Yellow Dog Inventory

Food & Beverage User Manual

     Document Date: May 2016

Introduction

The Yellow Dog Inventory Food & Beverage User Manual contains all the essential information for you to make full use of our software.  Yellow Dog Inventory is a feature-rich inventory management program designed to handle any type of F&B environment. It is very user friendly, and this manual will provide a detailed roadmap for everyday use, but should any problems or questions arise please contact us at the Support Information below. 

A couple of basic things to keep in mind: 

- All of your inventory management should be done in Yellow Dog Inventory. Items entered directly into your Point of Sale (POS) will not be recognized by Yellow Dog Inventory unless they are mapped as part of a one-way interface. Please contact your Yellow Dog Inventory implementation consultant if you have questions about your interface type.

- Make sure the Yellow Dog Inventory client application has a connection to your database. Your implementation consultant will work in concert with your IT personnel to ensure that the connection is in place.  

- There is no limit to the number of Yellow Dog Inventory client programs you can have connected to your database. 

Purchasing Supplies

If you need to purchase additional equipment or labels, please visit our web store. 

Support Information

Support Hotline:   757.663.7514 (9am – 6pm EST Monday – Thursday, 9am-5pm Friday)

Emergency Support:   757.818.9360, option 2

Click here to schedule a one hour training session.  Training is up to one hour and free of charge to any customers currently on support.

To access our Knowledge Base, click here. To access our Support ToolKit, click here.

Getting Started

Familiarize yourself with the layout of this screen, called the Inventory Items screen, as it is the main point from which most Yellow Dog Inventory functions originate. 

Each section is individually broken down in the following pages. 

A few things to note throughout the Yellow Dog Inventory system:

• Required information is denoted by red text. Black text indicates optional information.
  
• Most items have right-click functionality.
  
• Permissions vary for each user. If you can’t access something, check your employee setup under System Setup or have your system administrator check it.
  
• Filters for the data you see on the screen are at the top of the page. More on that later.
  

This is the left-hand sidebar of the main Inventory Items screen. This menu is divided into five main sections:

• Item Management – allows users to create and edit items, count inventory, create and edit recipes, manage ydiMobile sessions and schedule price changes, etc.
  
• Purchasing – allows users to request and order product, receive them in, complete the invoicing process with freight and taxes, transfer product from store to store and submit returns for credit from vendors.
  
• Reports – allows users to generate over 150 standard reports that are customizable by vendor, level, dimension, date ranges and stores, plus saved reports and item lists.
  
• Common Setup – allows users to create, modify and remove basic setup information, such as dimensions like size and wine region, vendors, and levels.
  
• System Setup – allows users to modify more advanced setup information, including interfaces by store, print templates and accounting interfaces. This is also where employee management can be accessed.
  

Common Setup

Your Yellow Dog Inventory implementation consultant will begin the process of setting up your system for you. Frequently, data will be imported, creating things like dimensions, levels, vendors, etc. However, once you are working in the system, you may find it necessary to create new or edit existing setup information. For this, you will navigate to Common Setup.

Dimensions

Dimensions are most commonly used to specify information such as size and color. However, if you have other needs they can be used for anything you like, such as wine/beer varietals, regions, etc.

More Dimensions

The default Dimensions screen has two dimensions; however a tab with four additional dimensions is available if you need them. Please check your employee permissions if you do not have access to this.

Managing Dimensions

• To create a new dimension, click on the three dots next to the first empty dimension and enter a title for the new Dimension, e.g. Size, Color, Varietal, etc.
  
• Click “Create New…” and enter in the new Dimension. Click the “Save & Close” button if you’re done or “Add New” button to add multiple items.
  

Removing Dimensions

• To remove a dimension, click on a dimension and hit “Remove”. If the Dimension is still assigned to an item, it will not allow you to remove it.
  

Levels

Levels are how inventory items are categorized in Yellow Dog Inventory. Typically, the hierarchy is as follows:

• Level 1 = Department
  

• Level 2 = Sub-Department
  

• Level 3 = Category
  

• Level 4 = Sub-Category
  

• So the level scheme for an item might look something like this:
  

• Department = Food Inventory
  

• Category = Dry Storage
  

• Sub-Category = Pastas/Grains/Legumes
  

The amount of Levels created and used in the system is fully customizable. You may only require 1 level while another company would require all 4 levels in their tree structure. This is completely up to you and should be discussed and determined before the installation of Yellow Dog Inventory.  

At any point, you have the ability to create, rename, remove, and perform any other edits to the Inventory Levels in the system.

Creating New Levels

• Open the Inventory Levels screen, choose either Add Department or select an existing department and click Add Category under…
  
• Enter a Code (numeric), description, and check the box(es) next to the store(s) that the level will be available in.
  

• From the Interfaces tab, you can customize how Yellow Dog Inventory communicates with your POS system. Please see the section on Interfaces for a brief overview of them and contact your implementation consultant if you have specific questions.
  

Managing Levels

NOTE: There are many shortcuts throughout the system that will take you to the Levels Editor. Just look for the blue hyperlink. Right click on any level from the Inventory Levels screen and this list of options will appear.

• Removing levels cannot be done unless there are no items assigned to that level. Otherwise, you will get an error message. 
  
• Take care when merging levels. This cannot be undone except to recreate the merged level and move the items back manually.
  
• Levels can be moved by selecting the level you wish to move, right-clicking, then hitting Move and choosing where you want it to go.
  

Manufacturer & Vendor Management

Vendors and Manufacturers are created and managed in the same section in Yellow Dog Inventory. A vendor is required, while manufacturers are optional, unless your POS requires it.

Creating & Editing Vendors/Manufacturers

• Navigate to the Manufacturers and Vendors section and click Create New Vendor. You will be prompted to enter the Vendor Name. Click OK when complete.
  
