Each time you create a new parts record, you need to enter details such as nominal code, department, tax code, etc. The parts record that you enter in SAM will eventually form your parts list. So when you are planning your stock system, the part codes you enter need to be as descriptive as possible so that you can locate the part quickly when you are entering data or viewing a report. The parts record holds information such as the stock item’s description, sales price, and unit of sale.

To enter a new part record, click on the add new part button on the menu, when the part record window appears you can continue to enter the parts details or view your main part information. You will need to have the appropriate information for the following fields.

1. Part Code
2. Description
3. Cost Price
4. Selling Price
5. Unit of Sale
6. Density
7. Manufacturers Code
8. Weight
9. Minimum and Maximum Stock Levels
10. Purchase Units
11. Sales Units
12. Turn on Serial Number Tracking or Batch Tracking
13. Depot and Location

Part Code

You can enter up to 30 characters for the part code. The characters A-Z, 0-9, /.-#, can be used but no spaces or commas. Each part must have its own unique code. Once a part code is created, it can’t be changed. If you want to change the code, you need to create a new product record.

Description

Here you can enter the product name or description. This appears on reports and it automatically appears when you use the part code on invoices, credit notes, sales and purchase orders. Bear in mind that if Sam’s parts list is synched with sage 50 Accounts the part description may be truncated. In Sage 50 you can enter up to 120 characters in v29 and 60 in v28.1 and below.

Depots/ Warehouse

Your organisation may utilise multiple storage locations, which we refer to as warehouses or depots, each warehouse is equipped with storage racks for organising the individual parts.

Location

The individual parts are labeled and stored accordingly in the warehouse facility to ensure easy access and efficient inventory management. These storage locations are meticulously maintained to guarantee the availability and integrity of all parts, ensuring that any individual part can be quickly located and retrieved as needed.

Serial Numbering

The serial numberi switch allows you to track any part by its serial number if required. You can select “None” (do not allow serial numbering), “Manual” (create your own numbering system), “Automatic”  in automatic mode the system will generate its own serial numbers, at the point the part is inputted into the system.  i.e. 10 items input will create 10 serial numbers for those items).

Batch Management

Batch Management, allows you to batch manage the parts from an order if required. You can select “Disable” (do not allow batch management), “Enable” create a batch number, as the part is is inputted into the system i.e. 10 items input from an order, will create a batch number for the order. You can quickly identify and isolate batches that don’t meet quality standards. This not only ensures customer satisfaction but also reduces the risk of product recalls and related financial losses.

Parts Image

Once you’ve completed the entries on the details screen, click on the image tab. This will give you the option to enter an image that represents the product details you’ve just entered.

To enter an image for the product, click the import tab. When the popup window appears, click on “import image file.” This will allow you to search on your desktop for the appropriate product image. Click open to import the image thumbnail. Images of the product can be in BMP, JPEG, or GIF format, so your users can see exactly what the product looks like.

Product Financials

Once you’ve clicked on the financials tab the popup window will be displayed, then you can enter the purchase nominal, the sales nominal, and commodity code for the product. These nominals are required is the system is to be synched with Sage 50 Accounts

BOM (Bill of Materials)

Whenever a product is made up of other products that you hold in stock, it is said to have a Bill of Materials or BOM. This is a list of the other products or components that are needed to make up the product or product assembly.

For example, a toolkit is a product assembly which consists of the following components – a tool box, a spanner set and a screwdriver

Toolkit (Product Assembly)
Tool box (Component) Spanner
Spanner Set (Component)
Screwdriver (Component)

In this toolkit example, the spanner set could itself consist of two different spanners. It would be called a sub-assembly of the main assembly.

Toolkit (Product Assembly)
Spanner Set (Sub-Assembly)
Spanner A (Component)
Spanner B (Component)
Screwdriver (Component)

In SAM each product assembly, sub-assembly and component should be set up as a separate product record.

Before creating a Bill of Materials you should:
• Create the individual component product records.
• Plan the bill of materials on paper first, working from the lowest level of the assembly.

To set up a bill of materials for a product, click on the products tab to open the Bill of Materials window, the bill of materials information appears.

You can use the Trial Build facility to check if you have enough stock to make up the required bill of materials items. If you have enough stock, you can use the Build Part to allocate all the sub-assemblies to the build.
Notes
The Notes tab enables you to enter a long description for the product, you can also add additional notes about each of your suppliers for this product. To enter new notes just start typing then hit the save button.

Suppliers

Click on the suppliers tab to display a list of suppliers. You can then tick the box to select the preferred supplier for this product. Selecting the preferred suppliers for a product is particularly useful when re-ordering. When placing an order in the purchase module and this product code is selected, the list of preferred suppliers will be viewable in preferential order.

Discounts

The discounts tab allows you to setup quantity breaks for the product, for example you can set the quantity break discount so that if the customer purchases ten items they get a discount of 2%, purchase of 50 items quantity break 3% and so on. You can also setup discounts based on category, use the category dropdown to select the appropriate category then setup the quantity breaks and save.

