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“One of the biggest problems encountered when incorrectly processing stock adjustments lies in the re-calculation of average costs, and the update of last and invoice costs”
Setting up Item ID’s
One of the most important aspects of creating your item file is determining how you are going to identify your items.
Food Connex uses a 15 character item id, allowing you to be as creative and flexible as you want to be. You can choose to use letters, numbers, or a combination of both. But use caution with your creativity – you do not want to make your item id’s too long or complex to remember. On the other hand, giving the item id’s meaning will help the users remember or locate them more easily.
Some users prefer to use very short alphanumeric or numeric item id’s. This works best if the number of products you carry is limited, so that searching for a product does not mean scanning hundreds or thousands of items. However, if the number of products you carry is extensive, the short item id’s will not work as well for you.
Where do I begin?
There is no doubt that if you are going to assign new id’s to you items, there is a lot of planning to do. When setting up your item id’s there are many issues to consider first. Among them are:
Are you satisfied with your current item id’s?
If
not, how would you change them ?
If you are, why would you change them?
Do you want to use Numeric or Alphanumeric item id’s ?
What product characteristics make items unique ?
For Example:
Product categories, sub-categories and sub-sub-categories
Weight
/ Cut / Size
Product
Lines
Fresh
/ Frozen / Non perishable
Imported
or Domestic
How do you most frequently identify your products now with customers, vendors, and your co-workers? If you have something in place now that works, and is familiar to most people who
need to be able to identify your products, a big change might not be advisable.
Additional Issues to consider when creating item id’s
The following examples are based on creating alphanumeric item id’s. We are using the item id’s to group together items in a way that will be most useful to you when entering orders, running inventory inquiries, and reporting.
Food Connex allows the you to ‘look up’ an item by typing as much of an item id as you know, and then displaying all of the items where the item id begins with the letters or numbers you typed in.
For our sample inventory, we are using a fish distributor who carries both fresh and frozen fish, and who has many cuts of that fish available to his customers.
For example, if you start all of your frozen fish items with the letters FZFSH, followed by the type of fish and how it is cut, you can easily find your frozen fish products by typing in “FZFSH” and pressing enter. The following lookup might be displayed:
---------- Item Lookup ----------
ITEM ID DESCRIPTION
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>FZFSHCODFIL40Z COD FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
FZFSHCODFIL7OZ COD FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
FZFSHCODFIL12OZ COD FILET – 12 OZ – FROZEN
FZFSHCODWHL10OZ COD WHOLE – 10 OZ – FROZEN
FZFSHCODWHL16OZ COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FROZEN
FZFSHCODWHL20OZ COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FROZEN
FZFSHTRTFIL4OZ TROUT FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
FZFSHTRTFIL7OZ TROUT FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
FZFSHTRTFIL12OZ TROUT FILET – 12 OZ - FROZEN
FZFSHTRTWHL10OZ TROUT WHOLE – 10 OZ – FROZEN
FZFSHTRTWHL16OZ TROUT WHOLE – 16 OZ - FROZEN
FZFSHTRTWHL22OZ TROUT WHOLE – 22 OZ - FROZEN
FZFSHTRTWHL28OZ TROUT WHOLE – 28 OZ – FROZEN
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Items are easy to find, but the item id’s are very long, requiring more keyboard input when entering an item id. This can quickly become cumbersome, especially if someone’s typing skills are not the best!
In this example, the item id’s are very descriptive, but you might be able to pare them down a little and still keep them descriptive.
Additional Issues to consider when creating item id’s
The item id’s above could be abbreviated more, and still be easily remembered. See the example below.
FZFSH (frozen fish) has now been abbreviated to FF
The cut has been reduced to one character (F = filet, W = whole)
The weight abbreviation for OZ has been changed to Z (L could be used to abbreviate LB)
---------- Item Lookup ----------
ITEM ID DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>FFCODF4Z COD FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
FFCODF7Z COD FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
FFCODF12Z COD FILET – 12 OZ – FROZEN
FFCODW10Z COD WHOLE – 10 OZ – FROZEN
FFCODW16Z COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FROZEN
FFCODW20Z COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FROZEN
FFTRTF4Z TROUT FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
FFTRTF7Z TROUT FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
FFTRTF12Z TROUT FILET – 12 OZ - FROZEN
FFTRTW10Z TROUT WHOLE – 10 OZ – FROZEN
FFTRTW16Z TROUT WHOLE – 16 OZ - FROZEN
FFTRTW22Z TROUT WHOLE – 22 OZ - FROZEN
FFTRTW28Z TROUT WHOLE – 28 OZ – FROZEN
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But now, how are you going to identify your Fresh Fish products?! As you can see, you have to think and plan ahead so that you do not create conflicts when you abbreviate too much! In this example, you might want to abbreviate FROZEN as FZ and FRESH as FS.