• From the Details screen, you will see a Vendor Code is automatically generated by the system. You can replace the generated code with your own if you prefer. 
  

• From the Stores tab, you can choose which stores the Vendor will be available to. Check the box in the “Available” column of the appropriate store(s).
  
• You can also enter Accounting ID, Account Number, Tax Number, and Terms.
  

• The last section is the Addresses tab. From this screen you can add optional “Order From” and “Return To” information. If the “Return To” information is the same as the “Order From” information, simply click the button labeled Copy Order From.
  

• To complete the Vendor creation process, click Save and Close in the bottom right corner.
  

Managing Vendors/Manufacturers

From the main Vendors and Manufacturers screen, you have the ability to view a variety of Vendor specific information such as: Active SKU’s, Inactive SKU’s, Total On Hand, etc. You can also Create New, Edit, and Remove Vendors.

Flags

Flags allow you to indicate storage locations, making ordering and physical inventories easier. To create a new Flag, click “Create New Flag”. Enter a Description, then click “Save and Close” if done, or “Add New” to add more. If you would like to change “Flags” to a more useful title, go to System Setup\Options\Labels.

Once you are done creating Flags, use Flag View in the Inventory Items screen to assign them to items. 

Recipe Types

This page will allow you to create different recipe types for better organization within your recipes. For example, you could create “Appetizers”, “Entrees”, “Prep Recipes”, etc. Use the action buttons on the right hand side to Create, Edit or Remove Recipe Types.

Viewing the Inventory Items Screen

You can change what data is shown on the inventory items screen by using the Views, Columns, and filters on the top of the inventory items screen.

Views

There are twelve different ways to view the inventory screen in Yellow Dog Inventory. Your views may vary based on your permission settings. 

• Classic – This is the default setting. It will give you most of the basic information;
  

• All Stores – This shows all items for all stores in the database that the user has access to.
  
• Activity – This shows the activity for the items: Created First/Last, First Received, Last Received, First Sale, Last Sale and recent handheld session.
  
• F&B Expiration – This view shows items with expiration dates set, how much is expired, and the oldest and newest expiration dates for each item.
  
• Flags – This shows basic information, plus the flag associated with the item
  
• Recipe/Kit/Batch Items Only – This shows all kits, the recipes they are attached to, their ingredients, cost, and how they behave in the system.
  
• Third Party/Interface Codes – This view shows all pertinent interface information as of the last sync.
  
• Parent/Child – This view brings up all items with parent/child relationships, their SKUs, On Hand Counts, and usage.
  
• Problem Items – This view brings up all items with problems, including no cost or retail price, duplicate UPCs or missing Vendor information. Pay particular attention to duplicate UPCs and duplicate SKUs; these can significantly impact transactions.
  
• Purchasing – This view shows On Hand, Size, Vendor ordering information, Par & Reorder Points and the Vendor Price for each item.
  
• SKU, Vendor SKU and UPCs – This view shows basic info, plus SKU, Vendor SKU & UPC.
  
• Interactive View – This view must always be sorted by a store *and* a vendor. From there, the Long Description, Size, Color, Vendor SKU, Retail Price, Reorder Point, Par Level, etc. can be edited like a spreadsheet instead of opening each item individually. Level, Vendor and Parent Item can be selected here too.
  

Filters

There are a few options for narrowing your search in the Inventory Items screen.

• Store – If you have access to multiple stores, you can choose the store that you want to view by selecting it from the dropdown box.  This will show inventory and corresponding on hand quantities for items that are in the selected store, as well as any other information that is specific to that store.
  

• Manufacturer or Vendor – Use the Manufacturer or Vendor dropdown to view only items that belong to the specified vendor. 
  
• Levels – Use the Levels dropdown to view only items that belong to specified Departments and/or Categories.  
  
• Other – By clicking on the “Other” dropdown you can choose to hide either parent items or child items from your view. Items without a Parent/Child relationship will remain in either view.
  
• Include Inactive/Removed – If you check the “Include Inactive/Removed” button, all of your removed and inactive items will be populated with your inventory items.  Those items will be marked Removed or Inactive in the description to help distinguish them from the active items.
  
• Search – The search box functions as a standard search box.  Type what you are looking for into the box, and Yellow Dog will immediately begin returning results. This feature also allows “or” searches to include multiple terms.
  
• Delay Data Fetch until a Search String is Entered – When this box is checked, no data will be displayed in the Inventory Items screen until the user types search criteria into the search box.  This function is typically used in larger databases that may run slowly, to minimize wait times. 
  

Blue Hyperlinks

Vendors and Manufacturers…

Clicking on this hyperlink will bring up a Vendors window. From here, you can view Vendors, Codes, Active & Inactive SKUs, Total On Hands, Total Requested and Total on Order. You can also Create New Vendors, Edit & Remove existing vendors and Merge them if you have access to do so.

Levels…

This hyperlink will bring up a Level screen. You can Add Departments & Categories, as well as Edit and Remove existing ones. 

Choose Columns

You can customize what columns you see in each view by clicking “Choose Columns”. Each view has different column options depending on the information associated with the view. The default options for most of the views are: On Order, Reference, Current Retail, Vendor Price, On Hand, Dimensions, Description, Short Description, SKU, Vendor SKU, Vendor, and Manufacturer & Level. Additional columns depend on the view you are currently using.

Right-Clicking

Right-clicking on an item on the Inventory Items screen brings up this menu of options.

• 
  
• Trigger Items to Re-Sync to POS is important to note here. If you are having issues getting certain items to sync over to the POS, clicking this will manually add the item to the list of things the sync will push over.
  
• You also have the option to Create New Item, Edit or Remove the selected Item, Create a PO, Set Levels, Vendors, and Stores, Set Dimensions and Set as Recipe Ingredient so the item can be used to create Kits. You can also affect Parent/Child relationships if you are using them in your system. The On Hand Quantity can be adjusted this way as well.
  

