Sell-by, Stock-by and Buy-by

Items can be sold by one unit of measure (i.e. Sheet); stocked by another unit of measure (i.e. Ream) and still be purchased by yet another unit of measure (i.e. Case).   This document explains how the various methods are used and inter-twined.

The Inventory Item:

To begin, go to:

• Inventory (Module 5)
  • Item Master File (Task 17)
    • Change Existing Item Record (Sub-task 2)

Enter an item number and bring it up on the screen.  Notice: field 4 is Sell-By; field 5 is Stock-by and field 6 is Master Units. 

When you are at fields 4 & 5 a table appears on the right side of the screen, these are the various Units of Measure (Note:  these are user-defined and are set up in 5/32/17/6).  If an item has a Sell-by (field 4) of “Sheet” and a Stock-by (field 5) of “Ream”, the Master Units (field 6) identifies how many Sell-by’s are in the Stock-by, using the example of sheets/ream the Master Unit could be:  500  (meaning 500 sheets in a ream). 

The Average Cost, Last Cost & Prices 1 through 9 has to be in the “Stock By” costing/pricing.    So using this example the average cost, last cost and selling prices are by the REAM.   Continuing with this example, let’s say the Sell-by is the sheet, Stock-by is a ream and the Master Units is 500 (500 sheets in the ream).  Average & Last cost is $125.00 and Price 1 is $250.00.  Price 1 of $250.00 is the retail walk in customer price (or $0.50 per sheet -- $250 divided by 500 sheets in a ream). 

In Order Entry:

When the item is sold in Order Entry and the cursor is on the quantity column, the system will display the quantity as “sheet” (Sell-by), but by pressing the TAB key it will change the “sheet” to “ream” (Stock-by), to sell the customer a whole ream.  By pressing the TAB key again, it will revert back to the sheet.  When selling by the sheet, the price is $0.50 per sheet, when selling by the ream, the price is $250.00. 

Note:  Remember if there are any Discount Quantity Tables associated with the item, the price could change or if there are any Customer Contract records for this item/customer the price could also be different.

On the Supplier Master:

Now to have a little more flexibility for purchasing, go to:

• Inventory (Module 5)
  • Supplier Master (Task 18)
    • Change Existing Supplier Record (Sub-task 2)

Select an item and vendor.  Look at fields 17 (Buy-by) and 18 (Buy-factor). 

When the cursor is at field 17 (Buy-by) a table appears on the right side of the screen.  Using the example of Sheet/Ream and Case, let’s assume this item is purchased by the Case, so field 17 (Buy-by) would be: Case.  Field 18 is how many “Stock-by’s” are in a “Case”.  And continuing with the example it would be: how many reams in the case?  Let’s say there are 10 reams (Stock-by) in the case (Buy-by).  Field 18 – the “Buy Factor” would be 10. 

In Purchase Order:

When a Purchase Order is entered for the vendor and the item is added to the order, when the cursor is at the quantity field, by pressing the TAB key, you will see the “Sell-by”, “Stock-by” and “Buy-by” units in the box that appears on the right, by continuing to press the TAB key you can scroll through and select any of the units of measure (Sell-by, Stock-by or Buy-by) and the system will display and calculate the correct cost for the item based on the Master Units and Buy Factor for the item.

Note:  An item DOES NOT have to have 3 different Units of Measures.  An Item could be, for example, sold by the ‘sheet’, but stocked and bought by the ‘ream’ (in which case on the Supplier Master the “Buy Factor”(field 15) would be 1).   Or an item could be sold, stocked and bought all by the exact same Unit of Measure (i.e. Each) in which case the “Master Unit” (field 6) on the Inventory Item Master and the “Buy Factor” (field 15) on the Supplier Master would all be 1.