Welcome to AlignBooks. We are happy to have you on board. In this help studio tutorial, we will explore the Company - Inventory set up options.
Under this setup you can define and set your preferences and requirements related to your Inventory Items and documents related to movement of Inventory.
Here you will have six relevant sections where all the preferences and requirements pertaining to your Item/Product and movement related documents can be set and defined.
We will start with Basicsetup of Inventory
Item Label: This will define how would you like to label your Inventory Items – “Article, Item etc.” Select the relevant label of your choice from the dropdown menu, which best suit to your industry. Your selected “label” will be printed on the relevant documents to be generated related to Inventory.
Separate Packing Unit: Keeping this option “On”, will allow you to maintain inventory in two units. For instance, “Bags and Kg.”, “Cartons and Pieces”. Keep it OFF if you maintain single unit item.
Ware House: Keeping this option “On”, will allow you to maintain multiple warehouse or storage points in the system. If you do not wish to maintain separate inventory for each storage point, you can keep this option “OFF”.
Bar Code Scan Lookup: Keeping this option “On” will allow you to use Bar Code scan lookup for recording your inward and outward item movement. Bar code scan lookup works like a bar code scanner whereby you can create multiple item rows in a sales / purchase documents on the basis of item code or other identical value like serial number and their after you can enter the quantity and other required values against each item rows.
Minimum Stock Level: Keeping this option “On” will allow you to receive notifications when a particular stock item falls below the minimum defined level. If you do not define the minimum level, you can keep this as “OFF”.
Stock Valuation Method: Select from the drop down the relevant valuation criteria based on which you want to value your stock. Align Books offers you the flexibility to choose the method which best suits your accounting policy. Your options are FIFO, LIFO and weighted average.
Document Classification: Keeping this option “ON” will allow you to classify your Inventory documents on several user defined criteria based on which you can generate/filter various MIS reports.
Separate print description: Keeping this option “ON” will allow you differentiate the inventory item label used in the system with the one used in printing on various documents whilst still maintain internal linking. This feature is very helpful in those trade where the inventory items are recognized by a different trade name to the one maintained in the system
Item Coding Configuration: Select from the drop down list your choice of how you want to maintain the item coding in the system. In various trades, people are more familiar with codes assigned to products. Alignbooks gives the flexibility to maintain your codes in three different ways.
Auto numeric - If you want the system to generate the code automatically for each item.
Auto Group Based - If you want the system to generate automatic “Numeric”codes but based on product grouping.
Manual - If you would like to assign the product code of your choice to each inventory item.
We have completed Inventory Basic setup. If you want, you can hide this option by clicking on .
Now we will explore Inventory Document Custom Fields.
AlignBooks have structured Inventory documents (Goods received/issued from Production, Jobbers, branches etc.) taking into consideration requirements for varied industries. You can still have up to five extra fields defined per your requirements to cater for your special priorities. Let us understand how you can configure the Extra Fields for your Inventory documents.
Allow Blank : Select “Off” if this is a compulsory field i.e. unless you enter required input in the field, the System will not allow completing the Inventory Document. If it is not a compulsory Field i.e. in some documents you may enter a value and in others you may leave this blank, keep allow blank as “On”.
Type : Select from the Drop Down menu specific field type. The type could be a “String, Numeric, Currency or a Date.
If you select the field type as “Numeric” you will be asked for number of decimal point you want in numbers. You can select the required number of Decimal Point from the Drop Down menu.
You can repeat the process to add all the remaining fields to meet your requirement.
We have completed creation of Inventory document custom Fields. If you want, you can hide this option by clicking on .
AlignBooks have structured Item/Product master taking into consideration for varied item identification requirements. You can still have up to five extra fields defined per your requirements to cater for your special priorities. Let us understand how you can configure the Extra Fields for your Item Master.
Allow Blank: Select “Off” if this is a compulsory field i.e. unless you enter required input in the field, the System will not allow completing the Item Master. If it is not a compulsory Field i.e. for some items you may enter a value and in others you may leave this blank, keep allow blank as “On”.
Type : Select from the Drop Down menu specific field type. The type could be a “String, Numeric, Currency or a Date.
If you select the field type as “Numeric” you will be asked for number of decimal point you want in numbers. You can select the required number of Decimal Point from the Drop Down menu.
You can repeat the process to add all the remaining fields to meet your requirement.
We have completed creation of Item master custom Fields. If you want, you can hide this option by clicking on .
Batch Wise Inventory: In some industries you are required to maintain your inventory records batch number wise. For Example – Pharmaceutical & Drug Industries. Keeping this option “ON” will allow you to maintain Batch number Records of your inventory items
Item Serial Number Tracking: In some industries you need to maintain product serial number as the manufacturer identifies those products on the basis of serial numbers only. Example – Electronic Items like Computers, printers, Mobile Set etc. Keeping this option “ON” will allow you to maintain product serial numbers within your Inventory items.
Item attributes helps you to manage your inventory items and generate, gather or filter any extra information or value.
To understand this properly let us take some Example :
You are dealing in Shirts and want to keep details of Brand, colours, size etc., you can attribute 1 field for Brand 1 for Colour and 1 for size.
Now you can track your Shirt’s inventory in multiple combinations i.e. you can see a particular colour’s inventory in different brands or in a particular size etc.
You are procuring material to meet out a particular Sales Order(s). You can attribute Sales Order Number with the Items and can see list of Inventory you have against any order. When you will make entries of your Inward / Outward transactions, the system will display list of Orders in hand.
Even you can attribute your some Important Customers for whom you need to maintain a level of Inventory and can have watch as how much inventory you are having for that customer.
Likewise you can use these attributes in other ways as per your need and manage your Inventory efficiently.
AlignBooks offers you the flexibility to add five extra fields to properly identify specific item attributes. Let us understand how we can create an item attribute.
Required: Click on Required to make the field1 activated
Allow Blank: Select “Off” if this is a compulsory field whereby unless you put any value in this field, the system will not allow to complete and save a sale/purchase or inventory document . If it is not a compulsory Field, keep allow blank as “On”.
Type: Select from the Drop Down menu your specific field requirement. For Example If you select “Customer”, while making Inward or Outward entries, when you will come to this input field you will be displayed your list of Customers. If you select “Sale Order”, List of Orders in hand will be in display. You can also make your own self defined list, if you wish so, Select “Self List” from the Drop Down menu. You are also use to input a “Remark”, if you wish so, select “None” from the Drop Down menu. The whole process is intended to increase efficiency in work.
You can repeat the process to add all the remaining fields to meet your requirements.
We have completed setting Item attributes. If you want, you can hide this option by clicking on .
If you want to capture service dates and service location for your services provided/taken, you can use this feature.
Input Service Date : Keeping this option “On” will allow you to capture the service date for the services. This is helpful for tracking maintenance record. If you do not wish to track, you can keep this as “OFF”.
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against Field 1. 
to save the information entered in Inventory setup.