Inventory Control
POSIM is renowned for it's ease-of-use, which makes it's full-featured inventory control capabilities even more rewarding.
In fact, POSIM makes it easy for a retail owner to handle the inventory functions that make it possible to manage a busy, successful store.
These functions include purchasing and receiving, printing barcodes, tracking profitability, analyzing inventory turns and return on investment, evaluating best (and worst) sellers as well as optimum inventory levels, vendor analysis, physical inventory, etc.
Password Privileges allow you to control which functions are accessible to each member of your staff.
And POSIM's integrated Customer Reward Program allows you to select which items are part of the reward program as well as the point value of each.
Item Records
Everything in your store--and thus in POSIM--revolves around the merchandise that you carry...items are purchased and received; customers buy them; the maintained margin of each sale contributes to your profitability; some items sell better than others; some merchandise categories sell thru faster; etc.
Every item in POSIM inhabits it's own 'Item Card' which identifies that specific SKU:
> What is your retail price
> What department and sub-department does that item belong to
> How many pieces of the SKU do you currently have on-hand, and how many on order with that vendor
> What is the vendor's UPC code that you will be scanning [or your own code if POSIM will be printing the barcodes for you]
> What is the vendor's cost on your PO, and what is your true 'landed' cost (including freight)
Keeping this SKU detail is what allows you to maintain total inventory control and to know your profitability on every item and group of items. It also allows POSIM to provide you with instant inventory reports, recommended reorders; etc.
The Item ID can be automatically assigned by POSIM, or you can assign your own Item ID to it (A). 'Intelligent' ID's are popular because they allow you to identify and classify that item simply by looking at the Item ID.
The Description (B) should identify that specific SKU so that you will know which item it is when you see it listed on your reports, or when you go to apply the barcode label to the product (and thus know which product each sticker should be applied to), or when your customer looks at their sales receipt.
If your vendor prints UPC codes on their products, you would include that 12-digit UPC code in the Misc 1 field (C). Since POSIM recognizes barcodes for both the Item ID and the Misc 1 field, this allows you to use both the UPC code AND the Item ID in identifying the product.
The remaining four Misc fields (D) allow you to categorize your merchandise into Departments, Sub-Departments, etc.
In the Vendor area on the Item Card, you identify your Primary Vendor (E) for that item (the area used for retailers who have multiple vendors for the same item is located nearby). You also identify the Vendor's Cost (which will drop into your PO's) as well as the Vendor Item Number for that SKU.
For "basic stock" items, the Maximum Stock/Reorder Point levels (F) are crucial...they allow POSIM to tell you when you need to re-order your items AND they allow POSIM to actually generate the proper order for you.
The item can also be a 'non-inventoried' item that you sell...like a service or freight. You want to track sales on those, but not count them during a physical inventory.
For a fashion item, as shown here, you will undoubtedly want to include the season, style, color and size (G) so that POSIM can provide the appropriate reports for you.
And the Customer Reward Program is 'triggered' by the Reward Code assigned to each Item.
Vendor Records
A vendor is identified for each item so that POSIM can create your PO's with your Vendor Cost, the Vendor's Item Number, etc.
If you fill out the appropriate fields on the Vendor Card, POSIM can warn you if you haven't met a minimum order requirement on your PO's (A), as well as drop in your Terms (B) into each PO that you create.
Including the contact information (C) for that vendor makes it simple to look up a phone number or email address.
POSIM can also handle multiple vendors for the same item, tracking the dfferent cost from each vendor.
Barcoding
POSIM gives you the choice of using existing barcodes that are pre-printed on your merchandise, or printing your own barcodes. As long as the data is filled out properly on the Item Card, POSIM will recognize both barcodes when selling the item, when scanning them to receive them, or during the physical inventory process.
If you choose to print your own barcodes, you can include your store name and phone number on the label as well as the price. Other information (like your Style Number or Vendor ID) can be included too if desired.
You can print a combination of letters and numbers as your barcode. You can choose from three options when you print your barcode labels: (1) for all items on a PO; or (2) for all items on a Receiving Log; or (3) for one item at a time. The third option is ideal for filling in if a tag drops off a garment or if you change your retail price; the PO and Receiving Log options are obviously the quickest and easiest way to print the majority of your barcodes.
