Products – Adding and Editing

• This function may be restricted to Managers or Administrators in your organisation
• To create a record for the Product, again if one does not already exist within tengoPOS. Type \\PROD (or click Product button if there is one, or menu entry in CRM) to produce a list of all existing products within tengoPOS. Click Add, complete the following –

• PLU is the “Product Look Up”, the unique reference for your product within the system from here on. There must be a PLU for every product.
• Bar code – if required and you have a bar code printer connected (and scanner for future use) you can create a bar code for your product. Once all the other product details have been input, simply click the Label button bottom left of screen. A bar code label will print, and a corresponding number will appear in the Barcode box. More labels can be printed from now on for this product by clicking the label button (if you click the label button twice then a box will appear asking how many labels you would like to print), and if the label produced is subsequently scanned into an appropriate field (e.g. at point of sale, or during stock take) tengoPOS will automatically complete other relevant boxes for you with details for this product.
• Description is free format, should be concise and include key word/s for the product, that will make it easy to find using the Search function on the \\PROD page. e.g. “Brandname pencil blue” would appear if you wanted to see a list of all pencils (or pens as well if you typed “pen” in the search box) Blue items if you searched “Blue” or the manufacturers name if you searched their Brand name. This is useful at the point of sale if an item is not Bar-coded.
• The VAT rate can be chosen from the drop down, if applicable. The second Conditional VAT rate applies where goods have 2 rates of VAT depending on circumstances, e.g. hot take away food as opposed to cold. Ignore this in most cases.
• You will Include the Suppliers name just created (if a new Supplier, \\SUPP – see article) or existing from the drop-down list. Supplier name is not mandatory, the record can be created without one – but if your organisation records stock movements, it is important.
• Departments are important, ensure you put the correct department in here. Pick from the drop down list. Later in the Goods in process, you will have to put in a Dept if you don’t do it here. Departments are managed by typing \\DEPT (see the article on Departments), and enter. Sales for many of our clients are monitored by department, e.g. Ladies, books or Hot Food, Cafe etc
• Company, Section, Selection, Publisher etc are optional.
• You can input the amount you intend to sell the product for in the Retail box. When the product is being sold, the till will recognise it from the PLU or Barcode input, and automatically show this price.
• Permissible discounts for the product are controlled in the relevant boxes.
• In the panel on the right tick appropriate attributes linked to the product. Most can be safely ignored, you will likely know if they apply to your organisation. Most commonly used are Gift Aid item, if you require the Gift Aid customer detail capture screen to appear when the product is sold, and “Stock Controlled” box third from bottom which MUST be ticked if you need to keep records of the number of this product you have. 
• On the Costs tab, second along top of screen, Unless you have a specific reason, leave the Cost Method box as Average. You can input a Standard cost, and a cost from the particular supplier, only if you have entered their details earlier. These two figures may well be the same. The system will value your stock based on these figures. If you buy in the same product in at different prices over time, when you sell items the system will attach an average cost price to each sale, and value the remaining stock at an average unit price.
• The Accounts tab at the top of the page is used to attach a Nominal code to the product for accounting. It is often left blank, but in some organisations it is used.
• Ignore the other top tabs for now
• Click OK bottom right, to save your info and exit, Close Product Listing Screen

NB at present when you type \\prod, the list displays 200 only. If you have more, click “Full” at the bottom of the page to get a list including Every product. Better still to type something in the top box to narrow the search, or  scan in the product bar code. E.g. type “pen” in the box, hit search, every product with these consecutive letters in the PLU or description will appear, including any pens, pencils etc.