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Inventory Setup

Adding New Codes

Creating the Product and Item codes is required before putting the codes together to form inventory information.

To add a new code, select the desired Genus, Species, etc. tab and press the Add button that located at the bottom left side of the form. The Add button inserts a new record into the code file and places the cursor in the Code column. Enter the new code and press <Tab> or <Enter> to move to the Description column.

Continue pressing the Add button or the <Down Arrow> key to add new code records. Remember, nothing is saved until the OK or Apply button is selected at the bottom of the Inventory Set up Screen. The OK button saves all changes made on any of the Forms found on the Set up Screen and exits the set up screen. The Apply button saves the changes but doesn’t exit the screen. Use the Apply button often while making changes in the set up.

Searching for Existing Codes

New codes entered into the system are displayed on the Grid in the order in which they were entered. To search for codes already entered, or to display the codes in alphabetical order, click on the column heading of either the code or description column. The first click will sort the column A-Z, the second Z-A, and the third will return the column to its original sort order. To search the grid just type what you are looking for in the search field (the box with the above the grid). You can enter just part of what you want or even parts multiple words by using the plus (+) sign. "Acer" will return every code or description with Acer as part of the value. "Acer + Red" will return only values that have both Acer AND Red in a single field.

Item Description

After entering the codes that make up the components of the inventory system, the next step is to tell the system how the item descriptions should be structured when new inventory records are created.

The Item Description Tab found on the Inventory Set up Screen is used to design your inventory descriptions when creating your inventory codes. The screen is a little different then other screens in the GrowPoint program because it uses a ‘drag and drop’ interface to set up your item descriptions.

The item description is printed on customer acknowledgements and invoices, as well as on most inventory reports. The item description usually fully describes the plant being sold. For example, Acer Palmatum ‘King Crimson’ 2” is a typical item description showing the Latin name first, followed by the item size. You may not want to print the Latin name but instead choose to print the common name and size.

Item Description Tab

The steps to build your item description are as follows:

The labels shown on the screen are defaulted by what you set up on the inventory Product-Item tab.
Click and drag the labels one by one to the Item Description Structure.
An example of the format you have chosen for your descriptions will show in the Ex: box. Once you are finished with the description, you need to click on the Apply button.

In the case that sometime in the future you decide to change the description, you may do so by clearing the current description, following steps 1-3 and then clicking the Recreate All Item Descriptions button. This will not change the description of items already on orders. However, it will change the description on items placed on orders from that point on.

Characteristics

Each product in your inventory has unique characteristics. These characteristics can be set up in GrowPoint and used to locate specific matching plants.

The Characteristics Tab on the Inventory Set up Screen is used to set up user definable characteristic areas for all inventory products. For example, suppose you want to know about the growing zone or fall color for each plant. Set up characteristics called ‘Zone’ and ‘Fall Color’ and then enter values for each type.

GrowPoint can create 15 user-definable characteristic areas. You can choose to use as many of the characteristic areas as desired. If you do not wish to search by a particular characteristic, you may select the Not Used checkbox below the characteristic.

Some examples of characteristics you may wish to identify by: Height, Spread, Water, Zone, Light, Soil, Flower, and Leaf Color.

Enter the name of each characteristic used in the Label field. Press the Edit button shown next to the Values field to set up all possible values for each characteristic. On the Values window, use the Add button to add new value codes.

Although characteristics can be connected on the products screen, they do not print out on the reporting. To view characteristics for a certain product, go to the specific product characteristics tab off the Inventory Products menu.>/

Containers/Boxes

Inventory items may ship in boxes, carts or some other type of container. On shipping documents such as the Bill of Lading and Pull Slips, having the ability to print the total number of containers is important.

The actual name of this tab (in this view it reads Containers) is user definable, so you may change the name by typing into the 10-character Field Name white area in the lower right of this window. The next time you enter Inventory Setup the name entered will appear on the tab.

To add a new Container Code, press the Add Item button. Enter up to 10 characters in the Code field. To describe the container type, hit tab and enter a description. Enter the Height, Length, Width and Estimated Weight of each container. If the container has shelves enter the number, if it is a box enter 1. Enter the default number of units per shelf/box.

Container codes may be assigned to inventory items on the Inventory Items, Container/Quantities tab. Also, the container code may be changed during order entry.

Ribbons

Ribbons are a common method of identifying specific plants by order, customer, or plant size. The ability to assign a ribbon color to a customer’s order instructs a digging crew that plants tagged with a specific color need to be pulled and loaded. Sometimes ribbon color combinations are used when many orders are assigned during the busy season.

