SA Administrator Options - Products - Alternates/UPC field descriptions

Alternates

These options determine which types of alternate products you can set up in Product Extended Product Cross Reference Setup. You cannot use a cross reference type unless you select it here.

Note: The number of cross reference types you select has an effect on sales order entry. Only select the types you are going to use. Selecting each type slows Sales Order Entry line item entry because the system checks all of the records, even those you do not use. The fewer records to check, the faster the processing for line item entry.

Alternate Vendors: Used to find alternate sources for a product. Set up alternate vendors for a specific product so you can order the products from an alternate vendor instead of your regular vendor. Vendors are normally assigned in Product Warehouse Product Setup. If you use a cross referenced alternate vendor, that vendor's information can be included on the Purchase Entry Recommended Replenishment Action Report.
Auto Pricing Updates: Used to find a real product from a pricing service number. Automatic pricing is price information that is updated by a pricing service bureau or a manufacturer. These partners provide product pricing and enable you to maintain competitive, up-to-date price and cost information in your inventory control records.
Barcodes: Used to find a real product. Special barcodes, given to you by your manufacturer or supplier, can be interchanged with your product numbers. Barcodes can include alphabetic characters and numbers. After the barcode is specified in Sales Order Entry or Transfer Entry, either manually or scanned, it is interchanged with your product number. Your product number is stored on the order.
Customer Product Numbers: This cross reference record is used to find an existing product in your inventory using the customer's product number. If you cross reference record a customer's product number with your product number, the customer can use their product number when they place an order. For example, customer # 101's product number for a cover plate is 1014. Your product number for the same product is pl-5045. You do not want to look up the cross reference each time your customer orders the product, or expect them to remember your product number. Instead, you set up a cross reference record in Product Extended Product Cross Reference Setup. When you specify 1014 in Sales Order Entry, your product number is loaded on the sales order line. Both part numbers are printed on the order acknowledgment, pick ticket, delivery note, and invoice. The customer’s product number is clearly defined to avoid any confusion or delay in payment.; You can set the Require Customer Product option in Customer Setup to require that the customer product number is always used. During Sales Order Entry, the specified product is validated against all customer product cross reference records. If a cross reference record does not exist, the sales rep is required to create one. The Customer Product window is displayed and the Product Extended Product Cross Reference Setup record can be created directly from Sales Order Entry.
Interchange Products: Used to find a real product. Interchanges can be catalog products set up in Product Catalog Setup, or nonstock products. Interchanges provide the ability to define a character string that represents a real product. You can specify the interchange product in the Product field when you add a line in Sales Order Entry or Transfer Entry. The product is automatically converted to the product set up in Product Setup or Product Warehouse Product Setup.
Limit Alternate Vendors: Select this option to limit access to alternate vendors by warehouse. If selected, users are only allowed to view and select products from alternate vendors tied to products assigned to warehouses in their allowed divisions. Allowed divisions are assigned to users in SA Operator Setup-Other Options. Alternate vendors are assigned to warehouse products in Product Warehouse Product Setup.
Optional Products: Used to tie optional real products to a real product. These optional products are also called an add-on sell. Optional products are complementary items that can be sold along with a regular inventory product. Some products are rarely sold alone. Exhaust pipes are always sold with clamps, computers require cables to hook up printers, certain products must have installation kits. Sales and revenue can be lost if your sales representatives are not aware of these relationships.
Ship To Product: Used to find a real product. This type identifies cross references products specific to a customer's ship to location with your products. The product number in each ship to is independent of the customer and other ship tos. You can specify the ship to's product number in Sales Order Entry. Your product number automatically replaces the customer's product number. The ship to location must be set up in Customer Ship To Setup.
Substitute Products: Used to tie substitute real products to a real product. These substitute products are also called a replace sell.; Substitute products are not 100 percent interchangeable. They are temporary substitutes for the existing products. In Purchase Receipt of Inventory Entry, a substitute product may be received even if this cross-reference record does not exist. In Sales Order Entry or Transfer Entry you can select a substitute product if the net available quantities of the specified product are depleted.
Supersede Products: Used to tie an old real product to a real product. Superseded products are not 100 percent interchangeable. They supersede the existing products and are interchangeable in most situations. Superseding generally occurs when a product becomes obsolete or is not manufactured anymore and is replaced with a different product. After an existing product is superseded, it is automatically be marked on the Product Setup record as a superseded product. The Product Warehouse Product Setup Status field is changed to Do Not Reorder. If the product being superseded is already an order as needed product, it is not changed to Do Not Reorder.
Upgrade Products: Used to tie substitute real products to a real product. These optional products are also called an up sell.; Upgrade products are generally 100 percent interchangeable with the regular product but also offer more features than the regular product. Even though it is 100 percent exchangeable, it is a one-way exchange. If a customer orders a 3,000 PSI valve, you can exchange it for a 5,000 PSI valve. You cannot exchange a 5,000 PSI valve for a 3,000 PSI valve. Both products are normally carried in your inventory. An exchange is usually only made when there is not enough quantity available to fill the order.

UPC Structure

If you use Universal Product Codes (UPCs) to uniquely identify products in your inventory, you must define the structure of the UPC. Specify the size and label of each section of the UPC to determine how UPCs are stored and displayed throughout the system.

UPCs can contain six sections. The vendor and product sections are available by default, but you can define the remaining sections.

A section can contain a maximum of 12 digits, but the UPC cannot exceed 24 digits, including the delimiters. The default length of the vendor and product sections are 6 digits and 5 digits, respectively. These lengths were determined by the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) and National Electrical Manufacturer's Association (NEMA).

How you define the UPC structure depends on how you use the UPCs and they are updated in your system. If you use Product Import to update your pricing and product records, your UPC structure must reflect the UPC structure contained in the files from your pricing update service or supplier.

For example, the pricing service identifies each product with an 18-digit UPC number that includes these sections:

Manufacturer number
Vendor number
Product number
Series number

You must use the Length and Label fields to create sections for the manufacturer and series numbers. You must also map the UPC number in PI Import Definition Setup.

Verify your SA Administrator Options settings before importing each new file type. Change your UPC structure to match the UPC structure of the file that you are importing. UPC settings are checked during PI Administrator Import File processing. If the UPC structures do not match, new product records can be created.

The UPCs are also included on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) documents. Only the vendor and product sections are used.

After you have defined the UPC structure, you can assign a UPC to a specific product and vendor in Product UPC Number Setup. The sections that you set up in the UPC structure are available in Product UPC Number Setup. After you create UPC records, the UPC is displayed on Product Warehouse Product Setup and Product Catalog Setup records.

Delimiter: Select a delimiter to separate the sections of the UPC. The delimiter is used for display purposes only and is included in the 24-digit UPC number.