Standard labels are white and measure 2.25"W x 1.25"H. Split labels are white and measure 1.125"W x 1"H. Obviously, you can fit more data on the Standard label than you can fit onto the Split label.
Three sample barcodes are shown here...two Standard and one Split. We have outlined them in blue for size reference (the labels themselves are all white with no outline).
The scanned picture of the labels shown below is significantly less crisp than the actual printed copy.
And, as noted above, this scanned picture of the labels is significantly less crisp than the actual printed copy.
Additional label sizes--as well as hang tags--are also available. However, if you want to include your store name, these two sizes are the best option to ensure that you have space on the label to include them.
Purchasing
By using POSIM's purchasing function, you gain several enormous advantages:
(1) You have instant access to all open orders, and their scheduled arrival dates. Need to find overdue shipments of merchandise that is time-sensitive? Need to review your anticipated payables for the next month? These are instantly accessible in the On-Order Report.
(2) You can print barcodes for all the items on each PO, and have the barcode labels waiting for the merchandise to hit the store (A).
(3) POSIM helps you to manage Special Orders and customer backorders via the Reorder Report. When you place these orders, POSIM reminds you to allocate quantities of the order needed for them.
In addition, POSIM can easily create re-orders for basic stock merchandise. The Maximum Stock and Reorder Points for each item --in addition to the quantities already On-Order in the system--allows POSIM to create the recommenced PO for you. Naturally, you can override the recommended quantities when you finalize the PO.
Since both your Retail price and the calculated profit margin appear on the PO (B), it is easy for you to review your anticipated profit margins as you place your orders.
Receiving
Receiving merchandise into POSIM is easy...you simply go to the Processed Purchase Order and tell POSIM that you are ready to receive quantities from that order. POSIM creates a Receiving Log with all the items that it knows you are waiting to receive. This Receiving procedure activates several crucial functions:
(1) It updates your landed cost in POSIM, including freight...after all, this is the actual cost that you pay to carry the product. POSIM allocates the freight among the merchandise that you are receiving (A). This allows POSIM to report on your REAL cost and maintained margin when you sell the item.
(2) It updates your On-Hand quantities so that you instantly know the units and dollar value of every SKU in inventory.
(3) Partial quantities not received on the order (B) remain as Open Orders, and continue to appear on the On Order Report (only the quantities not yet received) until all merchandise is received through subsequent Receiving Logs, or until you cancel the balance of the order.
(4) You can print barcodes for all the items that you are receiving within that Receiving Log (C). For retail environments whose vendors ship partial shipments or cancel backorders, this is usually the preferred option for printing barcodes.
(5) POSIM notifies you when Special Orders and customer backorders are waiting for the merchandise that you are receiving, and prints this information onto the Receiving Log.
You can receive your merchandise by scanning it in (D). This is a great time-saver for retailers whose merchandise is pre-barcoded by the vendor.
Reports
There are three reporting categories in POSIM's Inventory area: (1) Standard Reports, found in the Inventory module; (2) Power Reports, found in the Reports module; and (3) Custom Reports that you can create yourself, found in the Inventory module's Define-A-Report feature.
Standard Reports
These standard reports are the ones that have been in demand for the vast majority of retail environments.
