COMPULINK 3300 Overland Avenue, Suite 201 § Los Angeles, California 90034 § 310 × 204 × 5121 

 

 

Major Class Code

Major Class Codes are the ‘groups’ (also called ‘categories’ or ‘departments’) into which you organize your inventory. When you want a overview of your inventory levels or your sales levels, you want these reports summarized into perhaps 50 to 100 different categories on a page or two so you can quickly analyze your sales and inventory situation. An Executive Summary, you might call it.

It is possible for you to have up to 999 major class codes but you might have as few as 25 or as many as several hundred. You make up your own list in such a way that makes sense to you for your analysis needs.

 

Major Class Code Mnemonic (Optional)

Each Major Class code is a number from 001 to 999 and if you don’t have too many you will quickly remember them all. Another way to help you remember them is to assign them a three letter mnemonic code. For example if you choose major class code 125 for Ladies Ruby Rings you could assign the mnemonic LRR (or, if you prefer, RLR for Rings, Ladies Ruby.)

When you enter new inventory and you have to type the major class code you can type either the official major class code number or the mnemonic. Mnemonics are optional; you can assign one to every major code, just some major codes, or none at all.

 

Minor Class Code (Optional)

You can assign a Minor Class Code to each item to help you search for inventory or sales in a different way than by major class code. For example, you might have a major code for Ladies Ruby Rings and a different one for Ruby Earrings and yet another for Ruby Pendants. Separately, you could have a minor code meaning ‘With Ruby.’ If a customer were looking for a gift with ruby within a price range of $800 to $1,200 you could type in the minor code and the price range and print a list of matching items regardless of whether they were rings, earrings or pendants. You could also run a sales report of items of anything with ruby. Minor codes could represent stone type, side-stone type, metal type, chain length, etc.

As with the major class codes, you make up your own list. Unlike major codes, minor codes are optional; If you don’t need them or if they are too much work, you can turn this feature off.

 

SKU Number

The SKU number (Stock Keeping Unit) is your stock number for each piece of merchandise. This consists of the Major Class Code which you assign when you enter the merchandise plus a five-digit unique number which the program assigns. For example, 105-10015 could be a SKU number for the last ladies ruby ring you typed in. (Which could be equivalent to LRR-10015 if you assigned a mnemonic.) The five digit trailing number has no meaning, it’s just the next available number within the major class code. It is possible for different items to have the same trailing number if they have different major class codes. E.g. you can have SKU number 105-10015 in addition to 210-10015. The SKU number does not have to have any particular meaning because given the SKU number the program can tell you all the information about the item.

SKU numbers are generally unique unless multiples are received at the same time. For example, if you have two of the same watch but they were received at different times, they would have different SKU numbers because each has a different cost, date of arrival and a different invoice number which is important tracking information. If you receive two identical watches on the same invoice they would usually share the same SKU number. However, it is possible to assign each watch a unique number even if you receive them at the same time. For some small items that are not tagged or tracked individually such as some findings or watch batteries, you can prevent the program assigning new SKU numbers by locating the old stock number in the program and increasing the quantity on hand.

 

Style Number

The Style Number is the product number assigned by the vendor or manufacturer. If you were ever to return or reorder merchandise, you would need to specify their style number so they know which item you are referring to. If you have reordered a particular item several times, you could have several different SKU numbers for that style — all with the same style number. Some inventory reports show the individual SKU numbers (e.g. you might have three different SKU numbers with one each on-hand) while other reports might just show one line for the style (e.g. showing three on hand.) The style number can be any combination of up to sixteen numbers, letters, spaces and punctuation.

 

Vendor Code

When recording merchandise or payables or checks, it can sometimes be tiring to type long names (e.g. International Diamond & Gold Designs.) The Vendor Code is your three-digit or three-letter short-cut to help you locate or identify the vendor (e.g. IDG). This is also short enough to print on price tags if desired. When looking up vendors you can search by either the full name or the short-cut vendor code.

 

Manufacturer Code (Optional)

This is sometimes referred to as the Brand Code. Usually the vendor and the manufacturer is the same company, but on occasion they are different. Sometimes one manufacturer has different brand names. For each inventory item you can specify the vendor who billed you and the brand name of the manufacturer. To save you typing, the manufacturer code is automatically filled in with the vendor code, but you can change it where necessary.

You can turn off the manufacturer code feature if you rarely need it.

 

Layaway

Layaway sales are typed in the same way as regular sales except that they are not paid for in full. Layaways are not considered sales for the purposes of sales analysis, commissions or sales tax until the day they are picked up — even if you have received a large deposit. The day they are picked up they are counted as sales in full even if the final payment is small. While the merchandise is on layaway it is removed from the available-for-sale inventory quantity and is put in the on-layaway quantity. The day the layaway is finalized the on-layaway quantity is reduced. If the layaway is canceled, the quantity is removed from the on-layaway quantity and put back in the available-for-sale quantity.

Pending layaways are not charge account sales; technically the customer owes you nothing since you have the merchandise and their money.

 

Special Order

A special order is where a customer has requested that you order a finished piece of merchandise from one of your suppliers. They may make a payment in full up-front or just a partial deposit.