When looking up a frozen fish item, you would enter ‘FZF” and get the following results.
---------- Item Lookup ----------
ITEM ID DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>FZFCODF4Z COD FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
FZFCODF7Z COD FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
FZFCODF12Z COD FILET – 12 OZ – FROZEN
FZFCODW10Z COD WHOLE – 10 OZ – FROZEN
FZFCODW16Z COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FROZEN
FZFCODW20Z COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FROZEN
FZFTRTF4Z TROUT FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
FZFTRTF7Z TROUT FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
FZFTRTF12Z TROUT FILET – 12 OZ - FROZEN
FZFTRTW10Z TROUT WHOLE – 10 OZ – FROZEN
FZFTRTW16Z TROUT WHOLE – 16 OZ - FROZEN
FZFTRTW22Z TROUT WHOLE – 22 OZ - FROZEN
FZFTRTW28Z TROUT WHOLE – 28 OZ – FROZEN
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When looking up a fresh fish item, you would enter ‘FSF” and get the following results.
---------- Item Lookup ----------
ITEM ID DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>FSFCODF4Z COD FILET – 4 OZ - FRESH
FSFCODF7Z COD FILET – 7 OZ - FRESH
FSFCODF12Z COD FILET – 12 OZ – FRESH
FSFCODW10Z COD WHOLE – 10 OZ – FRESH
FSFCODW16Z COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FRESH
FSFCODW20Z COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FRESH
FSFTRTF4Z TROUT FILET – 4 OZ - FRESH ?
FSFTRTF7Z TROUT FILET – 7 OZ - FRESH
FSFTRTF12Z TROUT FILET – 12 OZ - FRESH
FSFTRTW10Z TROUT WHOLE – 10 OZ – FRESH
FSFTRTW16Z TROUT WHOLE – 16 OZ - FRESH
FSFTRTW22Z TROUT WHOLE – 22 OZ - FRESH
FSFTRTW28Z TROUT WHOLE – 28 OZ – FRESH
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Make your Item ID’s work WITH you
When creating your item id’s, it is helpful to make the item id’s reflect the way in which items are generally referred to. For example, if you refer to fish as either frozen or fresh before you mention whether it is cod or trout, the above conventions will work for you. When printing lists or running inquiries, the system will automatically group together all of you fresh fish (FSF) and all of your frozen fish (FZF), because items are usually printed in item id sequence.
However, if it is more important whether it is trout filets or whole cod than whether it is fresh or frozen, you might try the following item id conventions: place the ‘F’ (filet) and ‘W’ (whole fish) designators after the type of fish, and then whether it is fresh (FS) or frozen (FZ).
When looking up a fresh cod fish item, you would enter ‘FCOD” and get the following results, listing the cod filets first, followed by your whole cod items. Fresh and frozen products will be mixed together.
---------- Item Lookup ----------
ITEM ID DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>FCODFFS4Z COD FILET – 4 OZ - FRESH
FCODFFS7Z COD FILET – 7 OZ - FRESH
FCODFFS12Z COD FILET – 12 OZ – FRESH
FCODFFZ4Z COD FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
FCODFFZ7Z COD FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
FCODFFZ12Z COD FILET – 12 OZ – FROZEN
FCODWFS10Z COD WHOLE – 10 OZ – FRESH
FCODWFS16Z COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FRESH
FCODWFS20Z COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FRESH
FCODWFZ10Z COD WHOLE – 10 OZ – FROZEN
FCODWFZ16Z COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FROZEN
FCODWFZ20Z COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FROZEN
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Additional Issues to consider when creating item id’s
Another choice would be to group together frozen cod fresh cod. This will be accomplished by placing the ‘F’ (filet) and ‘W’ (whole fish) designators AFTER the ‘FS” (fresh) and ‘FZ’ (frozen) designators, which would then give you the following results if you entered ‘CODF’ when looking up an item:
---------- Item Lookup ----------
ITEM ID DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>FCODFSF4Z COD FILET – 4 OZ - FRESH
FCODFSF7Z COD FILET – 7 OZ - FRESH
FCODFSF12Z COD FILET – 12 OZ – FRESH
FCODFSW10Z COD WHOLE – 10 OZ – FRESH
FCODFSW16Z COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FRESH
FCODFSW20Z COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FRESH
FCODFZF4Z COD FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
FCODFZF7Z COD FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
FCODFZF12Z COD FILET – 12 OZ – FROZEN
FCODFZW10Z COD WHOLE – 10 OZ – FROZEN
FCODFZW16Z COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FROZEN
FCODFZW20Z COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FROZEN
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Using Numeric Item ID’s
Numbers can also be used effectively as item identifiers. Some users find numbers easier and faster to enter than letters.
