Inventory

The MicroMkt Charity Suite allows the selling and reporting of items through a preset list of Categories and a group of  Item Descriptions linked to the Category. These groups are maintained through the portal and can be attached to a Till Profile for individual locations, to enable efficient viewing and selling of items.

The Category and Item management consists of two applications found on the ‘Inventory’ menu, ‘Inventory Categories’ and ‘Inventory Items’’.

Selecting Inventory Categories from the left side main menu you can see all the categories used for the inventory in your organisation. 

From the action menu, there is also a facility to bulk upload inventory categories from a csv (comma separated values) file.

Create Inventory Category

View, and Edit Inventory Category

You can select to VIEW a category from the inventory categories table and subsequently EDIT the category via the action buttons. You can also create an Inventory Item to add to the category you are currently viewing.

For Inventory Categories which already have inventory items added will be shown in the Inventory Item Details table from which you can view their details.

Bulk Upload Inventory Categories

The bulk upload inventory categories facility is available from the action menu on the inventory category view page.  A sample import schema can be downloaded via the here link on the page. The sample file details the required field names necessary to either add new inventory categories or update existing inventory categories. 

• If no ID is given (entityID and externalID), a new record is created with the given data fields.

• If an entity ID is given, an update is assumed and an attempt to search for an existing record with the same entity ID. If no record is found, an error is returned.

• If an external ID is given, an update is assumed and an attempt to search for an existing record with the same external ID. If no record is found, no error is shown, instead a new record is created with the given external ID, along with the data fields supplied.

The sample import schema file contains 2 examples for inventory categories to 1) create and 2) update. These can be downloaded as csv (comma separated values) files and amended as necessary (see next section).

On selecting the file to be uploaded, the checkbox 'File contains headers' is automatically checked. If your upload file does not include headers, remember to uncheck this box. The next stage of the bulk uploader is to validate the contents of the file to ensure they are in the correct format prior to an attempt to add or update the database.

The above example shows that an entry in the csv file has an error. To view the error, click View Error to get further description of the error. Once the csv file has been edited to resolve the issue, the above process can be repeated to allow the inventory category data to be created or updated. This is achieved by pressing Submit All.

If your csv file has lots of correctly validated entries and you would like to view the errors only, the toggle 'Only Show Errors' can be used. 

Inventory Categories Download

Should you wish to use the above upload bulk inventory categories feature, there is a facility to allow you to 'download' your existing inventory categories and all the data relating to each category. This data is downloaded in a csv (comma separated values) format via the hamburger icon next to the filter search shown in the image below. The downloaded csv file can then be amended as necessary and uploaded with these amendments to the Charity Suite portal.

Inventory Items

The Inventory Items are linked to Categories and are setup and maintained through the Inventory Item Description option. This allows the operator to add, view existing Items and move around to alternative Categories and modify any current detail as required.

From the action menu, there is also a facility to bulk upload inventory items from a csv (comma separated values) file.

To limit the number of items shown in the inventory table, the filters can be used from the drop down list of Categories. You can also use the spyglass icon to enter text to search the list of inventory items for.

Create Inventory Item

When creating an inventory item, add the necessary name, description, accounting code (to group any items together for reporting purposes), stock keeping unit (SKU) used by the supplier, retail price where sold individually and nominal weight where total weights of items sold can be reported on and highlight the amount of items avoiding landfill, the charity has achieved.  

The category of the item,VAT rate and sub type are selected from the list boxes. The VAT Rate will be associated and inherited from the category, unless a specific VAT Rate has been set against the Item. Should the item sub type be CREDIT_NOTE, various other credite note configuration fields are required for this inventory item. Follow the instructions on the portal page to configure the inventory item.

Each inventory item can also have a Tag to identify items through a search, ID  Codes i.e. EAN or Barcodes can be associated to an item, enabling this to be sold at the Checkout using a handheld scanner or camera and Is a pack toggle set. 

An Item can also have Included or Excluded Customer Tags. These list of Tags to be associated with this Category Item and can be selected from the list or created using the 'Create a New Tag' button, which opens a new tab/window for you to create a tag. See Create a Tag page. Once created, upon closing the tab/window, the new tag will be available in the Tag List box to select and associate with this Item.

 To facilitate Item restrictions at the Checkout, the necessary tags should be applied to the Item which match the tags set up for the Customers to whom the Item restrictions apply. Such as only allowing customers with the same tag to purchase an Items, or to apply a discount when purchasing an Item at the checkout, if the discount has the same tag as the Item. The opposite exists for the exclusion tag.

