign up to 10 item and 10 style images via the Prism Inventory UI.
To add an item or style image:
Display the item in Item Details or the style in Style Details and then click the Edit button.
Navigate to the image placeholder (it looks like a box) and double-click the placeholder.
A modal is displayed for adding/editing images. There are placeholders for 10 images.
Double-click one of the placeholders.
Another modal is displayed. You can take a picture on the spot or browse to a saved image file. If a web camera is attached to the workstation, click the Take Picture button. Otherwise, click "Choose file to upload".
Supported file formats are: .bmp, .jpeg, .png
The picture is displayed in the modal.
Click Upload.
Inventory Grid Formats
Inventory Lookup
Inventory Search (Document
Markdown (Inventory)
Inventory Lookup Columns
Column Type(length) Description
Active Number(1) Active status. If selected, indicates the item is active. 0 - inactive; 1 = active
Active Margin Percent Number(16,4) Margin percent for the item based on the item price for the currently active price level.
Attr String(8) The Attribute field is typically used to store the item color or a second size.
Class Name String(30) Class name of the DCS of the selected item (name of the second level of the DCS hierarchy).
Controller SID Number(19) Identifies the controller.
Cost Number(16,4) Item cost.
Created By String(30) Employee who added the item to inventory.
Created Dt TIMESTAMP(0) WITH TIMEZONE Date the item was added to inventory.
Currency SID Number(19) Identifies the currency.
DCS String(9) The DCS Code of the department assigned to the item.
DCS SID Number(19) Identifies the DCS.
Department Name String(30) Department name (name of top level of DCS hierarchy)
Desc 1 -Desc 4 String(30) Item description fields. Desc 1 is the primary item description, Desc 2 - Desc 4 can be used to store additional descriptions.
Discontinued Dt Date Date sales of item were discontinued or will be discontinued.
Ext Cost Number(16,4) Extended cost. Quantity x Cost
Ext Tax Amt Number(17,5) Extended tax amount. Quantity x Tax Amt
Ext Tax Amt 2 Number(17,5) Extended tax amount for a second tax area (multi-tax environments). Quantity x Tax Amt.
Ext Price WT Number(16,4) Extended Price with Tax. Quantity x Price w/Tax
First Received Date Date Date the item was first received into inventory on a voucher.
Item Size String(8) Item size
Kit Type Kit Type
0 = No Entry, 1 = Kit, 2 = Package, 3 = Gift Card Stored Value, 4 = Gift Card Prepaid, 5 = Gift Certificate, 6 = Fee, 7 = Gift Card Central
Last Received Date Date The most recent date the item was received on a voucher.
Last Sold Date Date The most recent date the item was sold on a transaction.
Lot Number Lot number information.
Lot Type Number(1) Lot type.
Loyalty Earned Number(24,8) Customer loyalty points earned when the item is sold on a transaction.
Markdown Date Date Date of the most recent markdown.
Modified By String(30) Employee who last modified the item record.
Modified Dt TIMESTAMP(0) WITH TIMEZONE Date the item record was last modified.
Non-Inventory Number(1) Non-Inventory items are typically used for things like services (e.g. gift-wrapping) that do not, by their nature, have an on-hand quantity. This enables the service to be listed on a transaction but without doing any quantity tracking.
Order Cost Number(16,4) The cost to order the item from the vendor. (Note: In database tables, the ORDER_COST column may be listed as LAST_RECVD_COST)
Orderable Number(1) If the checkbox is selected, indicates the item can be ordered from a vendor.
Orderable Dt Date Item cannot be ordered until this date.
Post Dt Date Date and time the row was created/last modified in this system. May not be the same as the Created Datetime and Modified Datetime.
Price Number(16,4) Item price
Price in Points Number(24,8) Price of the item in loyalty points.
Regional Number(1) If selected, indicates the item is a regional inventory item.
Scale SID Number(19) Identifies the scale.
Sellable Date Date Item cannot be sold until this date.
Serial Number String(20) Item serial number table.
Serial Type Number(1) Full control or partial control.
SPIF Number(16,4) Salesperson Incentive Fee. This is a fee that the employee (Associate) should receive when the item is sold. This field is for tracking purposes only.