The right-hand sidebar of the main Inventory Items screen is used to create new items, edit or remove existing items, generate labels or reports for individual items, as well as adjust the on-hand quantity and copy existing items to create new ones. These options are normally available in the right-click menu as well.

General Item Management

Creating Items

1.  From the right-hand side of the Inventory Items screen, click Create New Item.

2.  In the SKU Wizard pop-up, select the appropriate Level and Vendor for your new item. A SKU number will automatically be generated for you based on the Autonumber sequence set up by your implementation consultant. 

In the example, only the Department code (030) is part of the SKU that is being generated for the new item.

F&B Details Tab

In most instances, you will use this tab to build new and edit existing items. 

• The SKU, Level and Vendor have been auto-filled based on your selection in the SKU Wizard. Enter in Description, Store Assignment and Size.
  
• The Size you fill in here should be your primary counting size. 
  
• “How is this item ordered or received?” – here you will fill out any purchasing information. In the example above, the item is only available by the case. If the case can be split, use Purchasing Item 2 (new size) to create the split. If you plan to use EDI for this vendor, the Vendor SKU must be filled out for it to work properly. 
  
• “How is this item used in recipes?” – use this space to fill out information on recipe ingredient items. In the example below, a case has 60 each in it.
  

• In the example below, instead of a count, the ingredient item has a volume. Entering in a cup measure will allow you to convert the item to any volume unit of measure, i.e. teaspoon, liter, etc. Filling out a weight will allow you to use any weight (ounce, gram, etc.).
  

• Yellow Dog is capable of handling yield calculations on items such as house prepared custom protein cuts. You simply enter the usable percentage into the field labeled “Usage” and the system will automatically determine how much to deduct from on hand when this item depletes, and then distribute cost appropriately. This can be applied to more than one cut for a single pre-production item. For example, the same side of beef could be used for steaks that are at an 80% yield, while also being used for ground beef at a 94% yield.
  

• “How is this item sold at the POS?” –use the checkboxes in this section to create sellable items. If the main item will be sold at the POS, use POS Item 1, or use the additional checkboxes to create new sizes to sell at the POS. For each new item, fill out the size and POS description. Note that the ellipses next to the POS Description will give you options based on the item name and size. Next, fill out the * per *, then the Retail price. Change the Level and add a UPC if necessary. 
  

New POS items will have           their own SKUs and will automatically be child items of the main item.

Retail Details Tab

This tab is used to look at the retail information on the item that is not available on the F&B details tab. 

• Enter the Description of the item into the Description field. You will notice that the POS Description is generated by default based on the Description and is limited by the character length your POS can work with. Click on the ellipsis (…) next to the POS Description field to bring up a menu with more options for that description. In addition, if you would like to create your own Short Description, simply type in a new description. Yellow Dog will limit this description to 16 characters by default, but this can be changed in the global settings.  If your POS supports more than 16 characters, contact your Implementation Consultant. 
  
• Enter Vendor Price (your cost) and Retail Price (customer cost). You may also set the retail price by adjusting the Markup & Margin fields.
  
• Optional Information to enter on this tab includes: Size, other Dimensions and MSRP. You may also enter Vendor SKUs and UPCs here or on other tabs in the Item Editor. 
  

Stores Tab:

• From the Stores tab, set Reorder Point, Par Level, and Bin Location. Make sure the item is available in the appropriate stores by selecting them in the Available column. 
  
• Setting Multiple Price Levels. From the Store tab you are able to set multiple price levels for
  your item. This can be useful in setting up events such as happy hour. While all of the
  programming for these automated price changes must be done on the POS side, we are able to assign the prices that will result when that automated change takes place. 
• Setting reorder points and pars from the “Stores” tab. Reorder points and pars work
  together to give you a simplified, automated way to create a purchase order, based on item on hand. Reorder points will tell the system at what point to trigger the item to be purchased, while Pars will tell Yellow Dog how many of your item needs to be ordered to get back to the desired inventory level. To set those points, simply enter the numbers in the associated fields.
  * It is important to note that Reorder points and Pars work together and one will not work if the other is not assigned as well.
• Making On Hand Adjustments from the “Stores” tab. On hand adjustments are usually made
  to track waste, or to reset on hand quantity due to a counting error. To make an on hand
  adjustment from the “Stores” tab, you will click the button labeled “Adjust on hand for XXXX”. You must enter a Reference, and Accounting Code if applicable, to make the adjustment.
• The Item History Report for the specific store is also available here. 
  

Add Child Item Tab:

• Parent/Child relationships are most commonly used for inventory items that are purchased in different sizes than they are sold. The item is frequently sold at the POS by the Child, but ordered by the Parent. There are exceptions to this, but it all depends on how you want to see your on hand counts.
  
• Example: 1 case of chocolate bars contains 24 each. The Vendor Price is set as $40.00, because the item is ordered by an unbroken case of 24. Calculated cost is based on receiving history and will be automatically updated when items are brought in.
  
• Check the box next to Child Item 1 to enable the Child item. Once checked, a unique SKU will be generated for the child item. You can now edit the retail price. 
  
• Child items require a Dimension (in this case, size) assignment. Select one from the size dropdown or you can create a new size from the sizes hyperlink. 
  
• Enter the quantity of Child Items that make up one Parent item, then click Save and Close.
  
• Child items can have their own Vendor, Vendor SKU, Vendor Price, etc. if necessary.
  

Other Details Tab

Use the checkboxes to specify how you’d like an item to behave. This can include:

• Making it inactive – takes the item off the active item list, but the on hand remains; useful for discontinuing seasonal items and product brought in for special events.
  
• Setting it to no count – useful for items such as cleaning supplies or vendor-supplied displays that you don’t necessarily want to inventory.
  
• Making it a recipe ingredient – this must be checked for an item to be added to a recipe.
  
