The products held as inventory in the warehouse and sold to customers are called items in PVX. If required, not-for-sale inventory such as boxes and bags can also be treated as items if you want to track these in your warehouse management system (WMS).
Each item must be assigned to an item group within PVX; this helps organise the items so that they can be found easily in the web app. You can group items by any attribute you choose, such as the type of item, the colour or the brand.
This article describes how to set up items and item groups within PVX, and how to search for items and edit them. You can also import your items and the hierarchy of item groups from your product management system using the appropriate PVX integrations, as explained in a separate article.
Creating an item group
Go to the Items tab in the Warehouse module of the PVX web app. The Item Group index can be seen in the left pane of the screen.
Click Add underneath the index.
Enter a name for the new item group and click Save.
Click + next to Item groups to expand the index and check that the new item group is displayed.
Adding a sub-group
Sub-groups can be added to item groups if needed to organise your products.
Click the item group in the index to which you want to add a sub-group, and then click Add.
Enter a name for the sub-group and click Save.
Check that the index displays the new sub-group.
Managing the item group index structure
You can use the buttons underneath the index to Rename and Delete any selected item group or sub-group. You can also move item groups to different positions in the index.
Click the item group or sub-group in the index that you want to move, and then click Move.
In the dialog, click the location where you want to place the selected group, and then click Select. If you select an item group as a destination, then the group you are moving will become a sub-group of that item group. If you want to move a sub-group to the top level of the index, select Item group as the destination.
Check that the index shows the new position of the item group/sub-group correctly.
If you move an item group which contains sub-groups, they will all be moved automatically with the group.
Adding an item to an item group
The WMS maintains a record for each unique item, which includes the item's code (also often called the stock-keeping unit or SKU) and the barcode. Though they can be different, we recommend that the item code and barcode are identical for simplicity. However, they must be unique for each unique item.
Go to the Items tab in the Warehouse module of the PVX web app and click Add new on the top right side of the screen. The Add new item type wizard is displayed.
In step 1 of the wizard, enter the item code (SKU), name and barcode (these are mandatory).
Select an item group for the item; click Search groups, select the item group from the index in the dialog and click Select.
Enter any other attributes for the item (these are all optional), and click Next in the bottom right of the wizard.
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Steps 2-5 of the wizard are entirely optional. Click Next or Previous to move around the wizard as required, or simply click Finish at any time to save the item and close the wizard.
In Step 2 you can set default values for the item such as pricing and delivery times.
In Step 3 you can add further attributes that you can use to categorise or search for an item.
In Step 4 you can select items from different groups and add them to a kit.
In Step 5 you can see a list of suppliers set up in the system; click Select to choose one or more suppliers for your new item.
Final allows you to click Finish and save the new item.
The new item is displayed in the Items tab.
Finding an item
Clicking on any item group in the index will display the items associated with that group in the right panel on the screen. If you select the box labelled Include sub-group items, then any items in the sub-groups of that item group will also be displayed.
You can also search for items in the WMS using the Search and Advanced Search options on the left side of the Items tab.
Use Search to look for text, either as part of a longer piece of text or, if you check the Match text exactly option, as a complete entry in the data for the item.
Advanced Search allows you to construct and save search filters. Choose any attribute of the item, select a condition and then a value, and click Search. You can also click Add, and then set up another search filter which can be related to the first either by AND or OR logic. Click Save to save the search filter for reuse later.
Viewing, editing and printing an item
The details of an item listed in the Items tab can be viewed and edited (if you have the required permission as part of your assigned role). Remember that changes made to an item in PVX will not update automatically in your integrated order processing system. If you use a product management system to manage your items, it would be better to make the changes there and then import them into PVX using the appropriate integration.
Click the button in the Select column for the item you want to view. The Edit item dialog is displayed with tabs that contain the various attributes of the item.
Click Edit to make the entries editable, make any changes needed and click Save.
In the Units tab in the dialog, you can set up units of measure by selecting and assigning the standard units for an item and then specify how many items are in each unit.
Click Close when completed to close the dialog.
If your WMS operates on multiple sites, you can make the Items tab site-specific by clicking the Select sites drop-down menu and clicking the boxes for the site(s) you want to search. Then click Refresh and the items list will be updated to show the status of the items on the selected site(s). You can also view the locations of the current inventory of an item by clicking Inventory.
Finally, certain users can print the details of items:
Click the Print checkbox for the item on the right side of the items list (not the Select button on the left that you clicked to view the item).
Click Print.
Select a printer in the dialog and click OK.
Alternatively, you can click Export to generate a *.csv file showing the item details as they are displayed in the tab.
Capture or change a barcode for an item with the mobile app
The mobile app can be used to capture a barcode for an item which has already been added or to change the barcode.
Tap Search Inventory
Swipe to the Items tab
Filter for the item by name or by scanning it's existing barcode
Tap the
icon
Tap Change Barcode
Scan the new barcode
Tap Change Barcode