It is also here we can set any tender restrictions against the Item, such as allowing payment for the Items with a certain tender type.   The opposite exists for the 'deny' tender restriction. For example, if certain Items can only be purchased using a credit account by Customers with the corresponding tags, or cannot be purchased using cash by Customers with the corresponding tags, then tender restrictions can be placed on the Item.

View and Edit Inventory Item

From the list of items shown in the Inventory Items table, you can VIEW the items details and EDIT the item. The same list of fields can be amended that were entered during Inventory Item creation along with the Tag, ID and Is a pack toggle fields.

Bulk Upload Inventory Items

The bulk upload inventory items facility is available from the action menu on the inventory items view page.  A sample import schema can be downloaded via the here link on the page. The sample file details the required field names necessary to either add new inventory items or update existing inventory items. 

• If no ID is given, a new record is created with the given data fields.

• If an entity ID is given, an update is assumed and an attempt to search for an existing record with the same entity ID. If no record is found, an error is returned.

• If an external ID is given, an update is assumed and an attempt to search for an existing record with the same external ID. If no record is found, no error is shown, instead a new record is created with the given external ID, along with the data fields supplied.

The sample import schema file contains 2 examples for inventory items to 1) create and 2) update. These can be downloaded as csv (comma separated values) files and amended as necessary.

On selecting the file to be uploaded, the checkbox 'File contains headers' is automatically checked. If your upload file does not include headers, remember to uncheck this box. The next stage of the bulk uploader is to validate the contents of the file to ensure they are in the correct format prior to an attempt to add or update the database.

On selecting the file to be uploaded, the checkbox 'File contains headers' is automatically checked. If your upload file does not include headers, remember to uncheck this box. The next stage of the bulk uploader is to validate the contents of the file to ensure they are in the correct format prior to an attempt to add or update the database.

The above example shows that entries in the csv file have an error. To view the error, click View Error to get further description of the error. Once the csv file has been edited to resolve the issue, the above process can be repeated to allow the inventory item data to be created or updated. This is achieved by pressing Submit All.

If your csv file has lots of correctly validated entries and you would like to view the errors only, the toggle 'Only Show Errors' can be used. 

Inventory Items Download 

Should you wish to use the above upload bulk inventory items feature, there is a facility to allow you to 'download' your existing inventory item and all the data relating to each item. This data is downloaded in a csv (comma separated values) format via the hamburger icon next to the filter search shown in the image below. The downloaded csv file can then be amended as necessary and uploaded with these amendments to the Charity Suite portal.

If no inventory category is selected via the drop-down search criteria, then ALL items will be downloaded into the csv file for all inventory categories. If however, an inventory category IS selected via the drop-down search criteria, then only the items in the selected category will be downloaded in the csv file.

Stock Items

The MicroMkt Charity Suite includes the functionality to maintain stock against a subset of items that can be sold across the locations. These items can have initial on and ongoing stock adjustments i.e. the results of a stock take, manually controlled through the portal or where individual items are sold through the CHECKOUT at a location.

The Stock management consists of two applications found on the ‘Inventory’ menu, ‘Stock’ and ‘Stock Change Event’.

The Stock function allows the operator to view existing items, some of which can be stock controlled and can be a useful drop-in view to determine stock of an item an an individual location.

To activate an existing item, the operator selects the Stock button, and this will refresh and display a list or view of all the current active items and where they are already tagged as stock controlled, the current stock position can be viewed. 

A list of all stock items will be shown on the stock item table. You can limit the table results using the Inventory Category and Inventory Item list boxes as well as limiting the stock in the table based on Region, Area and/or Location.

New stock items can be created using the action button.

Create Stock Item

The operator selects the Location where stock for the selected item should start to be recorded, with a drop-down list of existing locations, along with the Inventory Item, already preset and selected from a drop-down list.

Any target quantity as a guide to minimum stock required and the current retail price.

Once you have added the stock items details you can save the changes by pressing SUBMIT or undo by pressing RESET which will reset the form allowing you to start fresh with the new stock item creation.

View, Edit and Delete Stock Items

You can select to VIEW a stock item from the stock items table.

The operator can subsequently EDIT, ADJUST QUANTITY or DELETE the stock item via the action buttons.

