CounterPoint SQL Enterprise is designed to help businesses maintain optimum inventory levels, control inventory costs, and track merchandise turns.

Inventory is the means by which all items are identified, priced, and tracked. It provides the tools needed to minimize inventory levels and out-of stock conditions, and maximize valuable management information and profitability.

Setting up inventory items is quick and easy. Item numbers and barcodes may be manually entered or assigned automatically. When a new item is added, much of the basic information may be copied from another item to help reduce errors and speed up the entry process, or a template item may be defined.

The Enterprise edition supports multiple stocking locations. Locations may be reported separately, together, or in location groups. An unlimited number of locations and location groups may be defined, and each group may have an unlimited number of locations. Location groups can be used for reporting and merchandise allocation.

Each item number identifies a unique inventory item with an associated description, category, price, barcode, and other information.

An item may be defined as an Inventory, Non-Inventory, Service, or Discount item. CounterPoint tracks on-hand quantities for Inventory-type items.

You can easily remove inactive items from CounterPoint. Inactive items are those that have no quantity on-hand, no quantity committed, and no sales activity after the specified cutoff date. CounterPoint retains sales history for items that were removed.

Support is provided for normal inventory, as well as gridded (apparel color/sized) items. The Serial/Lot Number Tracking Option allows you to track serialized and lot-controlled items.

Inventory

Sales and returns can be entered on the same ticket. Items are identified by typing the item number or scanning a barcode. Items can also be looked up by entering a partial item number, partial description, vendor number, vendor item number, category, subcategory, alternate lookup number, or any keyword in the item description.

You may zoom in on inventory to see what is on-hand, committed, on order, backordered, and in-transit for your location or other stocking locations. If an item is out of stock, you may select one of up to eight substitute items, or items may be shipped from an alternate location.

You can define prompts for different items that will display whenever the item is sold. For example, when item A is sold, the clerk must enter a valid date for Birthday, but when item B is sold, the clerk is prompted for Gender and must select from a list that includes BOY, GIRL, or EITHER.

Unlimited pages of item notes may be defined for an item and viewed during Zoom. This allows the clerk to more fully inform the customer about the product. A page of notes can be automatically displayed for an item to encourage the clerk to power-sell related items: Would you like some tennis balls with that racquet?

Item Information

Categories, subcategories, and up to four user defined classification methods may be established for grouping items. These classifications are validated to ensure correct setup of information.

An item may have unlimited pages of notes attached to it. These notes may be viewed by the user, printed on user-defined forms when the item is sold, and even be set to automatically display when the user sells the item (valuable for power-selling related items).

An item may also have:

• A weight assigned. Item weights can be totaled and printed on user-defined forms.
• Up to two user-defined profile fields for collecting additional item information.
• Up to eight substitute items that are suggested for sale when the item is not available.
• Multiple barcodes and up to three alternate selling units (e.g., 6PAK, BOX, CASE, EACH).
• A primary vendor and an unlimited number of alternate vendors. For each vendor/item combination the system tracks purchasing costs, the vendor's item number, and other valuable information.
• Minimum and maximum stocking levels. Min/max levels can be defined for each item/location for each season (up to 12 seasons) and are useful for planning inventory, generating P.O.'s, and generating transfers.

LookUps

Items may be looked up by entering an item number, barcode, partial item number, partial description, vendor number, vendor item number, category, subcategory, or any keyword in the item description. A filter may be enabled to limit your search to only matching data.

Kits

Capabilities are included for defining and processing Loose kits. A Loose kit allows the user to specify a single item at time of sale, and the system suggests a list of related items to be sold. Additional kitting capabilities for Miscellaneous (retail) kits and Prebuilt kits are included with the Kits Option.

Barcodes

Barcodes of up to 20 characters are supported, and an item may have up to eight primary and 100 secondary barcodes. Barcodes may be attached to a specific selling unit. For example, one barcode may indicate CASE, while another barcode indicates EACH. A unique barcode is supported for each individual color/size combination for a gridded (apparel) item.