• Whether the item can be added to or affected by manual adjustments or physical inventories.
  
• Setting the item to be sold at a point of sale or used in purchasing documents.
  
• Telling Yellow Dog Inventory to prompt users to print labels for the item when it’s received.
  

These behaviors may be affected by whether or not the item has a recipe attached and that recipe’s behavior. For more info, see the “Create Kit or Recipe Tab” section.

F&B Other Tab

This tab can be used to set Volume and Weight instead of the F&B Details tab. You can also set Tare Weight for items sold using scales.  Tare Weight is stored for your information only, and does not affect how anything is calculated or reported. 

Expiration days are useful for:

• batch recipes created that are good for a certain period of time (e.g. soups and sauces for 7 days), 
  
• product from vendors that have a consistent expiration date, and 
  
• product where there is an agreement with the Vendor that they will pull product after a certain time of it being on your shelves, i.e. dairy products, periodicals, etc. Because the expiration of most products is rather fluid, this should be used as a guideline and not a drop-dead date for anything. For example, in a regular vendor relationship, the milk you order today might be dated for 24 days from when it arrives. However, the milk you receive next week may only have a date of 18 days. 
  

Create Kit or Recipe Tab

Use this tab to assign recipes to inventory items. To connect a recipe to the item, click the ellipsis (…) next to “Kit Recipe”. Then, adjust the item behavior accordingly.

POS Menu Item Recipes

POS Menu Item Recipes serve as placeholders for their dynamic, made-to-order recipes in the POS and do not have an on hand of their own; only their ingredients are affected by sales and adjustments. POS Menu Item Recipes should look like this:

These recipe items should not be added to manual adjustments or physical inventories, so uncheck the top box in both the Manual Adjustments and Physical Inventories sections. Turning off the ability to add them to physical inventories ensures that they do not bring in their ingredient items and, in turn, any related recipes and ingredient items. 

Batch/Production Recipes

Batch/Production Recipe Item behavior is used for recipes that are made ahead in large quantities. Although batch and production recipe item behavior are under the same default in v345, they need to be set up slightly differently.

Production Recipe Items

Production Recipe items are produced in Yellow Dog through manual adjustments, which is the only time their ingredient items are affected. These items have an on hand and can be counted in physical inventories, but they do not bring their ingredient items in to physical inventories with them. Use the standard Batch/Production Recipe Item behavior for Production Recipe items:

Batch Recipe Items

Batch Recipe items are made ahead of time but not produced in Yellow Dog using manual adjustments. As a result, these items will need to be added to physical inventories to break them down into their raw ingredients so there is no variance in quantity or cost of ingredient items. When added to physical inventories, Batch Recipe Items will bring in their ingredient items, along with any related batch recipes and their ingredient items.

To assign this correct behavior from the Batch/Production Recipe defaults, select the third checkbox under Physical Inventories. This will reset the dropdown default to POS Menu Item Recipe, but it is correct.  Batch Recipe Items should look like this:

Additional Vendors Tab

This tab allows you to set additional vendors for items, along with any different Vendor SKUs and Prices. You can also view or clear the vendor price history for those items. This should be used for product purchased in the same size from different vendors. If the size is different, use the Purchasing Item section of the F&B tab. Please talk to your implementation consultant if you require access to this tab.

The rest of the tabs in the Item Editor, with the exception of Interfaces, are geared towards Retail operations. A brief explanation of them follows, but speak to your implementation consultant if you would like further information or access to these tabs.

Retail Schedules Tab 

• This tab is useful for viewing retail cost history/clearance/sales/etc. on specific items. A sale can be configured using the Schedule Retail Changes menu on the main YDI screen.
  

Additional UPCs

• This is another location for managing item UPCs. The UPC Check field will notify you of the type of UPC used, or if it is an unrecognized barcode type.
  
• If you have more than one UPC for an item, enter them here. For example, if a shop sells greeting cards and doesn’t need to track sales for each variety of card, a single generic “greeting card” item with several UPCs will be the best method of tracking movement.
  

Label Queue

• From this tab, you can add item labels to your Label Queue.
  

Pictures

• As many as three pictures can be assigned to an item. This is useful for web stores, catalogs, and assisting in identifying items with vague or similar descriptions.
  

Web Properties

• The Web properties tab is used to add item details for a 2-way web store interface.
  

Interfaces

This tab will depend greatly on the interfaces set up for your particular store. Please contact Support or your implementation consultant if you have questions.

Copying Items

Yellow Dog Inventory makes it easy to quickly create or copy item data to a new item with a unique SKU number.

• Highlight the item you want to copy and click “Create Item Based on Selected”. 
  

• Click “Yes Copy” to open the populated SKU wizard. Levels and Vendor can be changed here.
  
• Click OK to open a new Item Editor screen for the newly created item. Notice that all of the data from the original item has been populated in the new item but with a new SKU. Make your changes and click Save and Close. 
  

Removing or Inactivating Items

Items should be removed if they are no longer going to be sold or ordered. Items can be inactivated if they will be sold again or ordered again.

• To remove an item, highlight the item and click Remove Item. If there is an On-Hand count for the item, you will receive an error message. Make sure the On-Hand Count is zero before you attempt to delete an item from inventory. 
  
• However, if you want to maintain the item’s on-hand count, you can inactivate an item in its Other Details tab of the Item Editor. This will allow the on-hand to remain, like seasonal product that is getting stored until next year.
  

• Note: an item that is removed will always exist in the database. This is so historical sales data will still be available. Once an item has been deleted successfully, you can view it by checking the box that says “Include Inactive/Removed”. The items will be flagged with (removed) or (inactive).
  

• To undelete or reactivate an item, double-click on the item and click Yes Undelete. The item editor screen will open for the item. Click Save and Close to complete the undelete process.  
  