EDIT STOCK ITEM: The same list of fields can be amended that were entered during Stock Item creation. The Location and Inventory Item/Category are selected from the drop down lists.

ADJUST STOCK ITEM QUANTITY: To adjust or change the current stock ‘Quantity’ held against an item, at a location, the operator selects the ‘Adjust Stock Item Quantity’ button of the Actions’ button.

The details of the item selected and the location are displayed, along with the current stock ‘Quantity’.

The operator keys in the quantity adjustment, this can be a new ‘Absolute’ amount i.e. after a stock take OR a stock adjustment ‘Relative’ where there is a requirement to adjust the existing stock quantity by a fixed amount. This amount can be negative where stock is being reduced.

The operator can select a date and time for the adjustment or leave blank to default to the current date & time. Any accompanying notes can be keyed for future reference.

Once you have edited the stock items details you can save the changes by pressing SUBMIT or undo by pressing RESET which will reset the form to the original stock item details before any changes made by you.

The action of deleting a stock item will be confirmed before being committed to the database.  

Example of Stock Management

The FUN RUN T-SHIRT stock is being reduced by 6 (-6 keyed…) as these shirts have been damaged. This is RELATIVE adjustment as this adjustment should reduce any existing stock quantity.

An ABSOLUTE adjustment would normally be applied after a stock count at a location, where the counted figure represents the new opening stock quantity.

The Date and Time ‘of Adjustment’ allows the operator the ability to post a previous stock count figure on the actual date of the count.

Any sales activity since that date will be applied to the figure keyed, aligning this to the current live stock position at the location, of this item.

Stock Management - Stock Change Events

In this example, below, a stock adjustment keyed can be viewed in the Stock Change Events option, giving information on any previous adjustments with a number of filters to drill -down to specific items, at specific location.

Filters to drill-down into specific items, locations etc… are useful when looking for current stock positions, as an option to the QuickSight reporting tools.

By selecting ‘view’ the operator can view the details of any individual Stock Change Event for audit purposes.

Stock Take

The Stock Take section of the Charity Suite application allows stock takes to be completed either Partially or Fully for a given store location. A PARTIAL stock take, sets only the values of those items counted during the stock take. Whereas a FULL stock take, amends those items counted during the stock take and also sets all other stock items to zero that were not counted during the stock take.

You can select to VIEW a stock take from the stock takes table and CREATE a new stock take via the actions button. When you create a stock take, the status is set to OPEN along with the open date. When the stock take has been completed and you commit the stock take, the status is updated to COMMITTED and the commit date is set.

To limit the number of items shown in the stock take table, the filters can be used from the drop down lists. You can also use the spyglass icon to enter text to search the list of stock takes items for.

Create Stock Take

View, Edit, Commit and Delete Stock Take

You can select to VIEW a stock take from the stock takes table and subsequently EDIT, COMMIT or DELETE the stock take via the action buttons. You can also add or remove an item from the stock take you are currently viewing. 

A list of the items already in the stock take are shown in the Stock Take Line Items table along with the count of those items recorded.

When selecting either the Add an Item or Remove an Item from the Actions menu, you are presented with a drop down list of available Inventory Items to either add or remove from the stock take. 

Stock Transfers

The Stock Transfer section of the Charity Suite portal allows stock to be transfered to a location. The stock can be transferred from either an EXTERNAL supplier or from an INTERNAL location within your organisation. 

You can select to VIEW a stock transfer from the stock transfer table and CREATE a new stock transfer via the actions button. 

To limit the number of items shown in the stock transfer table, the status filter can be used from the drop down list and specific dates can be added for the creation, dispatched and received dates.

Create Stock Transfer

On creating a new stock transfer, you will notice that the default type is set to INTERNAL,

• an INTERNAL transfer, the source location where the stock is being transfered from is selected along with the destination location the stock is being transferred to. 

•  an EXTERNAL transfer, only the destination location is required along with any information regarding the supplier and purchase order reference. 

Both types of transfers have space to add notes relating to the transfer. On creating a stock transfer, the status of the transfer is set to DRAFT. 

View and Edit Stock Transfer

You can select to VIEW a stock transfer from the stock transfer table and subsequently EDIT the stock transfer details via the action buttons. For an internal transfer, only the NOTE field can be edited and for an external transfer, all fields except the destination field can be edited.

