PPSS Categories

Categories of course are a way of organizing and grouping inventory items in PPSS (for sorting, reporting and processing).

For police-reporting purposes, there are 2 default categories: Guns and Jewelry. (Other categories can be added but they won't be reported to the police.)

Each category can have sub-categories called 'User-Defined Groups' (UDGs) which in turn can have a number of 'Members'. As an example, a UDG for the Category 'Guns' is 'Brand'. It can have members like Colt, Browning, Remington, Smith-Wesson, etc. (The software 'user' can 'define' UDGs and add members, hence the term 'user defined'.)

When an item is added to inventory and a category is selected, the User-Defined Groups for that Category are displayed. Members may be chosen (from drop-down menus) to describe the item in more detail.

Note that there is only room for 4 UDGs on the New-Pawn Screen (not shown here). Additional UDGs may be viewed by clicking on the 'More User-Defined Groups' button:

The NCIC Property-Type Codes for User-Defined Group 9 are 'J' for jewelry and 'G' for guns.

Jewelry or Guns can be set as the default category in Program Setup. (Click on File, Program Setup, Inventory to access.) As each new item is added to inventory, the default category (Jewelry or Guns) will be auto-entered in the category field on the New-Pawn Screen and the NCIC Code field will be auto-filled with 'J' for Jewelry or 'G' for Guns (found on the New-Pawn Screen by pressing 'More User-Defined Groups').

Using Categories in PPSS

Access category settings in PPSS by clicking on Inventory then Categories (on the Main Menu).

The categories of guns and jewelry will be displayed.

The User-Defined Groups will be displayed on the right.

The User-Defined Group named 'Brand' will be checked because by default, opening the Category Screen automatically selects the Category 'Guns' (only because 'Guns' happens to be the first listing). 'Brand' is a User-Defined Group which has been associated with (assigned to) the Category 'Guns'.

When entering an inventory item and selecting Guns as the category, 'Brand' will be displayed on the New-Item Screen as an available Group.

A 'Member' of the Group can be selected to further define or describe the piece. Members are selected by using the Blue Down Arrow on the right of the field to view a list of options then selecting an option (like 'Colt' for example).

Related: How to use User-Defined Groups for Police Reporting

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