Manual Adjustments

To remove items from the inventory (waste, sampling, breakage, known theft, etc.) or to affect the on hand of a production item and/or a batch’s ingredient items, you will be using Manual Adjustments. 

• In the Inventory Items screen, find the item(s) you plan on adjusting. Highlight the item(s) and hit “Adjust on Hand Quantity” on the right hand side of the screen.
  
• Yellow Dog will prompt you to select the store in which you will make your adjustment. Manual Adjustments are store-specific.
  

• You can adjust multiple items at once. 
  

• Choose “Add Items” and select the other items you wish to adjust.
  
• Or if you have access to handhelds, follow the instructions in the Handheld Manual to create a manual adjustment. Sync the handheld then click “Add Items From…” and choose YDI Mobile session. Select your session. Bring in your session as you normally do. Double check your adjustments are correct.
  

• If you are adding items manually, you will need to enter in quantities. This can be done by changing the “Adjust” field, using the +/- buttons, or setting the “New On Hand”.
  

• Fill in the Reference field. You will not be able to submit an adjustment without a reference.
  
• If your company requires it, you will need to select an Accounting code from the dropdown.
  

• To create Accounting Codes, navigate to System Setup\Accounting Interface\Manual Adjustment Accounts tab. Choose “Create New Accounting Code” and fill out a description. If you are going to set up an accounting integration, fill out the gold/tan Manual Inventory Adjustment column with the appropriate GL codes.
  

• Once you are done, click Submit. 
  
• Hitting “Esc” or “Cancel” during the adjustment will exit out without saving your changes. Finish your adjustment in one go.
  

Recipes

A recipe is a group of items that are combined to be sold as a single item in the Point of Sale. While there is only one kind of Recipe you can create, the same recipe can behave differently when attached to different inventory items and assigned different behaviors, e.g. the recipe for a club sandwich used in the restaurant and produced when ordered can also be used as a Production recipe for a grab-n-go option. For more information on Recipe behavior, see the section on the Create Kit/Recipe tab.

You can create different types of Recipes (e.g. Apps, Grab-n-Go, Batch, Buffet, etc.) by selecting Recipe Types under Common Setup. This can be useful in organizing your Recipes.

1. To create a new Recipe, navigate to Recipes and click Create New Recipe.
   
2. Give your new recipe a description, use the dropdown menu to select the appropriate recipe type, then click “Add Ingredient Items”.
   

3. From the Item Lookup screen, you can sort through and search for items in the same ways that are available on the Inventory Items screen. Once you have selected one or more items, click select and those items will be populated on the Recipe Editor screen.
   

*PLEASE NOTE: only items marked as useable in Recipes will be displayed. You can check whether or not an item can be used in Recipes by opening the Item Editor and navigating to the Other Details tab.*

4. You can also add recipes to another recipe. We often refer to this as “nested recipes”. For example, you can have a recipe for béchamel inside a recipe for macaroni and cheese. Click “add Ingredient Recipe” to do this. This works best if the ingredient recipe has a yield assigned to it.
   
5. On the Recipe Editor screen, you can change the quantities of the Ingredients in the Recipe. Always change the unit of measure (UOM) before the quantity. Your Extended Calculated Cost (the total cost of that Ingredient per Recipe) is generated automatically. You may also add notes to each Ingredient if you wish. 
   

6. Additionally, a calculation at the bottom of the Editor can help you decide on a retail price through cost percentage if you are unsure of the Retail price of the Recipe. The cost percentage keeps the same percentage across all recipes.
   

7. On the Yield / Used By tab, you can link the Recipe directly to a POS item, and when that POS item is sold it will deduct that recipe’s ingredients from your inventory. This step is used in 1-way integrations. Skip to Step 9 if the item you are connecting the recipe to will be managed in Yellow Dog Inventory instead of in the POS. From this screen, you can fill in any Yields (particularly important when creating batch recipes, e.g. sauces, soups, etc.) 
   

8. To attach the item to its POS item, click on the “Linked to POS Items” space and check all items you wish to attach to recipes. 
   

9. You can also link the Recipe to a Kit Item; this is an item in your inventory that will be sold at the POS as any other item would be. To do this, create a new inventory item and in the Create Kit or Recipe tab of the Item Editor click on the ellipsis next to Kit/Recipe and select your recipe.
   

For information on setting up the options for the recipe, see the Recipe tab under the Item Creation section of this manual. 

10. On the Instructions tab, you can fill in any information applicable to that kit, and even import pictures for reference.
    

Managing Buffet Production

1. The first step will be to manually adjust the item in your inventory (this will in turn adjust the ingredient items based on the recipe they are tied to).
   
2. You can adjust more than one item at a time (by highlighting them or choosing to add items from a handheld session).
   
3. Choosing the correct accounting code is very important when it comes to reporting on your adjustments.
   
4. From the Inventory Items screen, pick your first item to adjust. Single click the item to highlight it and then choose “Adjust On Hand Quantity”.
   

5. After clicking the “Adjust On Hand Quantity” button, you will be taken to the On Hand Adjustment Editor. From this screen you can choose to adjust the item that you selected, and also add more items to adjust.
   

6. From the On Hand Adjustments Editor, you can also import items from a ydiMobile session by clicking “Add Items From…”.
   
7. Within the “Select Items From…” screen, you will select “Add items from a ydiMobile session”.  This will redirect you to the “Sessions” page where you will be able to select from any sessions that are currently synced to your system.  
   

8. Once all necessary items have been added to the On Hand Adjustment Editor, you may proceed to make the necessary adjustments to your recipes. You will notice all ingredients for each selected recipe. To remove the extraneous items, simply click the checkbox labeled “Hide Recipe Ingredients.”  
   
9. Next, you will want to choose the correct accounting code for your recipe adjustment. Each operation will have its own codes, but sample codes may include: “Production/Buffet”, “Buffet Leftover”, and “Buffet Waste”.  Finally, fill out the reference field. References can include event name, user initials and date, etc.
   

