Some items are bought in one unit and sold in another, for example you buy cement by the bag but sell by the kilogram. In Smart Books you handle this by adding an alternate unit to the item and telling Smart Books how many of the main unit it holds. That number is called the conversion factor.
Before you start
- The units you want to use must already exist under Masters → Item Units. If none exist, the item form reminds you to add them first.
Add the alternate unit
- Open Masters and go to your items. Add a new item with Add Item, or open an existing item to edit it.
- Find the Unit details section. It lists the stock units for this item and their conversion to the default unit.
- Choose your main unit in the first row and make sure its Default circle is selected. The default unit is the base unit, so its factor is always 1 and the field is locked.
- Select Add unit. A new row appears.
- In the Unit column, search for and pick the alternate unit.
- In the Conv. column, type how many base units one of this unit holds. For example, if the base unit is kilogram and the alternate unit is bag of 50 kilograms, type 50.
- Fill in the rest of the item and save it.
Rules for the conversion factor
- It must be a number above 0. Zero, negative numbers and a blank box are not accepted.
- If the factor is not valid, the row shows Enter how many base units one of this unit holds (a number above 0). and you see a message asking you to fix the conversion factor on the highlighted unit row. Correct the number and save again.
- Each unit row must have a unit selected, and exactly one unit must be marked as default.
Changing or removing a unit
To change a factor, open the item and edit the number in the Conv. column. To remove an alternate unit, use the remove button at the end of its row. If you pick a different row as Default, that row becomes the base unit with a factor of 1, so check the other factors afterwards.
Importing items
When you bring items in through an import file, a row with a zero, negative or unreadable conversion factor is reported as a row error. A blank factor is treated as 1.
If something goes wrong
- If you see Add at least one item unit under Masters → Item Units, create your units first and come back.
- If you see Mark exactly one unit as default, select a single Default circle in the Unit details section.
- If you see Each unit row must have a unit selected, pick a unit in every row or remove the empty row.