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Using Subproducts
If you sell clothing, or other items that are essentially
identical except for their size, color and other descriptors (e.g.,
brand, flavor, pattern, auto make, model and year, etc.) you can use the Subproducts
feature to make managing your inventory, and entering orders easier.
This utility makes entering these Subproducts faster
and easier. With it you can specify an unlimited number of
variations for a single product then create all of them with a
single click. Before committing them to your inventory you can
delete any combinations that you do not sell.
Note: Click the Tables tab on the Company Database to locate the link to
open the SubProducts feature.
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Open the SubProducts dialog by clicking the
 SubProducts
link on the Tables tab
of the Company Database.
The
following screen will open.
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Enter the following fields as described below:
Required Fields
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Master Code - Enter the alphanumeric code you wish to
use to group your SubProducts. This code will be used on the Order
screen to lookup products. You should enter this field in
UPPERCASE letters.
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Product Prefix - The code you enter here
will be used as the prefix for each of the created SubProducts
(e.g., a prefix of 123 will create Product Numbers of 123-00001,
123-00002 etc.). Use as short a code as possible. This is usually
the same as the Master Code. You should enter this field in
UPPERCASE letters.
Note: Make sure your Prefix and
Suffix are no longer than 15 characters.
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Suffix Width - Specify the number of
characters that will follow the Product Prefix.
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Optionally enter as much product information as
you wish. These fields are identical to the fields found on the
main Product screen as described in the Add
a Product help topic.
The following fields are recommended as the minimum to be entered:
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Description - Enter up to 30 characters to help
you identify this product when viewing your inventory.
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Retail Price - This is the amount that will be
charged to customers with a Pricing Level of Retail (or none) when
taking an order. You may override this price on the order entry form for
any item by simply typing the new price.
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In Stock - Enter the
current number of items you have on hand.
or
Non Inventory Item - Check this field if you do
not track stock levels for this product. This will also prevent
backorders during order entry.
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Supplier - Select a vendor from the
Supplier field pull down list to associate the product with its
supplier. If you have not added the supplier yet, you can make the
association later by editing the product.
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Clear Fields - Click this button to enter a
new SubProduct entry. Or, you can simply alter the fields for the
next entry.
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Next, click the SubProduct Options tab to
enter your product options and their variations. The following
dialog will open.
Options - Enter Options by
typing each one and pressing the Enter key to drop to the next
line (Note: you can also type an Option then press the Tab key to
type its Values. Use the mouse or Shift-Tab to return to the
Options column to add more options.)
Values - For each Option you can add an
unlimited number of Values. Highlight any option then press the
Tab key to move to the Value column. Enter as many values as are
appropriate (e.g., for an Option of Color, enter values of Blue,
Red, Yellow etc.).
Save List - You can click this button to
save your list of Options and Values. In the dialog that opens
type a name for the list and click OK. This is useful if you have
products with similar options. You can create a SubProduct in the
Product Info tab then use the Open List button to load the Options
from the similar product.
Create Products - Click this button to
create a Preview of all the possible combinations of this
SubProduct. Note: The products will not be created in Mailware at
this step. You can view them in the Preview tab and make changes
and/or delete items before committing them to your inventory list.
Next, click the Preview tab. The
following screen will appear.
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All the items you created in the previous steps are
listed here. You can make changes to any field by simply typing your
changes. You can also delete entries you do not need by holding Ctrl and
pressing Delete while the entry is highlighted.
Note: You can drag column headers to different positions. The column
order you create will be saved automatically. This is useful if you
consistently edit the same fields.
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- Click this button to open a
dialog for the currently selected entry where you can change product
information.
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- When you are done making
changes click this button to add the items in Preview to Mailware. Once
added they may be edited, deleted etc. from the Products table.
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When entering orders you can lookup Subproducts by their
options. This makes locating items easy and intuitive. For more details
on this feature see the help topic: Lookup
Subproducts.
You're done! For instructions on setting up Subproducts manually
see below.
Manual Entry of Subproducts
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You can add a new product, or search for an
existing one, by clicking the appropriate link on the Tables tab
of the Company Database.
If you add a new product the Product screen will
open to a blank form. Skip
to the next step for instructions on creating SubProducts.
If you search for an existing product the
following search screen will open.
Type a Product Number in the Search Characters
field to locate your product, then click the 
button. The Product screen will open to the selected item.
Note: You can also select a different Search By field
to locate a Product by its Supplier Number, or short Description. 
SubProduct Information
Create a master product then clone it into SubProducts.
Find or Add a product as described above.
Click the Product tab or hold Alt
and press N to switch between tabs.
Enter or edit your Product data in the screen that
opens. You can use the Tab or Enter key to move between fields. When you
cursor is on a button press the Space bar to activate it. Or, simply use
the mouse.
You can enter a
description, a long description, quantities In Stock etc. (as described
under the Add/Edit a Product
help topic in Mailware).