10. When producing items, your adjustment will always be a positive number (e.g. you are adding recipe units to your inventory, and removing ingredient units from inventory). When adjusting for left over buffet items, you will make a negative adjustment to the recipe. This will affect the on hand of the recipe only. It will NOT add recipe ingredients back into inventory. For example, if you start with two batches of Taco Meat, and return 1 batch, your on hand quantity for Taco Meat would now be 1 Batch.
    

Manual Sales Entry

Manual Sales Entry allows you to create simple, basic sales transactions using your inventory items without going to your POS. This can be useful for offsite sales, like a food truck in the example below. 

1. Choose the Store you wish to adjust the items from and enter the Ticket and Reference number.
   
2. You can use the ellipses to bring up a calendar as well as the Item Lookup.
   

3. Enter the quantity, and adjust the Retail and Discounts if necessary. Manual Sales are live-updating like Interactive view, so any changes you make are immediate.
   

Physical Inventories

For detailed information on Creating and Managing Physical Inventories, please see the separate manual covering Physical Inventories. 

Label Printing & Templates

Label Management

To print labels for a single item from the Inventory Items screen:

• Highlight the item and click Print Labels on the right side of the screen. If you have access to more than one store, you will be prompted to select one from the list.
  
• Enter the quantity of labels you wish to print and click OK.
  
• Choose the label type and printer you wish to use. 
  

Label Queue

The Label Queue allows you to add multiple items to the Queue, adjust their printing quantity, and print all labels at one time. 

• Navigate to Label Queue. If you have access to more than one store, you will need to select the store you wish to print labels for. 
  
• Add Items by either selecting them manually or adding them through “Add Items From…” and selecting the appropriate option.
  
• Once you have set your print quantities, you can either Print All Items or highlight and Print Selected.
  

• Once you have completed printing labels for your queued items, you have the option to remove the items.  Select the items you want to remove and click Remove Items.
  

Template Editing

Yellow Dog Inventory includes a print template editor under System Setup that enables users to create and modify any printable document within the system. A number of templates are built in for users to print with or modify from the beginning.

• To customize an existing template without worrying about making a mistake or losing the original, click the Create New Print Template Based on Selected button on the Print Templates Screen. You can also create a new template from scratch, edit an existing template, or remove an existing template:
  

Print Templates

1. To create a new print template, click on the Create New Print Template button. On the Editor screen, choose the appropriate type, and give it a description. 
   

2. To change the size of the template, right-click on the Page section at the very top of the editing field, then select the Width and Height accordingly:
   

3. Page Headers and Footers are included automatically. If you do not want to have them, simply right-click on the appropriate section and set the size to zero.
   

4. When your size and header/footer settings are correct, you can begin adding data fields to the template. Right –click on the grid and select Insert and choose the applicable option:
   

• Data Field: This is used to display information associated with the item, such as retail price, description, or the current SKU. 
  
• Expression: You can create a variety of equations that are determined at printing. These are typically used in Purchasing documents, for weighted items, etc.
  
• Text: Any text you would like on the template can be typed here.
  
• Picture: Pictures can be displayed on the template as well.
  

5. When you have your data field added, you can resize and move it as necessary. Right-clicking on the field will bring up a number of additional options:
   

• Font:  You can change the typeface and size and select bold, italics, or underline.
  
• Format: Defaults based on the data field you select. However, you can change your information as needed, most commonly the barcode format, but also including date and time, currency, fraction, and several other options.
  
• Alignment: There are nine alignment orientations to choose from.
  
• Border:  You can fully or partially border your information with a thick or thin line.
  
• White on black: Display your information as white text on a black background
  
• Vertical Text: Rotates the text clockwise 90 degrees.
  

*Note: Ensure that the barcode is large and clear enough for your scanner to read. Additionally, make sure that the barcode format is correct for your POS.

Purchasing

The Purchasing section of Yellow Dog Inventory enables users to handle every aspect of the “Purchasing Flow”. The sections you use will depend on how you purchase items for your location. All of the Purchasing components work basically the same with a few variations. Because the functionality of these components is similar, the following section will give a basic rundown of how to navigate through them before adding section specific details and instructions.

Creating a New Document 

•   |
  
  Navigate to the section based on the document you would like to create. 
  
• Hit Create New… (The example above uses the Request page).
  

Adding Items

• You have several options for adding to your document. The first option is the “Add Line Items”. Clicking on this brings up the “Item Lookup”. From this screen, you can use the top filter and the “Select” column to add items. 
  

• You can also add items though the “Add Items From…” button. This brings up a list of options that will let you “import” items automatically. 
  
• Flags allow you to bring in items that are flagged together. For example, if you need to reorder almost everything in your Produce Walk-In, it may be easier to add the entire flag, and remove what you don’t need to order, than it would be to add items one by one.
  
• Par Levels are great for reordering product. See Page 21 for more information on setting par levels and reorder points. Once you choose this, you will have the option to choose items below or at or below the order point. It will then bring up those items and you can choose to add them all or pick and choose which items to add. 
  

• Adding items based on Sales, Transfers and Adjustments will replenish any product that has left the store during the time period you specify. 
  
• Add Items based on Sales replenishes product based only on Sales. Again, just choose the date ranges you want to use. Most clients who use this feature choose the last time they ordered as the early date. 
  
• GoFetch is the handheld scanner software that pre-dates ydiMobile. All clients on Yellow Dog Inventory version 345 or later will be given ydiMobile. If you have questions about GoFetch, contact your implementation consultant or the support department.
  
• Add by Physical Inventory can be used by locations that don’t have specific sales and aren’t willing or able to set par levels. For example, if a restaurant does a flat price for a liquor package (and thus can’t deduct specific drinks), they can do a physical at the end of the night to reorder.
  