To add a new ribbon color, press the Add Item button. Enter a ribbon description. The sequence field is reserved for future use and does not require an entry. To continue adding new ribbon colors, press the <Down Arrow> key. To save the changes, press the Apply button.

Cost Basis Codes

GrowPoint provides two methods for assigning costs to inventory items. Each inventory item can have a cost directly assigned to it through the Cost field on the Inventory Item Details Form in the Inventory Products Screen. Item costs entered through the inventory screen are updated by the Purchase Order Module or through Inventory Adjustments and Transfers.

Optionally, you may create general costs called Cost Basis Codes and assign them to inventory items. As the item costs change from season to season, only the cost basis code needs to be adjusted and any item assigned with a Cost Basis Code automatically inherits the new cost.

Although there is no single best method for creating Cost Basis Codes, you may consider assigning similar items to the same cost basis code. For example, all 1-gallon perennials may be assigned the same cost. In cases where some 1-gallon perennials have a different cost then other 1- gallon perennials, create a different Cost Basis Code.

To add a Cost Basis Code, press the Add button. Enter a Cost Basis Description and Cost Amount. To continue adding additional record, press the <Down Arrow> key. To save the changes, press the Apply button.

Group

Inventory Products can be assigned to specific groups for reporting and other analysis. Product Groups are simply an additional classification that can be defined in GrowPoint. For example, on the Inventory Availability Report, items are sorted into groups like Shade Trees, Shrubs, Evergreen, Perennials, etc.

GrowPoint calls this classification a Group, but you can change the name of this field depending on how you want to set up and classify inventory. When setting up Inventory Products, each product may be assigned to a Group.

To add a new Group, press the Add button. Enter up to 10 characters for a group code. Enter a group description. Press the <Down Arrow> key to enter additional records. Press the Apply or OK buttons to save the changes.

Seasons

Inventory Seasons provides a method for identifying inventory available by a user-defined range of dates. The term season doesn’t necessarily have to be an actual calendar season like spring, summer, fall or winter. Seasons in GrowPoint can be designated as any range of dates desired by an inventory system.

Seasons may also overlap. Some items that have a weekly season, such as annuals, may have 52 seasons. You can also include other items that you grow with much longer seasons.

Seasons are used by the inventory system to indicate when a specific available quantity is ready for sale. At the Location level in Inventory, each item location can be assigned to a specific season.

Reasons

How many plants were dumped because of poor quality last year? The ability to answer this question is not readily available in most inventory management systems. GrowPoint provides the ability to set up and maintain your own reasons for changing inventory. Whether transfer, dump, poor quality, returns, chemical damage or theft, tracking the reason for a change in inventory is important information for a nursery operation.

With the ability to further identify the reason for an inventory change, inventory managers can become better aware of situations and reasons why inventory counts are revised.

Once you have this table set up in the Inventory and Transfer menus, there will be an option to choose the reasons that you ha ve set up. If you attach a reason on the adjustment/transfer screens, this reason will print out on the inventory adjustment report.

Other

The Other Tab on the Inventory Set up Screen is used to define miscellaneous information needed by GrowPoint.

Total Cost: The Total Cost Based On field instructs the system how to calculate inventory total costs, which are found on the Item Details Form of the Product Screen. Inventory total cost is a calculation that multiplies the item cost per unit by the current on-hand quantity, the current non-sellable quantity, or the sum of both quantities.

Auto-generate item code: In the following section we will go over how to create the items you grow and how the item code is generated. In most cases, the item code is made up of the codes you created in the Product-Item tab. However, if you wish the item code to be assigned as a serial number you would select this option. This is a seldom-used option. Other Tab

Generate sequential Item Code: Another rarely used option, This will automatically assign new items a numeric item code sequentially. Acer rubrun Red Sunset 2" might get item code 3345 and Hosta Patriot 1Gallon may be assigned item code 3346 when using this option.

Default Today's date to Plant Date and Count Date on new location: This option assumes that if you are adding a new location then the items in it must have been planted and counted and will insert today's date as both the plant date and count date as a time saver.

Disable auto-generation of item UPC: By default GrowPoint will automatically assign a UPC code to newly added items. If you prefer to manually assign UPC numbers you should uncheck this option.

Location Mask Setup: If your location names have a specific structure, this mask may help. If the first three digits represent the farm, the next two are the house, and the next digit is the side of the house you would have location names that look like "North-01-L". Setting up a mask of 5-2-1 may make entering your location easier.

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GrowPoint Documentation