Tip: Click the 
button and
select Product Types... from the menu that pops up. Type a
code of CL and a description of Clothing. Click OK
then select Clothing in the Product Type pulldown field. Product Types are used by reports. By assigning a
product type of Clothing you can create a report of all clothing
items in inventory, sold this month etc.
Subproduct - In this field type an
identifier for this SubProduct (e.g., T-Shirt) and press tab or Enter.
To see a list of all the SubProducts you have created so far click
the List button.
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After you have set up your product including the
SubProduct field, click the 
button. A Clone Product As dialog will open with the current product's information already entered.
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Change at least the Product Number field and as many of the other fields below as necessary to differentiate this product from its parent:
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Description - Enter up to 30 characters to help
you identify this product when viewing your inventory. For SubProducts
you will typically want to enter a description that includes
the different information about the product. For example, to
create several variations of a T-shirt enter descriptions for
each cloned product as follows:
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Medium White Tshirt
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Medium Blue Tshirt
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Large White Tshirt
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Large Blue Tshirt
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Long Description - You can enter an unlimited
length description of the item. This description can be viewed during
order entry from the Product Lookup dialog when adding items to the
order.
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Retail Price - This is the amount that will be
charged to customers with a Pricing Level of Retail (or none) when
taking an order. You may override this price on the order entry form for
any item by simply typing the new price.
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Wholesale Price - This is the amount that will be
charged to customers with a Pricing Level of Wholesale when taking an
order. You may override this price on the order entry form for any item
by simply typing the new price.
Note: You can set Price Levels for customers in the Additional
Info tab of the Customer screen.
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In Stock - Enter the
current number of items you have on hand. Thereafter, In Stock
quantities are calculated automatically by Mailware when you take
orders, process refunds and run the Receive
Inventory and Adjust
Inventory actions.
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Cost - Enter a beginning cost for this
product. If you use Mailware's accounting system (available in Version 2
and higher) as you receive inventory in the future Mailware calculates
your average cost automatically and updates it here.
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"Go to the new product..."
Select this checkbox and click the
button. You will be taken to the Product screen for this item so you can make changes to any fields not available in the Clone As dialog. When you are finished click
the 
button to close the Product screen or return to step 6 to clone another product.
Or,
De-Select this checkbox and click the
button. A new Clone As screen will appear so you can continue creating similar items.
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Repeat the above steps for all the SubProducts you
wish to create.
Testing Your SubProducts
After you have created the SubProduct clones for a particular
product you can select them on new orders.
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Enter a new order (see the Take an Order help
topic for instructions on entering new orders). Click on, or tab to the Product column in the
Product Grid in the center of the order screen. Click the 
button to open the Product Lookup dialog.
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In the Product Lookup dialog your products are
sorted by Product #. In most cases this works fine, but you want
your SubProducts to be listed together. Click the Search By
field (or press Alt-B) and change ProductNo to Serial
(Serial is the field assigned to SubProducts in Mailware).
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In the Search Characters field at the top of the
dialog start typing the SubProduct code you assigned to your
product (e.g., T-SHIRT). The cursor in the grid will jump to the
first SubProduct you have set up. It will be followed by the other
SubProducts you created so you can browse through them and select
the item you want to add to the order.
Complete the order if you wish, and save it (Note: When you
add a product to this order it cannot be exited without saving it. You can, however, use the
 button to mark
the order canceled if you wish. This ensures an unbroken sequence
of order numbers. See the Take
an Order help topic for more details
on this feature).
Summary
Following are the key points covered and the benefits of using this feature.
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You created several similar products quickly using
the Clone As feature.
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Each product was assigned the same SubProduct
code (e.g., T-SHIRT). This allows you to group the items in the Order
screen Product Lookup. You should use a SubProduct that describes
the product so you can look it up easily (e.g., Mailware Tshirt).
You can also continue to look up the item by Product # so you
could swipe a bar code or type the codes you are used to now.
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Each product was assigned its own unique
Product # that was independent of the SubProduct (this feature
enables the use of bar codes, use of your existing product numbers etc.).
Other programs require you use your Product # field for their SubProduct code thus usurping the ability to use your own numbers
or bar codes.)
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You also can assign a Product Type which can
be used in reports to group products. This works well for the T-shirt example.
A Clothing Product Type of CL can be applied to all
clothing items (Tshirts, shoes, bathing suits).
Now that you know how to use SubProducts you can apply
the procedures above to group products by more than size and color.
For example you can create:
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Auto Parts - Enter a SubProduct for the
Make of each car. Enter the Model Year in the beginning of the
Description. On the order screen Product Lookup this will group
your parts by Make then list each Model Year. Or, reverse the
fields to sort by Model Year then Make. Both options are shown in
the example below.
Note: You could further define the Toyota example to separate Toyota
Corolla, Toyota Supra etc.
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Consumables - Create food items with
different flavors (Beef Jerky - plain, peppered, teriyaki), Cigars
with different tobacco contents, Vitamins for different age groups
etc.
If you need assistance please feel free to ask us for help. You can do so quickly and easily by
completing our Technical Support
form.
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