Inventory is the backbone of CounterPoint. It is the means by which all items are identified, priced, and tracked. Inventory is designed to help you maintain optimum inventory levels, control inventory costs, and track merchandise movement. It provides the tools needed to minimize inventory levels and out-of-stock conditions, and maximize valuable management information and profitability.
Setting up inventory items is quick and easy. Item numbers and barcodes may be manually entered or assigned automatically. When a new item is added, much of the basic information may be copied from another item to help reduce errors and speed up the entry process, or a template item may be defined.
The Enterprise edition supports multiple stocking locations. Locations may be reported separately, together, or in location groups. An unlimited number of locations and location groups may be defined, and each group may have an unlimited number of locations. Location groups can be used for reporting and merchandise allocation.
Each item number identifies a unique inventory item with an associated description, category, price, barcode, and other information.
CounterPoint supports normal inventory items, as well as gridded (apparel color/size) items.
An item may be defined as an Inventory, Non-Inventory, Service, or Discount item. CounterPoint tracks on-hand quantities for Inventory-type items.
You can easily remove inactive items from CounterPoint. Inactive items are those that have no quantity on-hand, no quantity committed, and no sales activity after the specified cutoff date. CounterPoint retains sales history for items that were removed.
Categories, subcategories, and up to six user-defined classification methods may be established for grouping items. These classifications are validated to ensure correct setup of information.
An item may also have:
Unlimited barcodes, a stocking unit, and up to five alternate selling units (e.g., EACH, BOX, CARTON).
Up to 20 user-defined profile fields for collecting and displaying additional item information.
Images, sounds, or video clips that can be displayed during item Zooms, or auto-displayed in Regular and Touchscreen Ticket Entry.
A weight assigned.
Unlimited substitute items that can be viewed during Item Zooms.
A primary vendor and an unlimited number of alternate vendors. For each vendor/item combination, CounterPoint tracks the purchasing costs, the vendor's item number, and other valuable information.
Easily select an item by entering the item number, scanning a barcode, or by using LookUps. With LookUps, you find the item using a keyword search by entering any portion of the item number, description, category, subcategory, or any other field designated as a keyword search field.
Customize LookUps by setting the order in which the records display or by specifying which fields display (item number, category, vendor, etc.). You can filter LookUps so that only items that match specific criteria will display. For example, you could define a Filter that displays only those items that have the word Club in the description, a primary vendor of Acme, and that are in the Golf category. You can save named LookUps for future use. Custom Filters are automatically saved with your LookUp.
You can easily view details of an item whenever you look up or view an item. Item Zooms display information about the item (price, category, extended description, etc.), the inventory (location, cost, quantity available, etc.), recent sales history, vendors for the item, open purchase orders, monthly history, substitute items, serial numbers, open transfers, images, and item notes. You can customize the format and the fields that display in the Zoom.
Barcodes of up to 20 characters are supported (field length can be expanded), and an item may have an unlimited number of barcodes. Barcodes may be associated with a specific selling unit--for example, one barcode may indicate BOX, while another barcode indicates EACH. A unique barcode is supported for each individual color/size combination for a gridded (apparel) item.
Barcodes may be manually entered or automatically generated by CounterPoint. Both manufacturer and in-house barcodes are supported. Barcodes may be printed on labels and used for automated scanning during Point of Sale checkout, when taking a physical count, and in other functions.
Random-weight barcodes allow for variable weight items, such as meat or produce. Ticket Entry recognizes random-weight barcodes and automatically calculates the correct quantity (weight). Weight scales and tare weights (container weights) are also supported.
An item may have unlimited pages of notes. These notes may be viewed, printed on forms when the item is sold, and even be set to automatically display when the clerk sells the item (valuable for power-selling related items). Notes use rich text format (RTF) for bolding, underlining, etc.
Item prices can be set up by simply assigning a selling price to each item. Or you can take advantage of CounterPoint's flexible and powerful pricing rules.
An item may be priced by its stocking unit or by alternate units (up to five alternate units per item). For example, you may stock golf balls by the EACH, and sell them at one price by the BOX and at another price by the SLEEVE.
Each item may have up to three price levels for the item's stocking unit and for each of its five alternate units (or six levels with the Advanced Pricing Option).
Pricing rules determine the basic pricing structure of an item--whether the item's price is selected from one of the price levels or whether it is based on the quantity purchased, item or customer information, or a combination of those factors.
The calculated price can be based on a price level, a discount percentage/amount off of a price level, a markup percentage/amount from cost, or a fixed price determined by user-defined pricing rules.
Pricing rules provide flexible pricing options, including Promotional, Contract, and Special pricing:
Promotional--Sale prices typically have starting and ending dates (and times). Discounts may be defined for specific items or entire categories or subcategories. Multiple sales may be defined in advance using Planned Promotions.
Contract--Customer-specific prices may be defined for specific items or entire categories/subcategories of merchandise and have optional starting and ending dates (and times).
Special--Special prices may be defined for general pricing policies or for particular groups of customers and typically don’t have starting or ending dates.
You can also customize price calculations using SQL stored procedures.
Inventory valuation is provided by stocking location using the Average Cost method.
With the Enterprise edition, you can use the Retail Valuation method to track your inventory based on its presumed selling price. For example, if you receive two shirts priced at $10 each, you have increased your inventory value by $20. If you later mark down those shirts, you have reduced your inventory value, even though you have not received or sold any merchandise.
Each sales rep can be assigned a commission code, and commissions can be calculated on selling price or on gross profit. Different commission rates may be used for different sales reps. Commissions are described more fully under Sales History.
Whenever Price-1 is changed, CounterPoint automatically tracks that change as a markdown. For example, if you reduce a shirt’s price from $10 to $9 and you have two shirts on hand, the change is recorded as a $2 markdown. CounterPoint retains a detailed history of all markdowns.
A transaction processing system is provided for initiating and tracking inventory transfer activity and in-transit quantities. A transfer-out may be entered manually and reviewed prior to posting, and may be accompanied by a printed transfer form. The completion of the transfer is accomplished by a transfer-in transaction and an optional transfer reconcile step.
For businesses with more than one store, transfer documents can be completed at the main office or at the other stores.
The Transfer Advice report provides a list of suggested transfers using either the maximum-quantity or the replenish sales calculation method. The Transfer Advice report can automatically create transfer transactions, which may be reviewed and edited prior to finalizing the transfer-out documents. Miscellaneous charges, such as freight, can optionally be added during the transfer.
You can also use "Quick Transfers" to transfer inventory in a single step.
Merchandise Analysis is a powerful tool for analyzing inventory. You can classify and rank merchandise using criteria you choose, including units sold, sales dollars, profitability, quantity-on-hand, turn-rate, GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment), weeks-on-hand, discounts, etc.—there are over 180 different measurements to choose from.
Analyze merchandise at the item level, or get the bigger picture by grouping inventory by vendor, category, subcategory, etc.
With hot/cold reporting, you can show, for example, the "hottest 40 items based on quantity sold" or "the coldest 20 items based on turn rate."
Merchandise Analysis includes pre-defined reports:
Sales is a high-level view of your performance.
Inventory Performance measures the performance of a particular item, category, or subcategory.
Sales/Returns evaluates returns in relation to sales.
Vendor Comparison compares each vendor's sales performance against your investment in that vendor’s merchandise.
Retail Vlue History provides an in-depth or summarized analysis of inventory changes at the retail value within a selected period.
Sales Analysis shows the retail and off-retail values so you can compare discounts and profits.
Alternatively, you can create your own merchandising reports by selecting the columns, grouping, and ranking method you want to use.
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