• ydiMobile sessions are created using Yellow Dog handheld software. For more information on ydiMobile, please see the separate manual. 
  
• Yellow Dog Inventory can also import Excel, CSV or text files. To do this, there must be something Yellow Dog Inventory can match to, whether it’s the Yellow Dog SKU, Vendor SKU or the UPC in Yellow Dog. Clients without Yellow Dog scanners can sometimes use this function to import counts from their existing scanner.
  
• The last option is through Item Lists. While you can filter “Add Items” by vendor, a lot of clients use item lists to create order guides for vendors from which they regularly buy only a small percentage of the items the vendor offers. 
  

Other Functions

• Remove Line Item – removes the selected item.
  
• Edit Item – opens the Item Editor for the selected item.
  
• Replace Item – removes the selected item and opens the Item Lookup screen. The new item keeps the previous notes and On Hand.
  
• Split Line – this can be used for items that you pay two different costs for (promos such as buy 11 bottles of vodka at full price and get the 12th free) or product you can purchase and return in the same invoice. 
  
• Renumber Lines – allows you to change the order of the items on the document. Sort the document how you want by clicking on the top of the columns, then hit “renumber lines” to change the “Line Number” to the correct order.
  
• No Related Documents/Open Related Documents – these allow you to quickly see and explore documents related to the one you’re working in, e.g. the PO that became the invoice you’re bringing in, or the transfer of the partially received product. “No Related Docs” only changes to “Open Related” once there are related documents to open.
  

Document Information

The top of each document type has general, as well as document specific, fields that allow you to add important information. 

The general fields are:

• Reference – frequently used for internal PO numbers, vendor invoice numbers, etc.
  
• Description – Can be used for more detailed information (event name for a catering order, holiday weekend stock up, etc.).
  
• Instructions – these can be for the vendor or the receiver (for example, “6 empty kegs to be picked up, double check bottle count”).
  
• Notes – This field is useful for jotting down even more detailed information than the description or instructions fields.
  

Other Notes

• As with any other screen in Yellow Dog, the fields that are gold or tan can be typed in directly. This is helpful for changing vendor and retail prices and descriptions. 
  
• The notes field on each line can be used to check off the item as you go through an invoice or packing slip, inform the orderer why they’re not getting a full count of what they asked for, etc. 
  
• If you have issues with vendors charging to a fraction of a cent for a single item, use the Extended Vendor Price (available under the “choose columns” blue hyperlink) to enter in the total cost and the system will round. While Yellow Dog Inventory only shows two decimal places by default, it does calculations based on the true number.
  
• To change the default decimal place calculations, you’ll need to change the Windows Regional settings for currency and numbers. 
  
• If you would like to leave the document open and come back to it later to add additional items, just select Save and Close. Keep in mind that the document will not be convertible, nor will On Order or On Hand counts change, until it is committed.
  
• If there is an order you repeat on a regular basis, use “Create New (Doc) Based on…” to copy it, much like you would an item.
  

Inventory Requests

Inventory Requests are most commonly utilized by users that do not have permission to create Purchase Orders. However, this is not always the case and they can be used by anyone to suggest or request items to be purchased. Most large F&B operations with purchasing departments use Requests to start the transfer of products to outlets. Requests are store, but not vendor specific.

• Navigate to Inventory Requests in the Purchasing section. Click Create New Request. 
  
• If you have access to more than one store, you will need to select the appropriate store.
  
• If necessary, fill out the “Need By” date. 
  

• Next, add items to your Request.
  
• Once you have selected your Request items, you can adjust the quantity, add notes, add an item reference, or adjust the cost of the item.
  
• When all edits are complete, click Commit Inventory Request to complete the request process. 
  

Purchase Orders

Purchase Orders are used when placing orders for stock that you need from your vendor. You might send this directly to your vendor or to your purchasing department. 

• If creating a Purchase Order based on an Inventory Request that was generated, go to the Inventory Requests screen, highlight the committed Request, and click Convert to Purchase Order. This will convert the Request into a Purchase Order. You can also use the Ctrl+click function to highlight multiple requests to turn them into a single PO. Each vendor will have its own PO, regardless of Request contents.
  

If you want to create a new Purchase Order that is not based on an existing Request:

• Navigate to Purchase Orders and click Create New Purchase Order and follow the on screen instructions.  Add information to the top section of the Purchase Order. 
  
• You will notice that you can add a Start Ship Date and a Cancel Ship Date. This will come in handy if you need to receive items by a certain day and cancel the order if not shipped by the date marked as Cancel Ship Date.
  
• The menu on the right side allows you to do a variety Purchase Order customization:
  

• Most of the buttons are the same as the Inventory Request module.
  
• The additional button is Pre-Allocate to Stores – If the item is available in more than one store, you can use this to pre-allocate quantities to be automatically transferred into chosen stores when received into the system.
  

• When finished, Click Commit Purchase Order to finish or Save and Close to leave the Purchase Order uncommitted for additional edits. 
  

Purchase Orders Approvals

Purchase Order Approvals are used when approval is required to place orders, i.e. purchasing amount restrictions.

To create a PO for Approval:  Follow the steps above to create a purchase order. Committing will not be an option if Approval is required. Instead, “Request PO Approval” will be available. Select “Request Approval”, then Save & Close the PO. 

To Approve a PO: When someone with Approval access logs in, “Purchase Order Approvals” will appear in the purchasing module under Purchase Orders. You can either select the PO and click Approve or Reject, or you can open the PO and approve or reject it from there.

• If you choose to reject the PO, the system will prompt you to indicate a reason for rejection. Once it is saved and closed, the PO will disappear from the Approval screen, but it will still be open in the Purchase Order screen.
  
• If you choose to approve the PO, it will ask you to Commit the PO. The PO will then appear as “Ordered” in the Purchase Order screen.
  