Barcodes may be manually entered, or automatically generated by the system. Both manufacturer and in-house barcodes are supported. Barcodes may be printed on labels and used for automated scanning during Point of Sale checkout, when taking a physical count, when receiving merchandise, and in other functions.

Random-weight barcodes allow for variable weight items, such as meat or cheese. Ticket Entry recognizes random weight barcodes and automatically calculates the correct quantity (weight). Tare weights are also supported.

An item may have unlimited pages of notes. These notes may be viewed, printed on forms when the item is sold, and even be set to automatically display when the clerk sells the item (valuable for power-selling related items). Notes use rich text format (RTF) for bolding, underlining, etc.

Pricing and Units

Pricing of items can be set up very easily by simply assigning each item a selling price. Or you may take advantage of the many different pricing options available within the system.

An item may be priced by its stocking unit, or have a separate pricing unit. For example, you may sell paper by the REAM, at a certain price per THOU sheets.

Group or two-fer pricing allows you to sell multiple units of an item for a single price (e.g., three for a dollar). You can also set a price for each unit when less than the group quantity is purchased.

Each item may be assigned a price code and up to three price levels. The price code determines the basic pricing rules for the item—whether the item's price is selected from one of the price levels or whether it is based on the quantity purchased, the category of customer, or a combination of those factors. The calculated price can be one of the price levels, a discount percentage off of a price level, or a markup from cost.

An item may also have up to three alternate selling units, each with its own price code and discounting structure. For example, an item that is stocked by EACH might also be sold by 6PAK, BOX, and CASE.

An item may also have an entry unit to simplify conversion calculations. For example, if you sell tile by EACH and by BOX, and your customer wants to cover a 150-square-foot room, you can enter 150, and the system will convert that to either the appropriate number of EACHs or BOXs.

Promotional sale prices can be set for specific items, or an entire category or subcategory can be sold at a percentage discount. A sale has specific starting and ending dates (and times), and multiple sales can be set up in advance to activate automatically. For example, an item's CASEs could be on sale, even though EACHs are still sold at the normal price.

Contract prices can be set for specific customers. A customer's contract may have prices for specific items as well as discount percentages for entire categories or subcategories of merchandise. A contract has an identifying contract number and starting and ending dates, and specifies whether to use the contracted price or the lowest price.

Prices for groups of items may be changed automatically, based on vendor, category, subcategory, or user-defined criteria. Changes can be made by a specific dollar amount or by a percentage. Prices can optionally be rounded to the nearest cent, or to match a list of price points, such as $7.95, $8.49 and $8.95. A log of automatically changed prices can be printed.

Location-specific prices allow an item to be sold at different prices at different locations. A variety of price list formats are available, with multiple sort options. In addition, a customer price list can be printed that shows the customer's name and actual prices (and quantity breaks) that a specific customer should receive.

Markdowns

Full support is provided for scheduling and maintenance of markdowns. Each item's regular price and current selling price (Price-1) are tracked. Full markdown reporting is provided. Complete support is also provided for the Retail Inventory Method. You can schedule, count, take, and report on markdowns for one or multiple locations.

Taxes

Each item can be set up as normally taxable or normally nontaxable. This value can be overridden when the item is sold, if the user is authorized to perform tax overrides. Taxable codes may also be set up for item-specific taxes. Item-specific taxes can be assessed in addition to (surtax) or in place of the regular sales tax. Taxes can be a percentage of the sale with a maximum, or a set dollar amount per unit.

An item can have a totally different tax structure for each selling location or for different customers.

Accounting

Accounting codes may be defined and assigned to items for complete control over which General Ledger accounts are charged for inventory, receivings, sales, cost of goods sold, returns, cost of goods returned, transfers, etc.