Add/Remove Items to/from the Stock Transfer

On viewing a stock transfer from the stock transfer table, inventory items can be added or removed from the stock transfer list. The action menu also includes the ability to CHANGE TRANSFER STATUS and COPY TRANSFER details, thus creating a copy of an existing stock transfer which can be attrubuted to a different location.

In the following screen you can see the current status of the stock transfer, along with the source and destination locations and relevant notes.

On pressing ADD ITEMS, a list of current inventory items is displayed from which the operator can check the top box to SELECT ALL inventory items, or cherry pick individual inventory items to add to the stock transfer.

If the operator only wants to select from stock items that have been adjusted via the Stock management screens, then they can check the box ONLY SHOW TRACKED STOCK, which limits the inventory items available for selection, showing the quantity available from the source location.

Once inventory items have been added to the stock transfer list, the SAVE CHANGES button is displayed to allow the operator to save the changes. Should it be necessary to amend the list, the operator can check the REMOVE ALL box or cherry pick individual inventory items to remove from the stock transfer list. Again the SAVE CHANGES button will be displayed to allow the operator to save changes made to the stock transfer list.

Stock Transfer Status

When the transfer list has been updated with all the inventory items being transferred, either from internal or external sources, the next step is to change the stock transfer status from the action menu.

A stock transfer can have the following statuses and it is the operators role to process through these statuses:-

When the status is changed to DISPATCHED - the stock at the source location is adjusted accordingly to show the reduction in stock. 

When the stock is RECEIVED at the desination location, the stock levels at the destination location are adjusted accordingly to show the new stock arrival.

Download Delivery Note/ Adjust Received Stock

Once the stock transfer has progressed to DISPATCHED status, new actions, Download Delivery Note and Adjust Received Stock become available to the operator from the action menu. 

In the above, we have the 3 original items in the stock transfer with their transfer quantity. If the received quantity is different, due to whatever reason, the operator at the receiving store can add the received quantity. If there happens to be additional items not contained in the original stock transfer, these can be added here. Only additional items added to the stock transfer at this stage can be removed from the stock transfer.

The action of deleting a stock transfer will be confirmed before being committed to the database.  

Copy Stock Transfer

There is also a time saving feature available to COPY an existing stock transfer to a different and/or multiple locations. The transfer destinations are selected from those available in the drop down list. More than one transfer destination can be chosen to create a copy of the stock transfer.

Bulk Purchase Order Upload

Should you have multiple purchase orders to add to the system, rather than adding each individually, the bulk purchase order upload facility can be used. This facility is available from the action menu on the stock transfers page.  

A sample import schema can be downloaded via the here link on the page. The sample file details the required field names necessary to upload the purchase orders. 

On selecting the file to be uploaded, the next stage of the bulk uploader is to validate the contents of the file to ensure they are in the correct format prior to an attempt to add them to the database. 

• Supplier- where the items in the stock transfer are coming from. Should all the purchase orders being added come from the same supplier, they can be selected from the supplier list. If the supplier is not currently in the system, the supplier can be added then selected from the list.

• Location - where to stock transfer is being sent. The location code can be found in the FINANCE tab of the Locations settings. 

• Stock Description, cost price, selling price, VAT %, pack quantity, EAN code, SKU code and order quantity are detailed in the upload file.

If the location code from the upload file cannot be found, and the organisation setting to 'Allow To Change Location' is disabled, an error showing an Invalid destination location will be shown.  If the flag  'Allow To Change Location' is enabled, the user can select the destination location from a list box to continue. Organisation settings can be amended here.

If the supplier code in the upload file cannot be found, the user can select from the list a supplier already know to the system, or they can create a new one using the 'create a new Contact Organisation' link shown above.

When new items are being added to the system, the inventory category into which these new items are to be added should be selected from the list, or added using the  'create a new Inventory Category' link shown below.

Should the stsyem be unable to find the EAN (IdCode) of the item but it can locate the item via the supplier and SKU codes, an error message is shown and the EAN should be amended in the upload file and upload again.

Also note that the PO (Purchase Order) number is unique for each upload and thus can only be uploaded once.

Used Items

The Used Item section of the Charity Suite portal allows donated items to be viewed using filters to limit the search results. For example all used items sold at a location. 

Should you wish you export a list of used item, this is facilitated with the Export CSV (Comma-Separated Values), from which the fields required can be selected, before downloading the CSV file.

You are able to add more filters to limit the results of used items shown in the table by clicking on 'Show More Filters' and selecting the filters required.

View, Edit and Delete Used Items