About Alternates
You can set up alternate information for an item to designate an item to be sold in place of the original item, to give additional information about the item, or to indicate a special quality about the item.
Alternate codes provide several powerful capabilities. You can influence the order writer to sell—and put on customer orders—those items that your company purchases most efficiently and profitably. This serves two important objectives. First, the customer order is filled more completely from stock, increasing your service level. Second, it is not necessary to create a backorder for an item and purchase it from your wholesaler, since you sell a comparable item that is stocked and available immediately. One of the most common uses of alternates is to substitute through the computer. One of the main causes of inventory control problems is the substitution of items in the warehouse. One of your goals should be to relieve your personnel of the responsibility of determining which items to substitute for others. The result is a twofold reduction in expenses: your order entry and warehouse personnel are no longer making these decisions, and you are no longer paying for the cost of these decisions when they are in error. You can use alternate types to help you achieve your goals for inventory control.
There are 14 types of alternates. They are in three groups: hard coded, preset, and alternate types with no preset code.
Hard Coded: Display-Only Information, Extended Item Description, Linking
Note: Hard-coded alternates cannot have the codes changed.
Preset Codes: Discontinued Item, Generic Substitute, Reference Item if there is no On-hand Item, Reference-Only Item, Substitute, Vendor Stock Number
Note: To use the preset alternates, you must either use the preset code from the (LE) Inventory Parameters screen or assign your own code in the Special Alternate Codes fields in the (LE) screen.
No Preset Codes: Group Check-out Items for Point-of-Sale, Items That Do Not Print on Invoices, Like Item Sub, Preferred Item Sub, Substitute if None Shipped
Note: These alternates are not hard coded and have no preset codes. You must assign a code to these alternates in the (LE) screen before you can use them. For information about using the (LE) screen, see Parameters.
See also: