Keeping inventory well-organized avoids confusion, mistakes and frustration.

Inventory items are 'categorized' (identified, described, labeled) to make them easy to price, display, locate and process. Items are typically grouped together (on the sale floor and in records) so members of an inventory group can be administered as a group (batch add, batch edit, reports, labeling, displaying, special sale discount per category, etc.).

In PPSS, only a few categories are necessary because each category can be defined by 4 sub-categories called 'User-Defined Groups'. Each Group can have a large number of descriptors (called 'Members').

For guns, for example, a gun can be described in multiple ways: barrel length, choke, gauge, action, assault, airsoft, dueling, pistol and so on.

In PPSS, press F6 to add a new Retail Item.

It can be described (classified, categorized) in 4 ways on the New Inventory Screen:

1.   Description - up to 20 characters for the Price Tag

2.   Category

3.   Details - up to 100 characters for Detailed Labels and Inventory Reports

4.   User-Defined Groups

In the example above, the category 'Guns' has been 'associated (in Program Setup) with' the User-Defined Groups (Type, Maker, Action, Gauge). Selecting the category 'Guns' presents the 4 associated Groups with drop-down menus for selecting one Member in each Group. (Type: Shotgun; Maker: Browning; Action: Pump; Gauge: 12)

This makes for faster inventory entry and makes the categorization of each inventory item very specific and clear. It adds uniformity to item description throughout the store by giving employees guidelines and suggestions for descriptions.

Select Inventory from the Work-Areas Menu:

Then select User-Defined Groups from the Inventory Menu:

then click on Group 1:

Enter a Group Name (like 'Type', for example) and type in names of 'Members' of the Group (separated by commas), or copy/paste a list. (Up to 500 characters may be entered.)

Click on Create New Member(s)

then select Save Changes Globally:

Repeat these steps to create User-Defined Groups two through four.

PPSS needs to know which Groups to present for any Category selected, so Groups must by 'associated' with Categories.

Select Categories from the Inventory Menu:

Select a Category by clicking on it. (The row's background color turns dark blue.)

Placing a check mark in each of the User-Defined Groups (Color and Size in this example) 'associates' each Group (Color and Size) with the Category (Clothing).

One or more Groups may be associated with any Category. It is not necessary to assign any Groups or more than one Group.

If User-Defined Groups haven't been 'defined', the Groups will appear as above, "User Defined Group 3", "User Defined Group 4".

Click Save Changes and Exit.

Press F6 to add a new inventory. Note that the User-Defined fields appear as 'User-Defined Inventory Group 1' and 'User-Defined Inventory Group 2' -

Select the Category 'Guns' -

Notice that the names of the User-Defined Fields change to 'Type', 'Maker' and 'Action'. Use the drop-down menu to select options, for example, 'Pistol', 'Colt' and.'Single'.

Inventory can be separated and grouped using User-Defined Groups and their Members.

For example, a list can be made of all items in inventory that are single-action Colts. See Reports for details.