If the category discount is set to “none”, the price break discount will only apply when this product is used on a sales order, but if a category is selected the quantity break discount will be included on the price list against the selected category. Once the category breaks discounts for this product have been setup, the product will be included in the price list, if the pricelist is assigned to a customer they will get a category discount as well as a quantity break discount.

Reports

Viewing/ Printing your Product Reports
To view a report, click on the Reports tab to display the product window, you can use the dropdown to choose one of the available reports. You can print out the following reports:
Product Activity (PRDHIST.report) This shows the product’s detailed history.
Product Profit (PRDPROF.report) This shows if your products have sold at a profit.
Product Valuation (PRDVALUE.report) This shows how much your stock is worth.
To print a report from the Products window, choose the Reports option then select the appropriate report which you want to run from the dropdown. Highlight the report, click view to view the report or print to print the Report, enter your criteria and click OK. Repeat this for the other reports.

Delete Product

To delete a product, highlight the product that you wish to delete then press the delete button. Please note products cannot be deleted if there is a transaction that has been made against the product, i.e. the product has been used on a sales order or a Job.

Price List

As a business, you will know the importance of setting your prices at the right level for your customers. You can use SAM to create price lists for your customers and suppliers as well as set up a number of different types of discounts.
You can set up a good customer discount. With this method of discounting, you can for example, give discounts to customers who settle their bills before the due date.

You can also set up discounts for bulk purchases, or for total order values. For example, you can give a customer a 5% discount for sales over £100, and 10% off for sales over £500. You can also set up price lists for specific groups of customers, and choose how these prices are edited and updated. It is also possible to set up special prices for individual customers that buy specific products.

With the variety of pricing and discount features in SAM, it is important that you decide how you want to use them. Even after you have set up your discounts and started posting transactions you can still alter your prices, the price discounts and how they are applied.

Creating a new Pricelist

To setup a new pricelist go to the Pricelist Details and click add, the pricelist name will become editable, enter the name of your new pricelist and save it. The name should then appear in the window above.

Adding Products to the pricelist

To add the products to the pricelist go to the bottom of the window and click add in the assigned products section, this will allow a list of all products in Sam to popup in a sub window, you can then select from the list of products those that are to be included in the pricelist.

Adding customers to the pricelist

To add customers to the pricelist go to the Assigned Customers and Discounts Section and click the add button this will pop-up a list of all the customers in the system, you can then select the customers that you wish to assign to the your newly created pricelist.

Recalculate

Recalculate the selling price for all built products in the system. The recalculate option is provided to ensure that when a manufacturer’s cost price changes the system can automatically search through all the available products and updates the selling prices.
When you click on the recalculate button the system displays a prompt message asking you to confirm whether you wish to recalculate the selling price for all of the Bill of Materials (BOM) products.

If you answer yes, the system searches and checks through all of the Bill of Material items and update the cost prices of the sub products based on the manufacturers most recent cost prices.

Batch/ Serial Numbers

Batch/serial numbered items are used to trace stock from purchase through to sale. They are standard stock items that are assigned an identification number so that stock movements and order processing details associated with the item can be traced.

Batch/serial numbered items can be traced individually using serial numbers or as a group using batch numbers. The batch or serial numbers are manually recorded for an item.

To trace items effectively, unique serial or batch numbers are required. If you intend to record the manufacturer’s batch or serial numbers that are marked on the goods you receive, you cannot be sure the numbers are unique. You can set batch/serial numbered items to recognise duplicate numbers and prompt you to record a unique number.

You can control when batch/serial numbers are recorded for an item by selecting the appropriate option within the individual product record. The system can generate serial numbers automatically or you can manually enter a separate serial number as each product is booked into stock.

You can also control the selection of batch/serial numbered items during despatch. You can set the system so that despatch staff have the flexibility to select batch/serial numbered items from those in stock and then record the numbers they have retrieved.

Otherwise staff are instructed to retrieve specific serial/batch numbers allocated for despatch. The allocated serial/batch numbers can be printed on picking lists and used by the despatch staff.

Batch Numbers

A separate Batch Number tab exists in the SAM application parts screen. Clicking on the icon displays the batch number pop-up window. The window displays a list of all the batches that have been booked into the system, it shows the dates the batches were created and the expiry dates. These dates are particularly important when dealing perishable items.
The right hand window shows the distribution of the batches across each depot. You can search to look up a specific batch number

Serial Numbers

A Separate Serial Number tab exists in the SAM application parts screen. Clicking on the icon displays the serial number pop-up window. The window displays list of all the products that have a serial number, the left-hand window holds the actual serial numbers and the right hand windows shows the history of the serial number, you can view all serial numbers for the selected product or select unallocated or allocated via the radio button.
When you click on a serial number this will allow you to add notes to a Product with a Serial Number.