The five most frequently accessed on a daily/weekly basis are:
ON-HAND REPORT...Instant access to your inventory levels and value. This report lists all inventory on-hand, along with quantities, cost and retail values and totals; the On-Hand Report can also be run for smaller segments of your inventory (i.e., all items in one Department, or from one Vendor)
ON-ORDER REPORT...Listing of all open orders, including partial backorders that have not yet been received. Great for identifying overdue orders (so that you can follow up on them) as well as anticipated payables that will be due to your vendors
REORDER REPORT...POSIM can recommend reorders that you need to place, and then actually create these PO's for you. The Reorder Report lists all items that need to be ordered (based on the Maximum Stock levels and Reorder Point levels that you set, and also taking into account open orders that already exist). Are your customers tired of hearing "Sorry, we're out of stock on that."? This will help you avoid out-of-stock situations that can cost you customer loyalty
SALES REPORT...Instant sales and profit analysis for any date range. You can have the Sales Report sort by SKU, by Department, by Vendor, or by a variety of other groupings. It shows the maintained profit margin earned for all sales during that period, as well as the maintained profit margin of each group. It also lists what percentage of total store sales each group represents. The report includes the number of units sold as well as the retail and cost value
SUBGROUP SALES REPORT...Sales and profit analysis subgrouped by your chosen categories for any date range. You can have the Subgroup Sales Report sort by Department and subsort by Vendor; or sort by Vendor and subsort by Style; etc. It shows the maintained profit margin earned for all sales during that period, as well as the maintained profit margin of each group and subgroup. It also lists what percentage of total store sales each subgroup represents. The report includes the number of units sold as well as the retail and cost value
SALES TAX REPORT...As it's name implies, this report provides information on total pre-tax sales dollars, taxable vs non-taxable sales, and sales tax collected
JIT REPORT...For businesses that reorder the same SKU's repeatedly, POSIM will 'learn' your usage pattern and recommend your Maximum Stock levels and Reorder Points for reordering based on the "Just-In-Time" method
ROI REPORT...The Return-On-Investment Report shows you the return on investment that you are achieving on your merchandise (reported as a percentage, as you would expect to see in any other investment like bank interest). You can see your ROI percentage by SKU, by Department, by Style, by Vendor, or by a variety of other parameters
SLOW-MOVING ITEMS REPORT...Need to cull out your slow sellers so that you can discontinue them and invest your inventory dollars into more effective SKU's? This report gives you the tools to do that
TURN RATIO REPORT...This report provides the annualized inventory turn rate, sorted by the parameter that you select--by individual SKU, or by Style, or by Department, etc.
Additional Reports
The reports in this module expand on the Standard Reports, and provide additional in-depth reporting functions. They include:
BEST CUSTOMER REPORT...This report identifies your highest volume (retail $'s) and/or most active (number of sales) customers. In addition to the dollars spent and number of transactions, the report also provides the customers' mailing address and email information that will allow you to create an import file for a mailing list or an email blast. And, while created to identify your best customers, this report also allows you to identify your least active customers too.
BEST SELLER REPORT...This report provides your top sellers. You decide how many items you want to appear in the report (Top 10? Top 25?), and whether you want the report to rank them by unit sales, by dollar sales, or by profit dollars earned. You can run the report for one Department at a time; one Vendor at a time; or on a storewide basis
DATED SALES GRID...Especially good for retail environments that re-order the same items again-and-again, the Dated Sales grid provides monthly sales data (dollars or units) for the range of months that you select. You can run the report for one vendor, or all vendors; for one item, or all items.
DELUXE SALES REPORT...Like it's simpler version, this Sales Report provides instant sales and profit analysis for any date range. The Deluxe Sales Report also offers the option to limit the report for that period to only one customer, and/or one salesperson, and/or one item. While filling out the parameters for the Deluxe Sales Report is more time-consuming than for the Standard Sales Report, it's advantage is that it provides the ultra-specific sales informtion that you want
DEPARTMENT SALES REPORT...The Department Sales Report allows you to evaluate your sales vs on-hand vs on-order quantities for a specific vendor, or a specific Department, or a specific Style. It is often used by fashion retailers preparing to buy a subsequent season's merchandise (using a previous season's performance as a guide); and it is an excellent report for analyzing inventory balancing between stores
DETAILED A/R SUMMARY REPORT...A great tool for following up on accounts receivables that are past due--this report provides the dating and dollars of transactions that were charged on account so that you have all the information at your fingertips when contacting overdue accounts
EMPLOYEE SALES REPORT...Ideal for evaluating salesperson performance, this report provides the retail and profit dollars achieved by each salesperson and how they compare to your other salespeople during that timeframe. The report also includes each salesperson's average sale, average items per sale, and average price per item
MAILING LIST REPORT...This report provides customer info in a mail merge (or email) format for customer contact purposes. It allows you to select the criteria for which customers you want to include in the report--people who have purchased SKU's, or merchandise from a specific vendor or department. It enables targeted marketing
MARKETING ANALYSIS REPORT...If you are using POSIM's Marketing Query function (a customer survey function that allows you to collect specific demographic data that you want to track...like zip codes; gender; and marketing source for how the customer found you), the Marketing Analysis reports on the results of those survey answers. It tells you how many invoices each response furnished, and how many sales and profit dollars were attributable to each response
MERCHANDISE REPORT...An excellent analytical tool for all businesses, the Merchandise Report is especially beneficial for fashion retailers. It allows you to compare the unit and dollar performance of your merchandise, including how many you received, how many you sold, and how many you still have on hand. Since you can sort-and-subtotal by SKU, by Department, or by Vendor...it provides the total merchandise status and performance that you need to evaluate your products
STOCK STATUS REPORT...Need to review the activity of merchandise over time? The Stock Status Report allows you to track week-to-date and month-to-date sales this year vs last year. It also provides the current on-hand and on-order status of each, as well as the last date that you received the merchandise into inventory. You can sort this report by SKU, by Department, by Vendor, etc.