In the above examples, the item id’s were broken down into the following components:
A general category of fish (‘F’) in the first position of the item id.
The type of fish (COD or TRT)
A class of product - frozen or fresh (FZ or FS)
How the item was prepared (‘F’ilet) or (‘W’hole)
The size of the item (4OZ and 16OZ)
These components can easily be changed to numerics, but the numbers might not be as easy to remember. For example, you might set up general categories for your products, and then just assign numbers to the products that fall into those categories. This type of system works best if the product id’s already exist. It is not recommended that you start with new, numeric product id’s.
General Categories
01 = Fish
02 = Chicken
03 = Beef
04 = Pork
Specific Type of Product
1011 = Cod Filets
1012 = Whole Cod
1021 = Trout
1022 = Whole Trout
Product Class
1 = Fresh
2 = Frozen
3 = Non-perishable
For the above items, you may want to append their weight in ounces to the end of the item id.
In the following example, the product category and the specific item type are bolded, so you can better see how the item id’s were constructed. On an item lookup, if you entered ‘01’ for fish, your results would be something like this:
---------- Item Lookup ----------
ITEM ID DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>011101104 COD FILET – 4 OZ - FRESH
011101107 COD FILET – 7 OZ - FRESH
011101110 COD FILET – 10 OZ – FRESH
011101212 COD WHOLE – 12 OZ – FRESH
011101216 COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FRESH
011101220 COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FRESH
012101104 COD FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
012101107 COD FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
012101110 COD FILET – 10 OZ – FROZEN
012101212 COD WHOLE – 12 OZ – FROZEN
012101216 COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FROZEN
012101220 COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FROZEN
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The length of the item id’s makes them difficult to remember, and they are not at all descriptive of the item. Numeric item Id’s in this environment is not advisable.
I don’t carry that many variations of one item. Can I use numbers and make it work?
If the products you distribute are more limited, and you carry 12 cod products, 14 trout products, 13 bass products, etc., numbers may work very well for you. Assigning a 4 or 5 digit item id will allow you identify each type of fish with the first 2 numbers, and the exact product with the last 2 or 3 numbers. When you look up an item, and you know that it is cod, all you have to do is enter the 2 digits that represent cod, and all of the cod items will fit onto one, or possible 2, lookup windows.
For example, if you designated 10 as your cod products, entering 10 and doing a lookup will produce the following lookup window:
---------- Item Lookup ----------
ITEM ID DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>10101 COD FILET – 4 OZ - FRESH
10102 COD FILET – 7 OZ - FRESH
10103 COD FILET – 10 OZ – FRESH
10104 COD WHOLE – 12 OZ – FRESH
10105 COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FRESH
10106 COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FRESH
10107 COD FILET – 4 OZ - FROZEN
10108 COD FILET – 7 OZ - FROZEN
10109 COD FILET – 10 OZ – FROZEN
10110 COD WHOLE – 12 OZ – FROZEN
10111 COD WHOLE – 16 OZ – FROZEN
10112 COD WHOLE – 20 OZ – FROZEN
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When using numbers in a sequence like this, it is a good idea to follow 2 very simple rules:
Select a range of numbers to each product group, and leave plenty of unused numbers in that range of numbers. That will allow you to expand your product line and still put the item id’s in the right item id range.
Be consistent with the length of the item id and what each digit, or group of digits, in the item id mean.
If you need help in setting up your item id file and are a Food Connex customer, please call Integrated Management Solutions support team for assistance.
If you are not a Food Connex customer and would like to learn more about Food Connex features and capabilities please contact us.