Managing a stock item's suppliers and SKUs
A stock item can be bought from more than one supplier, and often under more than one product code, each with its own pack size and price. In Breww these are the supplier item details recorded on the Suppliers tab of a stock item, and each one is referred to as a supplier SKU.
Setting these up means Breww can fill in the supplier SKU, pack size, minimum order quantity and expected price for you whenever you add the item to a purchase order, inventory receipt or supplier invoice.
Adding supplier item details
- Go to
Stock itemsand select the stock item you want. - Open the Suppliers tab.
- Select
Add supplier item details. - Complete the fields below, then select
Save supplier item details.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Supplier | The supplier you buy this stock item from. |
| Supplier SKU (product code) | The supplier's own code for the item. Breww quotes this on your purchase orders so your supplier knows exactly what you are ordering. |
| Supplier quantity/pack size | How much of the stock item one pack from this supplier contains. If you track Citra in kilograms and your supplier ships 5 kg boxes, the pack size is 5 kg. |
| Supplier minimum order quantity (MOQ) | The smallest number of packs this supplier will accept on an order. Leave it blank for no restriction. |
| Expected price | The price for one pack, not for one of whatever you track the stock item by. |
| Supplier VAT rate | The tax rate this supplier charges on the item, or choose that tax is not charged. |
| Preferred | Use this supplier and SKU by default when ordering this stock item. See below. |
| Obsolete | Hide this SKU when adding items to documents, without deleting it. See below. |
Repeat this for every supplier and product code you buy the item under. A single supplier can have several SKUs against the same stock item, which is useful when they sell it in more than one pack size.
Choosing a preferred SKU
When a stock item has several SKUs, you can mark one of them as Preferred so Breww knows which one you normally buy. Only one SKU per stock item can be preferred.
There are two ways to set it:
- Enable the Preferred setting when adding or editing the supplier item details.
- Select the star button on a row on the Suppliers tab. Breww asks you to confirm first, naming the SKU and supplier that will lose the preferred status.
Making a SKU preferred automatically removes the flag from whichever SKU held it before, so you never have to clear the old one yourself.
Once set, the preferred SKU:
- Is listed first on the Suppliers tab, with a Preferred badge.
- Is listed first in the stock item dropdown when adding items to purchase orders, inventory receipts and supplier invoices, again with a Preferred badge.
- Is the SKU Breww reaches for when generating purchase orders from a pre-brew stock check. See Checking future ingredient stock levels & generating purchase orders from a pre-brew stock check.
A SKU that is marked as obsolete cannot also be the preferred one. If you need to make an obsolete SKU preferred again, disable Obsolete on it first.
Marking a SKU as obsolete
When a supplier discontinues a product code, or you simply stop buying it, mark the SKU as Obsolete rather than deleting it. Deleting throws away the purchasing history and expected price you have built up, whereas marking it obsolete keeps the record while getting it out of your way.
An obsolete SKU:
- Is hidden from the stock item dropdown when adding items to purchase orders, inventory receipts and supplier invoices.
- Is left out of the average Breww uses for the stock item's expected purchase price per unit, so a price you no longer pay stops skewing the figure.
- Is skipped when generating purchase orders from a pre-brew stock check, both when choosing the supplier and when working out the pack size and price.
- Is shown with an Obsolete badge on the stock item's Suppliers tab, and on the Supplied products tab of the supplier.
Documents you have already raised are unaffected, so an existing purchase order or inventory receipt that used the SKU keeps it.
If every SKU for a stock item is marked as obsolete, the stock item itself still appears in the dropdown, but with no supplier details attached. You can still add it to a document, but Breww will not fill in a SKU, pack size or expected price for you.
Where supplier SKUs appear
When you add an item to a purchase order, inventory receipt or supplier invoice, the stock item dropdown shows one entry per supplier SKU, so you can pick the exact pack size you are ordering. Each entry carries badges showing:
- The pack size for that SKU.
- The minimum order quantity, where one is set.
- The supplier SKU itself.
- A Preferred badge, on the SKU you have marked as preferred.
Only SKUs belonging to the document's supplier are offered, and obsolete ones are left out. If you cannot find the item you need, either add supplier item details for it against that supplier, or enable Show items from other suppliers below the dropdown.
You can also review everything you buy from one supplier by going to Stock items -> Suppliers, selecting the supplier, and opening the Supplied products tab.