Inventory Tracking

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Overview

The SEOM can "track" your inventory. As you receive new inventory, ship orders, accept returns and process exchanges, etc., the program keeps track of exactly how many of each item you have in stock. Or, if you prefer, you can configure the program to ignore inventory levels and just assume that everything is always in stock. 

Track Inventory

• To configure the program to track your inventory quantity-on-hand (QOH) the number of units of a particular product the retailer has available to fill orders., set the system parameter CheckInventory (in the Order parameter group) to TRUE.

The exceptions are:

• Drop-Ship an order placed with a supplier for an item or items that are not normally stocked by the retailer; the supplier then ships the merchandise directly to the retailer's customer. The retailer never takes physical possession of the merchandise. Items: SEOM does not track QOH for drop-ship items.

• Items Marked "Ignore QOH": This option one of the possible attributes of a product; for example, blue is an option for the color attribute of a product lets you track inventory for some items, but ignore it for others. For example, most of your items are probably physical products, such as books or clothing. But you may also sell "virtual" items such as software or electronic books that are delivered electronically and thus are always "in stock". Select to "left-click" the mouse on an object, usually a row in a table, in the context of Monsoon OMS documentation the Ignore QOH option for your virtual products and SEOM treats them as always available to ship. 

Do Not Track (Ignore) Inventory

• To configure the program to assume all items are always in stock, set the system parameter CheckInventory (in the Order parameter group) to FALSE.

• If you use this option, you can still backorder When an item is out of stock, preventing an order from being fulfilled, the program considers the item to be "backordered". If inventory tracking is enabled in Monsoon OMS, the program will backorder items. an item if necessary.

• 1. At the Process Orders screen synonymous with the Microsoft Access Form object or graphical user interface (GUI), navigate to the appropriate order record and then select the item you wish to backorder by clicking anywhere in the item row.

  2. Click the Force Backorder link on the Accordion.

  3. Later, to fill the backorder, click the Adjust QOH link and change the current QOH to reflect at least as much stock as is needed to fill the backorder.

  4. Then use the Fill Backorders link in the Accordion.

Other Related Options

• Tracking Inventory Adjustments (Adjustments to QOH):

1. To track changes made to inventory QOH values, set the system parameter TrackInventoryAdjustments (in the Program parameter group) to TRUE.

2. Each time you adjust the QOH of an item from any location in SEOM, the program stores the details, i.e. the reason for the adjustment, who made the adjustment and the quantity increased or decreased.

3. To review these details, print the Inventory Adjustments report.

4. The lists of reasons for adjustments and sales people are both maintained at the List Maintenance screen

• First In First Out Cost Tracking (FIFO):

• This option tracks your cost of goods sold on a First In First Out (FIFO (first in first out) method of tracking inventory costs) basis.

• It is controlled by the system parameter TrackInventoryFIFO (in the Program parameter group). If this option is set to TRUE, the program tracks all incoming and outgoing inventory and its cost.

• FIFO requires that you enter a cost for all inventory items. If inventory is received, adjusted, etc. and an item does not have its cost on file, the program will prompt you to enter the cost at that time. 

• To set up your initial costs, go to the Main Menu > Settings > Inventory Functions > Initialize FIFO Data.

• You can then initialize your costs, either from your existing inventory data, or by importing it from a text file.

• Once you are tracking your FIFO data, you can check the FIFO status of any item by navigating to the appropriate item record at the Inventory screen and click the FIFO Status link in the Accordion.

• There are also two special reports - FIFO Inventory Details by Supplier vendor and FIFO Inventory Value by Supplier - that you can use to print FIFO information.

• Sub SKUs:

• • Using sub-SKUs allows the program to track your inventory at the attribute Product attributes are color, size, or style, etc. An attribute can have various options or variants from which the customer can choose, such as Large or Extra Large for the size attribute, or Blue or Green for the color attribute. The base product SKU combined with each of the possible options for each attribute create a sub-SKU record in Monsoon OMS's inventory. Sub-SKUs are important for tracking the accurate quantity on hand for a particular item rather than the general product level, i.e. colors, sizes, etc. These are usually displayed as drop-down lists that let your customers select colors, sizes, styles or other options.

  • It works with shopping carts that support "order options" or "attributes". Some shopping cart an e-commerce software system that allows a retailer to sell products on the Web. In the context of Monsoon OMS, it refers to the settings that describe a merchant's web store to the program, allowing it communicate with the online shopping cart and import orders and other information systems already have unique SKUs for each variant of a product and it is not necessary to build sub-SKUs.

  • When SEOM imports orders from your shopping cart, it will combine the main or "parent" SKU the abbreviation for Stock Keeping Unit; a unique identifier used to track product inventory for each item with the selected options to generate Sub SKUs for the items ordered. The program then uses the sub-SKUs to track inventory.

• Real-Time Inventory Tracking:

• • This feature is only available with some shopping cart systems. It enables your customers see up-to-the-minute inventory status (in stock, out of stock, etc.) information about your products.

  • As items are received into SEOM inventory or sold at the Manual Orders and Point of Sale (POS abbreviation for Point-of-Sale. The cash register interface for use with walk-in business at "brick and mortar" stores. Used with barcode scanners and cash drawers. Sales made on the POS screen draw from the same inventory as orders imported from online stores.) screens, etc., the changes in inventory QOH are reflected in your Web store within minutes or seconds.

Additional Information

Created: 10/11/11

Revised: 6/17/12

Published: 04/13/16