Buying and selling in multiple UOMs: cases, boxes, eaches, packs.

Merri-W · ‎December 10, 2018

Starting/Using Enterprise Wholesale, Advanced Inventory & Advanced Pricing. I have thousands of items, many vendors, customers on contract pricing tiers. My items may be bought in a case, pack, or each and I may have multiple vendors for one item. These items may be sold in an each, a case, a pack, or they may not have all UOM options for sales. We must have the inventory account for all UOMs - a case may sometimes be sold in eaches, or eaches may be sold as a case. We need inventory to reflect if we have enough for a pack, a case, or not so setting up cases and eaches as different items would not work. I am having to alter my way of thinking, as my current/soon-to-be-ex-system does not have UOM "sets", but any UOM may be applied to any item and I could override any conversion on a per item basis.

Example:
First product: I buy a case of bandages. The case is 24 boxes of 100, 6 inner packs of 4 boxes. I would buy this buy the case of 24, sell as a box of 100 (my base or my each), also sell as a pack of 4 boxes, and also sell as a case of 24. Discounts are offered for buying packs or cases.
Second product: I also buy another case of 24, tubes of ointment, 2 inner packs of 12, and my base is an each. Am I correct in thinking that though these items both have cases of 24 they need to be each part of separate UOM sets? Maybe I set up one set called "BX/100 PK/4BX CS/24BX", base UOM being the box of 100, pack equals 4 boxes, case equals 24 boxes. Then another UOM set called "EA PK/12EA CS/24EA", base UOM being each, pack of 12 equals 12, and case of 24 equals 24? My box of 100 will not always be a part of a case of 24, or have an inner pack and my case of 24 will not always be a box of 100. I know this will lead to a lot of UOM sets.
Third product: I buy a case of 24 of an item, but only intend to buy in cases, and always sell as an each. Can I use "EA PK/12EA CS/24EA" and somehow prevent a case of 24 showing as an option for sales? Or should I have another UOM set for "EA/CS24"? (Please note these UOM set names are not necessarily what we would use.)

Additional Info: It may or may not be pertinent to this particular topic/question, but we also would then sell these items to Customer A at one price and Customer B at different pricing. I understand pricing will be set up separately from the inventory, but I wanted to throw that in there in case there were any tips, tricks, or potential complications that were foreseeable from the example given.

Rustler · ‎December 10, 2018

Multiple unit of measure in QB is poorly implemented, but if you want to use it, you must have the accountant, contractor, or manufacturing edition -for some strange reason intuit does not think the retail edition needs multiple u/m

You set the base unit to the lowest unit you buy or sell, each is usual

then you create related units, case = x-number of base units, pack = x-number of base units, etc

Then in the u/m block of purchases, or sales you select the u/m you are buying or selling

see this for why I say u/m is poorly implemented
http://onsale-apparel.com/Rustler/tag/um-good-and-bad

custom pricing is done with price level lists. You can assign the price level list to a customer on the customer record additional info tab (in 2013 and up on the payments tab)---- and/or select the price level list in the rate block of the invoice or sales receipt. One price level list can be used for as many customers as you wish, like a retail and wholesale price level list for example.
Menu Edit>Preferences>Sales & Customers>Company tab > check mark use price levels to turn on price level lists. .... also see Help>Price Level List

View solution in original post

Rustler · ‎December 10, 2018

Multiple unit of measure in QB is poorly implemented, but if you want to use it, you must have the accountant, contractor, or manufacturing edition -for some strange reason intuit does not think the retail edition needs multiple u/m

You set the base unit to the lowest unit you buy or sell, each is usual

then you create related units, case = x-number of base units, pack = x-number of base units, etc

Then in the u/m block of purchases, or sales you select the u/m you are buying or selling

see this for why I say u/m is poorly implemented
http://onsale-apparel.com/Rustler/tag/um-good-and-bad

custom pricing is done with price level lists. You can assign the price level list to a customer on the customer record additional info tab (in 2013 and up on the payments tab)---- and/or select the price level list in the rate block of the invoice or sales receipt. One price level list can be used for as many customers as you wish, like a retail and wholesale price level list for example.
Menu Edit>Preferences>Sales & Customers>Company tab > check mark use price levels to turn on price level lists. .... also see Help>Price Level List

ERPAG · ‎January 25, 2019

We had the same request from our clients over and over, until our development team rolled up their sleeves and they implemented the second UOM conversion. You can read how we handled it on this link: https://blog.erpag.com/2018/09/erpag-5.html

Our software also integrates with QB Online: https://blog.erpag.com/2018/09/quickbooks-online-erpag-manufacturing.html

BoxesNearMe1 · ‎March 29, 2019

Does Quickbooks know that small businesses actually need to have the ability to split cases for sale by the each and sell by the case? This is what every other POS system does as a part of the program not an expensive upgrade. The more I use quickbooks the more likely I am going to recommend the business change to another full featured software package.

PreciousB · ‎March 29, 2019

Hello BoxesNearMe1,

Our Engineering team is constantly working to improve QuickBooks Desktop and appreciates the help of users in bringing things like this to their attention. We develop and improve our products by listening to our customer's needs.

We're always working to make QuickBooks better. You help us decide which features to build, and what improvements should be made to our platform.

While we are unable to split cases for sale by the each and sell by the case, you can check regularly for product updates and feature enhancement through this link: QuickBooks Blog.

Thanks for letting us know your experience. I'm here help some more if you have other questions about QuickBooks Desktop. Have a good one.

bglynn58 · ‎April 12, 2019

I agree with looking at another full blown system. QBO continues to crash regularly for me with the message "We are working on it". The inventory without a unit of measure is worthless.

HoneyLynn_G · ‎April 12, 2019

I'm here all ears to listen and take note of your feedback, @bglynn58.

We're currently evolving and updating the product and services we offer to fit every business need. At this time, the Advanced Inventory and Unit of Measure features are only available with QuickBooks Desktop Premier and Enterprise.

If you wish to change your QuickBooks platform, you can check out the link below for comparison and available discounts.

QuickBooks products

Meanwhile, may I know what specific task are you doing when you get the "We are working on it" message? I can give you some recommendations once I have the details or check my resources to verify if there's an on-going investigation about it.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any follow-up questions. I'll be keeping an eye out for your response and look forward to getting to the bottom of this.

BoxesNearMe1 · ‎April 22, 2019

Hello my Precious,

REALLY! I had a POS system I purchased in 1999 that did everything that QBO is now just getting around to poorly implementing. Of course QBO wants more money for basic functionality that every other POS system offers as standard fare. SaaS is not a business model beneficial to the end-user. I see that QB followed the Apple business model offering what competitors already have in their products years later and at higher prices.

@PreciousB wrote:
Hello BoxesNearMe1,

Our Engineering team is constantly working to improve QuickBooks Desktop and appreciates the help of users in bringing things like this to their attention. We develop and improve our products by listening to our customer's needs.

We're always working to make QuickBooks better. You help us decide which features to build, and what improvements should be made to our platform.

While we are unable to split cases for sale by the each and sell by the case, you can check regularly for product updates and feature enhancement through this link: QuickBooks Blog.

Thanks for letting us know your experience. I'm here help some more if you have other questions about QuickBooks Desktop. Have a good one.

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Buying and selling in multiple UOMs: cases, boxes, eaches, packs.