Note that a Serial Number is not a mandatory requirement for a Product, and there are no restrictions on the value entered for Serial Numbers i.e.: a user can manually enter duplicate Serial Numbers as required.
Product Serial Numbers have the following schema;
(a) Reference Number
A unique, sequential, system generated reference number as they are received into stock
(b) Manufacturers Serial Number
The manufacturer’s serial number for a purchased product
(c) Serial Number/Build Number
Every build can have a unique sequential number and can be referred to an in house Built Item serial number. Serial Numbers can be added to a Product at any stage of the Product lifecycle.
After a Product has been assigned a Serial Number the Product is available for addition to a Sales Orders with the ability to filter a Product via the Serial Number.

Traceability (Serial Numbers)

The SAM application has the ability to display a list of all items with serial numbers that have been sold, where the displayed list will contain both standard products and built items. The current system has the ability to view all serial numbered products, but will require the following changes as provided in the screenshot and annotations below.

Print Barcodes

If you’re using a scanner with the system you may also want to print barcodes in which case, you would have a barcode printer available and configured in the system. There are a number of one dimensional barcode designs that you can choose from some of which are industry standards.
I’ve outlined below three of the most popular barcode types and I’ll highlight the common uses for each one, as well as constraints that help you narrow down your options: perhaps your products have less than a square inch of printing space, or you might need to print on corrugated cardboard, or you need extra-secure codes.
UPC CODE
UPC Codes are used to label and scan consumer goods at points-of-sale around the world—mainly in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. The UPC-A variation encodes 12 numerical digits while UPC-E is a smaller variation, which encodes only 6 numerical digits.
Industry: Retail
Variations: UPC-A, UPC-E

EAN CODE
EAN barcodes are also used to label consumer goods worldwide for point-of-sale scanning, primarily in Europe. They look very similar to UPC codes, and the main distinction is their geographical application. While EAN-13 (comprising 13 digits) is the default form factor, you’ll find EAN-8 (covering 8 digits) barcodes on products where only limited space is available.
Industry: Retail
Variations: EAN-13, EAN-8, JAN-13, ISBN, ISSN

CODE 39
Code39 barcodes (or Code 3 of 9) are used to label goods across many industries, and are often found in the automotive industry and the US department of Defence. It allows the use of both digits and characters, and its name originates in the fact that it could only encode 39 characters—though in its most recent version the character set has been increased to 43. It’s similar to, but not as compact as, the Code 128 barcode.
Industry: Automotive and Defence

To print barcodes, click on the Print Barcodes icon, when the popup window below appears select the product codes for which you want to print bar codes and press the ok button.

When you’ve pressed the ok button and the popup windows appears select the appropriate printer from the dropdown, and set the number of copies then press ok to start printing your barcode labels.

Part Transfers

Transferring parts between locations is relevant if your system is set to use multiple locations. You can transfer stock between both warehouses and bins.

The system checks the effect the transfer will have on the stock levels set for the stock item at its current location and target location. Warnings are displayed if the quantity requested at the current location:

• Exceeds the total quantity in store. This includes free stock and allocated stock.
• Exceeds the free stock at the store.
• Causes the stock quantity to fall below the re-order level.
• Causes the stock quantity to fall below the minimum stock level.

You can continue to transfer the requested quantity or amend it so that the transfer quantity is within the stock levels specified for the item. However, you can only transfer a quantity that exceeds the total quantity in store provided the item is enabled for negative stock levels.

If the transfer includes allocated items, the allocation requirement remains at the current warehouse. However, batch/serial numbered items where the batch/serial numbers have been assigned to an order or issue prior to releasing items cannot be transferred.

Batch/serial numbered items displayed as available during the activity can be allocated or issued by other Sage 200 processes. When an item is selected the system checks for this. If the item is in use by another process, the item is displayed red. You will need to select another numbered item from the displayed list.

The system also checks the effect of transferring stock to the target location. If the transfer causes the overall stock quantity to exceed the specified level for the stock item, a warning is displayed. You can continue to transfer the specified quantity or amend it so that the overall quantity remains within the stock levels specified for the item.

Invoiced

In Sam you can view a product history i.e. customers that’s bought the product and the invoice date, on the main product overview screen there is a invoiced column, which indicates the overall quantity of the specific product has been invoiced.

If you wish to see a breakdown of the activity of the product select the product on the main screen, then click the invoiced button.

The pop-up window above shows the invoice number, the customers that has bought the product and the invoice date.

Allocated

Sam keeps track of product allocation, so you can see at a glance your product availability. On the main product overview screen, there is a allocated column, which indicates the overall quantity of the specific product that has been allocated. If you wish to see a breakdown of the activity of the product select the product on the main screen, then click the allocated button which will show the pop-up window for the allocated product.

The pop-up window above shows the invoice number, the customers that has bought the product and the invoice date

On-Order

Sam keeps track of products that’s on order, its useful to know the quantity of products that are on order if there is a stock deficiency. Sam tots up all the orders for the specific product and insert the total in the on-order column on the main product overview screen.
If you wish to see a breakdown of the orders for the product select the product on the main screen, then click the on-order button which shows the pop-up window for the on-order product.

The pop-up window above shows the purchase orders, supplier details, date and the quantity on order.