Full support is provided for profit center by location. Transferring goods can cause accounting distributions to decrease inventory value at the from profit center and increase inventory value at the to profit center.

Food Stamps

Items may be defined as food stamp eligible. Food stamp eligible items may be paid for with food stamps, which render the sale of those items tax-exempt.

Support is provided for electronic food stamps through EBT transactions.

Commissions

Each item can be assigned a commission code to determine whether commission is calculated on selling price or on gross profit. Different commission rates may be used for sales at different price levels, and for sales by different sales reps. Commissions are described more fully under the Sales History application.

Physical Inventory

A complete physical inventory subsystem is provided for streamlined physical counts and variance reporting. Support is provided for importing count transactions from text files created by handheld data-collection devices.

Transfers

A transaction processing system is provided for initiating and tracking inventory transfer activity and in-transit quantities. A transfer-out may be entered manually and reviewed prior to posting, and may be accompanied by a user-defined transfer form. The completion of the transfer is accomplished by a transfer-in transaction and an optional transfer reconcile step. Full Multi-Site support is provided for electronic transmission of transfer documents with remote site completion.

The Transfer Advice report can provide a list of suggested transfers for up to 48 locations, using the maximum quantity, replenishment, or profile methods of calculation.

The Transfer Advice report can automatically create actual transfer transactions, which may be reviewed and edited prior to finalizing as transfer-out documents.

Reports

An extensive set of inventory reports is provided to meet the needs of a variety of different businesses. A variety of price list formats are provided for different purposes, including one that allows customer-specific reporting of prices.

The Inventory Valuation Report shows your current inventory position from a number of different points of view. The Historical Inventory Valuation Report allows you to produce a similar report for earlier time periods. Reports such as the Inventory Status Report, Stock Status Report, Usage Report, and Inventory Analysis Report can provide valuable and concise views of your inventory.

The Inventory History Report provides a detailed transaction log of historical inventory activity. The Purchasing Advice Report shows suggested purchases and can create purchase orders (and is described under the Purchasing application). The Transfer Advice Report shows suggested transfers and can create transfer documents.

Merchandising Reports

Merchandising reports are oriented toward the historical reporting of inventory groups, such as vendors, categories (departments), or subcategories. Reporting is based on user-defined calendars for years, seasons, months, and weeks. Merchandising reports include:

• Retail Inventory Value—Shows beginning and ending balances for a group of items, along with all activity that affected those balances during the specified time period, including receipts, sales, transfers, adjustments, markdowns, and discounts.

• Hot/Cold Analysis Report—Ranks items, vendors, or categories to show what's hot and what's not. Ranking may be based on sales dollars, units sold, turn rate, Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI), gross profit, gross profit percent, weeks of supply on hand, or percentage sold. Reporting may be in terms of units, cost or retail.
• Current/Prior Year Analysis Report—Compares this year's overall performance of a group of items with the previous year's performance. Information reported includes sales dollars, units sold, turn rate, sell-thru-%, markdown-%, and GMROI.
• Consolidated Grid Report—Shows current inventory status and historical sales for an item or group of items. This report allows you to analyze the performance of individual colors and sizes across items with identical color/size grids.
• Six Week Item History Report—Shows unit sales by week for an item or group of items, and highlights current selling trends. This report can be valuable in deciding whether to markdown or reorder a particular item. Information is focused on unit movements, sell-thru-%, weeks-supply-on-hand, markdown performance, and profitability.

Multi-location users may analyze information based on user-defined location groups. Groups may be reported on in three formats (examples are shown for three locations):

• Merged—For each line on the report, Loc 1, Loc 2, and Loc 3 values are combined and printed on one line.
• Separate—The entire report prints for Loc 1, then the entire report prints for Loc 2, then for Loc 3, followed by grand totals for all three locations.
• Detailed—For each line on the report, a detail line prints for Loc 1, for Loc 2, for Loc 3, then a total for the three locations.