Items

Item Master

The Item Master info area stores basic information about individual items. For more information on the individual fields, refer to the online field help.

Item data plays an important role in other info areas:

• For example, you can define discounts for sectors or product groups, which then apply to all items belonging to that sector or product group.
• You can define any number of price lists for each item.

The following info areas access the item master:

• Special Offer Item
• Offer Item
• Order Item
• Stock
• Stock Control Item
• Installed Base Item
• Conditions
• Competition Item
• Listing
• POS Monitoring Item
• Product Discussion Definition Item
• Refunding Item
• Slotting Fees
• Promotional Material

Click on (Select) next to the Item No. field in these info areas to select the desired item. Data from the item master is transferred to the record (e.g. Item No., Item name etc.).

Adding Items

To add a new item:

1. The following options are available:
   • Select (Products & Service) > New Item.
   • Select (Products & Service) > Item Master, start the search and click on (New).
2. Enter data such as the Item No., Item name, Sector, Product Group etc.
3. Enter additional data on the various tabs. For example, you can define the time period over which the item may be sold using the Saleable From and Saleable To fields.
4. Save the record.

Price Lists

Any number of price lists can be defined per item in the Price List info area. The prices of items in offers, orders and refunds are automatically calculated based on the price lists.

There are three types of price lists:

• Individual price lists (Indiv. Price List field): A price list that can be selected explicitly in an offer/order.
• Customer group price lists (Customer Group field): A price list for a group of companies.
• Country-specific price lists (Country field): Price list for a country.

In each price list, only one of these three fields may contain data. When pricing items, individual price lists take precedence. If no suitable individual price list is available, a customer group price list is used, and finally the price list for a country is used if no other list is found.

Time Limitations for Price Lists

Define the time period the price list is valid for in the Valid from and Valid to fields. For example, you can add new price lists for an item for various countries each year, without needing to delete the old price lists. These time periods may not overlap one another for the same item, country and currency (i.e. only one price list can be valid for at any time).

If you add a new price list, whose time period overlaps the time period entered for an existing price list, a message is displayed including existing price list's time period. You can change the time period as necessary.

Defining the Structure of a Price List

Aurea recommends creating a price list in the local currency for every country and item. This price list is then used for offers and orders if no individual or customer group price lists apply.

Individual and customer group price lists only need to be added if prices for individual companies or company groups differ from the standard prices (i.e. the country prices).

Customer group price lists are recommended if you want to define a price list for a group of customers, especially if you want define conditions (discounts) for this group, >> on page 233.

Individual price lists can used to define specific price lists for companies that are part of a customer group, but to which prices that differ from the group’s prices apply.

Individual price lists must be entered in offers or orders, i.e. you can choose whether an individual price list should be used when adding an offer or order.

Weightings

Use the Weighting info area (not available by default in Aurea CRM web) to define weightings for a specific time period that apply to an item and business area: The time periods defined for the weightings per business area may not overlap.

Enter weightings for an item in the Item Master info area.

The following prerequisites must be met to use weightings when adding offers and orders:

• The weighting must apply to the same business area as the offer or order. The business area is transferred from the data stored in the Rep Additional Info info area for the rep who added the offer or order.
• A weighting record must exist for the item entered in the offer or order items.
• The weighting must be valid at the time of the offer or order (Date in the offer/order is between the dates entered in the Valid from and Valid to fields in the weighting).

If no suitable weighting has been entered, the Weighting is set to 0 (zero).

The weighted total quantity of an offer/order items and the total weighted quantity of the offer/order are calculated automatically is based on the weightings; these values are used to apply discounts at the offer/order level.

The corresponding fields in the offer or order items are calculated as follows:

The Wtd. Qty Ordered and Inventory quantity fields are only present in the Order Item info area.

The values in the Wtd. Qty. fields in the item records are totaled in the Weighted total quantity field in the order record.

Time Periods

You can enter time periods in the Item Master info area for each item and business area, which determine when an item can be sold, ordered or returned:

• If you have a continuous time period during which orders, sales and returns can take place, you can enter the time period directly in the item master record (Saleable from/to, In Stock From/To, Repurchase From/To fields).
• Time periods that are not continuous can be defined for orders, sales and returns in the Period info area (not available by default in Aurea CRM web). Enter the Business Area, Type (Can be sold, Can be Ordered, Return) and the valid time period (Valid from/to fields).

Item Structure

You can define item structures in Aurea CRM in order to depict products in your product catalog, components in a product consisting of multiple items or a basic product and its additional components (e.g. a bicycle composed of a frame, breaks, tires, saddle etc. or a games console package including two controllers and a game).

Defining item structures provides you with quick access to items and related items in the item structure, and allows you to restrict and group items, e.g. in the quick add area.

Items are defined in the Item Master info area and are linked to form a structure in the Item Structure info area. Whenever you add an item structure record, Aurea CRM automatically updates the item structure.

Item structures are defined by adding item structure records and entering the Structure type and the parent item in the field. A single item structure consists of all items linked to one another (directly or indirectly) using the same structure type. The top level of the hierarchy (the root) has no parent node. The item structure is thus defined from bottom to top. Any number of items can have the same parent item. Only items without children (leaves) may be present in the item structure more than once to ensure that the item structure is unique. Ensure you do not define any cyclical structures.

To add an item structure:

1. Switch to the desired item in the Item Master info area.
2. Switch to the Item Structure tab and click on (New).
3. Select the parent item.
4. Select the Structure type.
5. Save. The item structure is added or updated automatically.

The item structure itself is formed based on the station and serial numbers of item structure records. The keys (station number and serial number) of item structure records higher up in the hierarchy and of the current item structure record are automatically entered in the PB_1_StaNo/SerNo - PB_10_StaNo/SerNo fields. These fields depict the path from the current item structure record to the root item structure record. The root item structure’s key is always entered in the PB_1_StaNo/SerNo fields and the Generated check box is enabled automatically in the root item structure record (this record is generated automatically). The item structure can consist of up to 10 levels.

Example:

Six item, A1-A6 are present in the system. The Structure type "Structure 1" is used to depict the item structure. The following image illustrates the item structure.

Item 6 (A6) is represented by the following item structure record, which stores the full path to item 1 (A1, the root item). IS_4_StaNo/SerNo contain the station number and serial number of the current record (A6), IS_3_StaNo/SerNo contain the the key of the item structure record added for item 3 (A3) etc.

Whenever you delete an item structure record or an item, Aurea CRM automatically updates the item structure. If you delete a node (item or item structure record) that has child nodes, the child nodes immediately below the deleted records become the root nodes of new item structures.

If you make changes to the item structure records themselves, you can update the item structure.

To update the item structure automatically:

• Aurea CRM win: Select Item Structure from the context menu in the Item Master info area. Select Generate Relationship Hierarchy from the context menu in the Item Structure info area.
• Aurea CRM web: Use a CRM.server To-Do (type 20), see To-Do Types in the CRM.core Administrator Guide.