4.72 - Sub Inventory (parent/child inventory)

-Sub-inventory started out as a need for more data on an inventory item. Technically we have something called a parent item, which is a top level item or can even be a place holder for child items. Then we have child item, which become a sub of the parent. A simple example of this would be the candy snickers bars would be a parent item. Then underneath that you might have different batches of snickers bars such as different expiration dates, holiday wrapping, different additions, or some other value that needs to be tracked or compared.

-Some people wonder why it has to go that deep and it depends on how tight you need to monitor things. Certain things do great staying at the top or parent level. Anything that changes overtime, whether its costs, attributes, quality, ingredients, batches, lots, etc. - that should all be tracked through sub inventory.

-One of the benefits of sub inventory is getting perfect cost of goods sold. For example if your snickers bars are normally $0.50, then you get a new batch that costs you $0.55 then you can actually differentiate between the $0.50 snickers bar and the $0.55 snickers bars.

-We recommend labeling your sub inventory or having explicit process rules where you scan all sub items or only open a package at a time so that you can track your cost of goods correctly.

-There are ways that you can supersede or bypass the sub inventory controls. Usually it is at the clerk or counter person level where they scan one item and put it times a quantity instead of scanning individual items. This could be okay in certain settings or be a negative to a company wanting a tight tracking on sub inventory pieces.

-Anyone who has to report to state compliance systems or has some sort of outside monitoring on their inventory, we highly recommend using sub inventory. It goes to a much higher level of tracking including RFID tag tracking, sub barcodes, and other sub attributes.

-Dealing with sub attributes, these are unlimited and you can virtually build up your own database needs and requirements and assign attributes to any part categories. These may be drop down fields, numeric fields, date/time fields, open entry. These sub attributes are also searchable and may be printed on invoices, quotes, and labels. Basically it allows you to identify additional data points that you need and want to track.  

-There is tons of brainstorming and documentation on the potential scope of sub inventory - how deep it needs to go, where and what could be done with it, etc.

-Once you have sub inventory you can actually open packages, have them but keep them disabled, and also fully close them out. This allows you to dictate the flow of inventory going out and needed package controls.

-Sub inventory can be purchased, mixed, blended, sold, and the entire chain of custody can be maintained and held throughout the system. It is very deep level inventory controls.