Store Qty Number(10,3) Item's OH quantity at the current logged-in user's store.
Style SID Number(19) Identifies the style
Tax % Number(16,4) Tax rate applied to the item.
Tax Amount Number(16,4) Tax amount applied to the item.
Tax 2 % Number(16,4) In a multi-tax environment, the tax rate of the second tax.
Tax 2 Amount Number(16,4) In a multi-tax environment, the amount of the second tax.
Tax Code String(5) Tax code assigned to the item. When the item is listed on a transaction, Prism checks the store's Tax Area record and applies the tax rate (as specified in the tax area tax rule) for items with that tax code.
Tax Code SID Number(19) Identifies the tax code.
Tenant SID Number(19) N/A
Trade Disc % Number(16,4) Discount percent for an item when ordering using trade discount.
Udf1 date Date User-defined date field that can store custom information in a date format.
udf2 -udf13 string String(50) User-defined fields that can store any custom information you want.
UPC Number(18) Universal Product Code. Used to identify the item.
Vendor Code String(6) Vendor Code is a three- to six-character code that identifies the vendor.
Vendor List Cost Number(16,4) Cost for order item using trade discount.
Vendor Name String (25) Name of the vendor's business
Inventory Cost Consideration
Preferences that can influence Cost
The 2 preferences below and their functions are important with regards to understanding how they might influence inventory cost. They are both found in Admin Console > Node Preferences > Purchasing.
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Cost to use for POs and Voucher | This is simply the pre-populated cost in the Cost field on a new voucher. Possibly settings are Inventory cost. For any Voucher or PO, the ‘Cost' field will display the Inventory cost. Order cost: For any Voucher or PO, the ‘Cost' field will display the Order cost. Order Cost: The ‘order cost' value is initially populated from Inventory cost (when an item is new). After that, it displays the ‘cost' value of the last PO/Voucher |
| Inventory costing method | The mechanism used to value the company inventory The ‘Cost' field on POs/Vouchers can affect cost of an inventory item if that cost is different than the current inventory cost. Options are: ‘Leave' - Do not let a different cost on a PO or Voucher affect the inventory cost ‘Overwrite' - Overwrite the Inventory Cost with the Cost on the PO/Voucher ‘Average' - Modify the inventory cost to be an average between the current inventory cost and the PO/Voucher cost. Calculation for Inventory Costing Method ‘Average' The basic calculation is: InvnC$ = [(invnC$ * InvnQty) + (VouC$ * VouQty)] / [InvnQty + VouQty] Example: Inventory Item 555 has a qty of 5 and a current inventory price of $5. On a new voucher, we are receiving a qty of 10 with a new cost of $4.75. Our new Inventory cost (InvnC$) for item 555 will be: [($5 * 5) + ($4.75 * 10)] / [5 + 10] => [$25 + $47.50] \ 15 => 72.50 / 15 = $4.83 Had the Inventory Costing Method in the above example been ‘Overwrite', the new Cost$ would simply have been $4.75 |
To access Merchandise-related features, click the Retail Pro button and select Store Operations.
Click the Merchandise button. A set of buttons provides access to the following sub-areas:
| Area | Description |
|---|---|
| Inventory | Manage inventory items. You can filter and search the inventory list to display only the item(s) you are looking for. |
| Physical Inventory | Use Physical Inventory to record physical counts of the merchandise in the store. (Note: PI sheets must be updated in RIL Prism Management) |
| Vendors | Vendors are the companies that retailers order merchandise from. Define the vendor contact info, account number and other information. If items are sold by multiple vendors, you can enter each vendor's UPC (or ALU), item cost, and the vendor code in RIL Prism Management. In Prism, you can list the item using the Alternate vendor info, if configured in preferences. |
| Departments | Manage departments. Departments are used to group items (e.g. Womens Travel Shirts). |
| Cost Adjustment Memo | Create a new cost adjustment memo |
| Price Adjustment Memo | Create a new price adjustment memo |
| Quantity Adjustment Memo | Create a new quantity adjustment memo |
| Adjustment Memo Lookup | Search for adjustment memos by a variety of criteria such as Memo Type. |
| Price Manager | Use Price Manager to create markdowns (or markups) of a selected group of inventory items (or all items). |