Introduction to Item Maintenance

Introduction to Item Maintenance

Item Maintenance means maintaining your item database. This might mean creating a new item, changing a price, and adding items to a batch. 

Understanding what makes up an item 

The bare minimum fields that need to be programmed for an item to ring at the register are: 

  1. Main code (Barcode) 
  2. Descriptor 
  3. POS Descriptor 
  4. Sub Department 
  5. Price

*Note* These 5 fields are absolutely necessary to ring an item at the register 

Explanation of these fields 

Main Code: The very first and most important part of an item is the barcode. This is the base programming of every single item in the SMS Software. In the software you'll see this referred to as the "Main Code". Every item is identified by some kind of number first and foremost, and we call this the main code. A main code can also be a PLU (Product Lookup) number. There is no difference between the main code and plu number in this system. A plu in SMS is just a main code with a length of 4 or 5 digits. 

Every single item in the SMS software will start with a main code. Whether the barcode is entered into the system by physically scanning the barcode on the outside of the packaging, or the barcode is made up by the user and punched into the system by hand. Every single item has a main code.

Descriptor: The Descriptor is the name of the item as seen in the reports. 

POS Descriptor: The POS Descriptor is the name of the item as the customer would see it. This shows up on the receipts and on the customer display monitor. 

Sub Department: Every item needs to be placed into a Sub Department. An item will not ring if it does not have a Sub Department programmed. (Grocery, Taxable Grocery, Produce, etc.) 

Price: This is the price that the item will ring at the register. 

These five fields are the bare minimum amount of information needed to program an item so that it will ring at the register. In the "Item Maintenance" screen, these fields will be highlighted yellow to make them easier to find. If they are not highlighted, call us and ask a technician to highlight these fields for you. 

You can program much, much more information about an item if you please, but these five fields are the bare minimum needed for the item to scan at the register. 

 

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