STYLE REPORT...Ideal for fashion retailers, this repot allows you to analyze the performance of a complete Style, as well as comparing the performance of the individual color/size SKU's within that Style. This report works equally well for other businesses where analyzing performance of a ranges of SKU's that are all the same Style is important...for example: liquor stores (different sizes of the same brand of liquor); gift stores (different sizes and colors of the same candle); etc.
VENDOR ITEM ANALYSIS REPORT...An excellent tool in preparation for meeting with your vendors, this report can be run for one vendor at a time, or for all vendors so that you can compare vendor sales performance. The Vendor Item Analysis Report provides information on unit and dollar sales, sell-thru, maintained margin, and markdowns
Custom Report Writer
Finally, POSIM gives you access to write your own reports using it's Define-A-Report function. By accessing all the files and fields, you can build your own reports and save the parameters so that you can run them at any time without having to re-create the report definition.
Want to find all items created in POSIM after 2/20/06? Easy. Identify all discounted sales over a period of time, and the salesperson of record on those sales? Simple. Find all items where you would earn less than a 54% profit margin if it sold at full retail? Again, Define-A-Report makes these very specialized reports easy to create.
Physical Inventory
Taking a physical inventory in POSIM makes it possible for you to identify your shrinkage AND to update POSIM's on-hand quantities to match the actual quantities counted during your inventory procedure. After the physical inventory process you will have the reports that you need to quantify your shrinkage (A), as well as an on-hand report which reflects the updated on-hand values of your inventory (B).
You can take a completestorewide inventory, or do 'spot' inventories for smaller segments of merchandise. In the example below, we are inventorying only the items that come from our vendor "Star" (C).
So instead of spending days trying to take a physical count, identify the missing items, and quantify the shrinkage, it can be done in a matter of hours.
We can provide the portable barcode device which is programmed to interface with POSIM's inventory function.
Accounting Interface
POSIM integrates with the three most popular accounting packages on the Mac platform--QuickBooks; MYOB; and MultiLedger.
It generates four accounting files that are pre-formatted to import into these packages: the Sales Journal; the Purchases Journal; the Inventory Adjustment Journal; and the Accounts Receivable Journal.
As a general rule, most retailers run the reports affiliated with their merchandise performance directly in POSIM (sales; inventory; turn ratio; maintained profit margin; customer history; etc.), not their accounting package. This is logical, and is easier since the details of the merchandise performance is stored in POSIM. Then they run their income statement, balance sheet, and payables through their accounting package.
By entering your General Ledger Account Numbers into POSIM (and Account Groups, if you use them), you provide the ability for this information to flow seamlessly from POSIM into your accounting package.
If you choose to use Account Groups, these are set up in addition to the standard G/L account numbers.
As you can see here, if you use Account Groups they break down the standardized accounts--like the Sales account or the Inventory account--into additional, separate groupings.Your decision to use specialized Account Groups will be determined on how your accounting package has been set up.
Tracking serial numbers for specific pieces of inventory is easy in POSIM.
When you receive the serialized merchandise into POSIM via the Receiving Log, POSIM asks you to identify all the serial numbers for the items that you are receiving (you can type them in, or scan them if they are barcoded by your vendor).
POSIM asks you to identify which specific serial number is being sold at that time.
Here, in the black highlighted area to the right, we are selecting the serial number that is being sold (moving out of inventory)
If you have any questions about POSIM's other inventory management features, please contact us. Or, if you are ready to check out the point-of-sale features in POSIM, click the appropriate button below.
