) is displayed to the left of the line number for widget AB-1234 in the Current Order listing at the bottom of the Current Order screen. This indicates that the product file for warehouse 003 does not include the product record for widget AB-1234.
Each product in your Vision system has a record that contains data such as product number and description, unit of measure, price, and cost. When a new product is added to your system, its record is created at the global product level. If the product is to be available to a particular warehouse, the global product record is copied to that warehouse. Each warehouse product record is dependent on and connected to its global product record. In fact, a warehouse product record cannot exist without a corresponding global product record.
Parts of warehouse product records can be customized for each particular warehouse, allowing each warehouse to define its own primary vendors, product costs, cost-based price calculations, graduated loads and rebates, and minimum sell units of measure. All of a warehouse's product records together make up the warehouse's product file.
Other parts of the product records — such as the product description, the product class, and the available units of measure and corresponding UPC numbers — are maintainable only at the global product level. This can save you a considerable amount of time. For example, if you need to correct a product's UPC number, you can make one change to the UPC set up in the global product record without having to change it in every warehouse product record.
Often a global product file is very large; after all, it consists of a record for every single product — of which there may be thousands, tens of thousands, or more — in your system. Therefore, not all global product records are copied to every warehouse. If a warehouse is possibly not going to sell a particular product, it may be advantageous to avoid copying its global record to that warehouse. Searching in a comparatively small warehouse product file will not take as long as searching in a global product file.
When you conduct a search for a product on the Product screen of the Customer Service tab, you can limit your search to products in a specific warehouse. When you are doing this, the system is searching for warehouse product records that meet your search criteria. If you change the search criteria to include all warehouses, instead of one particular warehouse, all of the global and warehouse product records are searched. This broad search may generate search results for products that are available in the global product file, some of which may not be in your particular warehouse's product file. In such cases, Vision offers you the ability you to add (copy) such global product records to your warehouse product file on the fly during order entry on the Customer Service tab. The products are added to the warehouse as a stock product.
Note: Your company may want to allow the adding of products during order entry for some warehouses, but not for others. Therefore, the ability or inability to add products is controlled at the warehouse level. The Allow Creation of Product in Order Entry check box on the Order Processing screen of Warehouse maintenance must be selected to enable the adding of products for a specific warehouse. For more information, refer to Field description of the Allow Creation of Product in Order Entry check box on the Order Processing screen.
The opportunity to add a global product record to a warehouse product file may present itself in two different scenarios: one when you are using the Product screen, and one when you are using the Current Order screen. These scenarios are presented below.
Note that adding products to the active warehouse can be done regardless of what the order type is: standard, one step, C/M pickup, C/M one step, rebill, and quote.
Background: You are using the Product screen on the Customer Service tab to search for a product to add to the current order. In our example, the Warehouse drop-down list in the Search Filter area (in the Search Options area) is set to warehouse 001, the active warehouse. In our example, you search on the exact product number.
The system displays the Product Search Error pop-up window to inform you that no records were found to match your search criteria. (Click Product Search Error pop-up window to see a sample.) This means that one of the following occurred:
You typed the product number incorrectly.
The product record does not exist in the warehouse product file or the global product file. If this is the case, you cannot add the product to the active warehouse (warehouse 001) on the fly during order entry.
The product record does not exist in the warehouse product file, but it does exist in the global product file. If this is the case, you will be able to add the product to the active warehouse (warehouse 001).
Steps taken to proceed:
Conduct a search to see if the product record exists elsewhere in your system:
If the Search Options area is not already visible, click the Options button.
In the Warehouse drop-down list, select the <All Warehouses> option.
Click the Search button.
If the product record does exist, the product is included in the Product listing at the bottom of the Product screen.
Right-click the product in the Product listing and select Add Product to Active Warehouse on the shortcut menu.
Outcome: The system copies the product's record from the global product file to the warehouse product file. Data about the product, including pricing information specific for the active warehouse, is displayed on the Product screen. The product is now considered to be a stock product in warehouse 001, with no on-hand quantity. The current order will have a backorder unless you source the line item from another warehouse or from an outside vendor. (For more information, please refer to Source a line item.)
Background: The active warehouse for the current order is 002. The product record for widget AB-1234 is in the warehouse product file for warehouse 002. You add product AB-1234 to the current order, as usual.
Then you realize that warehouse 003 should be the active warehouse, so you make that change. (On the Current Order screen of the Customer Service tab, in the Order Details area, you select warehouse 003) in the Warehouse drop-down list.)
The Not Available in This Warehouse image () is displayed to the left of the line number for widget AB-1234 in the Current Order listing at the bottom of the Current Order screen. This indicates that the product file for warehouse 003 does not include the product record for widget AB-1234.
Steps taken to proceed: In the Current Order listing, select the appropriate line item. Right-click it and select Add Product to Active Warehouse on the shortcut menu.
Outcome: The system copies the product's record from the global product file to the warehouse product file. The Not Available in This Warehouse image () is no longer displayed. The product is now considered to be a stock product in warehouse 003, with no on-hand quantity. The current order will have a backorder unless you source the line item from another warehouse or from an outside vendor. (For more information, please refer to Source a line item.)