Welcome to Softhard Solutions ShopMate Main Product Inventory Module Explanation page. Only two clicks from the Home Page will have a Product Inventory set up and ready to go ... in seconds.
The products created and handled in this Main Inventory Module manager form are products you have or want to have on your system for currently selected Branch. System products (there are 4) and all products for current Branch are accessible in this form for management of them and their prices. The reserved product IDs are ID 1 to ID 4 for four system products.
There are two methods available in ShopMate to speed up the invoice creation for
your waiting customers:
Combination Products,
which you can create, help you create new products (combo products) out of the products
you already have in stock, combine them into one named product and speed up the
invoice creation when the combo is being pulled in, containing perhaps tens of products,
as one only product. All the constituent products contained in the combo are correctly
deducted from your stock when you close an invoice containing the combo product.
Invoice Service Templates,
which you can create, work the same way except you can use any products and when
the template is pulled into an invoice, unlike combo, all the products contained
in the template are copied into the invoice automatically and speed up the invoice
creation.
View Product Inventory Module Screen Shot...
When you first establish your ShopMate System Operations, ShopMate comes with four
System Replacement Products. This enables you to work immediately, without
having to put in your own products. They are replacement products for products you
would normally have in your stock.
A special system labour product (.Labour) is used in invoices for the users
to be able to use a special invoice for those customers that want to see in their
invoices the Labour Price and Parts Price separately.
Some of our users do not put in any products of their own into the system, they
only use these system products in their invoicing and ordering. These four system
products all have a dot at the beginning of their name with names as follows:
Important Note
A common mistake made by users is pulling this product into an invoice and re-naming
and using it as a Labour product and expecting to get correct labour reports. This
product is meant only for physical product not labour product. Any reports on labour
will be then incorrect since these 'labour products' are not found by the system.
It is probably the best practice to use the system .Buy_in product in the invoices
and keep renaming it appropriately as a physical product not labour. That way your
labour reports will never be incorrect.
Important Note
A common mistake made by users is creating their own labour products, naming them
appropriate names but forgetting to assign the Category ID 2 - Labour to them.
Any reports on labour will be then incorrect since these labour products are not
found by the system.
It is probably the best practice to use the system .Labour product in the invoices
and keep renaming it appropriately. That way your labour reports will never be incorrect.
Following table contains all the available elements for review.
Element | Description |
---|---|
Field: Product bar code or name |
There are several sections in ShopMate for people to choose to scan in bar codes
of products. This place is one of them. To search for a product and you have a scanning
device, scan in product's unique bar code number. If not, type it in and press enter
key on your keyboard while the field is in focus. Note that if your scan device does not issue a carriage return and line feed combination characters or else you had to type the bar code in, you must press the enter key on your keyboard while the field is in focus to affect the search. |
Button: Search for any product |
Click on this button to go into the Product Search Manager and search for any product. |
Button: Refresh products on order |
The method of this button runs at every start up of ShopMate and at any time a product is edited. Click on this button to check all products in database for reorder level and make up any purchase orders automatically when needed.
Note |
Button: History of products |
Click on this button to see the HISTORY of any product. The Product History Manager appears with a graph showing the last seven days trend of sales of a selected product. You can right-click on top of that graph for a menu to appear with a choice of graph styles, etc or click on the Graph drop-down button when the graph is in view. |
More... Button: Send E-mail |
Click on this option to email messages to entities. You can use this button to email
messages to anyone. The emailing should work even if you do not have an SMTP protocol (simple mail transport protocol) installed on your machine. |
More... Button: form face |
Click on this option to Print or Preview form's currently showing face in various picture formats. |
Buttons: Click button for action to perform |
Select and click the button for action you want to perform on products:
|
Buttons: Click button to perform |
Select and click the button for print action you want to perform on products:
|
Informational fields |
These fields show the following information for currently selected Company Branch product totals:
|
Following table contains all the available elements for review.
Element | Description |
---|---|
Informational fields |
These fields show the following information for selected time period and current Branch:
|
Graph view |
This graph may show the last 7 days trend by default, but you can select your own time trend (which is then remembered), regarding Sales and Purchases, up to and including the date currently shown on the graph. Calculations are done by Quantity and by Time (days, weeks, months etc). Remember to right-click on top of the graph to see a context menu appear with different styles of graphs and time period trends to choose from. |
Context menu: Graph selections |
When you right-click on top of the graph, in this context menu you can select the type of graph you want to see, the date range, save and print the graph data. |