In recent versions of ProfiitPlus & Alchemii, a new way of classifying Stock Items has been introduced. This article will give you an overview of Item Sub-Types and how they might be used in your business.

Item Types

The concept of Item Types has been a staple since the very early days of the original ProfitPak application. The four Item Types available in the system are as follows:

• Stock Item
• Non-diminishing Item
• Kit Item
• Ratio Item

As a regular user of the system, you will already be very familiar with these Item Types and the way in which they are used. What is most important to note is that these core Item Types have not changed. The behaviour of each of these types remains the same as always, but with the addition of new Item Sub-Types to enable further flexibility and functionality for your business.

Item Sub-Types

Recently introduced, the new Item Sub-Types allow us to define specific behaviours for certain Items. Every Item is first allocated an Item Type, and then an Item Sub-Type. The Sub-Types that are available for each individual Item are determined by its designated Item Type.

Below is a list of the available Sub-Types, with a brief description of its purpose.

Stock Sub-Types

• “Standard” Stock Item: An inventory Item that does not fall under one of the special Stock Sub-Types below
• Variation Item: A variant of a Virtual Parent Item (e.g.: colour/size)
• Manufactured Item: A product that is manufactured or built from raw materials, and has a Bill of Materials associated with it
• Ratio Parent Item: An Item that has one or more Ratio “children”
• Manufactured Ratio Parent Item: An Item that has one or more Ratio “children”, and that is manufactured or built from raw materials, and has a Bill of Materials associated with it

Non-diminishing Sub-Types

• “Standard” Non-diminishing Item: A non-inventory Item that does not fall into one of the special Non-diminishing Sub-Types below
• Virtual Parent Item: An Item that represents a collection of Variation Items (e.g. a colour/size range)
• Labour Item: An Item that is used for billing out Labour charges
• Freight Item: An Item used for freight cost recovery
• Fees/Charges Item: An Item used for recovery of fees and charges (e.g. payment fees)
• Discount Item: An Item used to record a discount given on a transaction at the Point of Sale

Kit Sub-Types

• “Standard” Kit Item: A Kit “parent”, containing multiple components that are brought together and sold at a pre-determined price at the Point of Sale

Ratio Sub-Types

• Ratio Child Item: An Item that is allocated to a specified Stock Item (its “parent”) and has a ratio defined that represents the number of Child units that make up one Parent unit (e.g. 50 individual metres of chain per one roll of chain)
• Manufactured Ratio Child Item: An Item that is allocated to a specified Stock Item (its “parent”), and that is manufactured or built from raw materials, and has a Bill of Materials associated with it

Incorporating Sub-Types into your system

Each of the Sub-Types outlined above has its own set of rules and behaviours associated with it. These behaviours can influence many workflows from purchasing to sales and right through to reporting.

When your system was updated to v4.97 (or newer), a conversion process would have taken place to automatically allocate all of your existing Stock Items to the appropriate Sub-Type. Therefore, you might already be using some of the extended Sub-Type functionality within your system.

If you don’t yet see any of the new Sub-Type options, please contact your Support Consultant to arrange a software update to the latest version.

Want to learn more?

The best place to begin is your Training system – simply switch to your Training dataset, start creating some new Stock Items and get a feel for the functionality of each Sub-Type.

Next, you might like to spend some time with one of our experts to get a deeper understanding of how this, and other stock management techniques, can help you to drive your business forward. To book a session with a Foresiight Professional Services consultant, contact us today on (07) 3356 2772 or email us at solutions@foresiight.com.au.