You can set different PO amounts to different “Ranks”, allowing certain employees to order different amounts or approve up to certain amounts without requiring someone with more approval access. See System Setup for more information.

Receipts

When items arrive at your location, you will need to create a Receipt to receive them into the system. Once a Receipt is committed, the received item quantities will be added to the previous on-hand totals. If you have an invoice for the product on delivery, depending on your internal procedures, you may be able to skip Receipts and go straight to an Invoice.

• Convert a Purchase Order into a Receipt from the Purchase Order screen or create a new Receipt from the Receipts section. Again, use the Ctrl+click function to convert multiple documents at once.
  
• From the new/converted Receipt you can add additional items that may have come in that weren’t on the PO, remove items that didn’t come in, etc.
  
• After all edits are made, click Commit Receipt to finish the Receipt process. Keep in mind – once you commit the receipt, the items will be added to your current on-hand counts. 
  
• If items have been set to “print labels when receiving”, you will be prompted to print labels for the quantity of items you have received. 
  
• If you have pre-allocated items to be transferred to other stores when received, you will be prompted to transfer the items. If you select “Yes, Transfer Now”, the Inventory Transfer screen will open. Click Issue Inventory Transfer.
  

• If you have access to the store receiving the transfer, you will then be prompted to accept the Inventory Transfer.
  

Invoice Records

Invoices are usually received after or accompanying your products’ delivery. Invoices will contain your freight, handling, discounts, etc. 

• Convert a Receipt or Purchase Order into an Invoice from the Receipt or Purchase Order screen or create a new Invoice from the Invoices section.
  
• Add your expense charges. We can add as many expenses for invoices that you need. This example has Credits and Discounts, but we can also add Tax. Freight and Other are the defaults.
  
• You can also distribute the expense charges to the cost of the items either by Item Cost or Item Quantity, and either by All Items or by Departments, or you can choose to keep them as a separate expense.
  
• When all edits are complete, enter the Total amount into the Invoice Amount field to activate the Commit Invoice Record button. 
  
• If Yellow Dog Inventory’s rounding is causing issues with your invoice total, use one of your expense fields to make the correction.
  

EDI Receipts/Invoices and Return to Vendors

EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange, is the transfer of data from one computer system to another. In Yellow Dog Inventory, EDI allows you to download invoices from your vendors to the program automatically. For more information on the vendors we can integrate with, click here. 

Vendors participating in EDI send Invoices and Return to Vendors electronically, then Yellow Dog Inventory picks them up through its sync applications with each vendor. The amount of time between physical delivery and EDI will depend on the vendor and on how often the EDI sync runs. Invoices from a Vendor can be pulled in as either a Receipt or an Invoice. It is important to remember when setting up EDI that each item has the correct Vendor SKU associated with it. If it does not, the EDI will create duplicate items.

These documents will be created in Yellow Dog Inventory automatically, but will need to be reviewed for accuracy, then committed.

Invoices 

After you’ve received a new order from an EDI vendor, search for the invoice number in the Invoice Records list. You can also filter the records by the store where the items were received, or by the vendor.

Open the document, review and verify that the items, counts, vendor prices, fees, and total are correct based on what you physically received. 

If the invoice is correct, enter any notes you may have, then commit the invoice.

Return to Vendors

In cases when an invoice is changed upon delivery (i.e. a mistake is noted, or an item is damaged or unusable and must be returned), a vendor will either correct the invoice before sending it via EDI so that the invoice total will reflect the change, or they will send a separate return to vendor document. Return to vendors sent by EDI will be automatically created in Yellow Dog as well and will be found in the Return to Vendors list. For more information on Return to Vendors, skip to the Return to Vendor section.

Like invoices, these documents will not be committed automatically and must be located based on return to vendor number, reviewed and committed. 

If the line item total does not match the return to vendor record total, you will not be able to commit the document. Adjust any quantities that need to be adjusted, make sure the totals match, and commit to finalize the document.

Item Substitution

One of the challenges of using EDI is item substitution. In most cases, using the “Replace Item” function and selecting the item used in your recipes may solve the problem. However, for permanent replacements or replacements that happen frequently, such as with produce brands, there are fixes that don’t require replacing it on every invoice.

Replacement:

• To replace an item that is a 1-to-1 relationship with an item that already exists in your system, highlight the item, hit “Replace Item” and find the item you have been ordering. The Vendor Price you paid for the substitute will remain.
  

• To replace an item that is not a 1-to-1 relationship, follow the same steps, but change the quantity to reflect the relationship between the items. In the example above, we are replacing a gallon jug of vinegar with a half gallon bottle. The cost stays the same, but the quantity increases to 2, since there are 2 half gallons to a gallon. If the item you normally buy is larger than the replacement item, your quantity would be a decimal. 
  

• This method can also be used for split cases. Be careful with these as they frequently have the same Vendor SKU as their parent size, but will have a lower price. 
  

Editing:

• If an item is consistently being substituted, you can edit the regular item itself to make it easier. 
  

• For an item that is a long-term, but temporary switch, you can add the new item’s Vendor SKU to the existing item by adding a Child Item. 
  

• First, edit the new item to cut out the Vendor SKU.
  
• Open the existing item and navigate to the Child Item tab. 
  
• Fill out the relationship.
  
• Unless you have access to allow parent/child items to have the same Size, you will need to call it something else, e.g. “Replacement Item/Case/2, etc”. 
  
• Check “Use in Purchase Orders” to add spaces for Vendor information, including the Vendor SKU you cut out of the new item.
  
• Replace the new item with the old in the Invoice, then remove the new item completely once you are done.
  

• For an item that is a permanent substitution, Cut the vendor SKU out of the new item and Replace the new item with the old, pasting the new Vendor SKU over the old item’s Vendor SKU. Remove the new item completely from the system.
  

Parent-Child Relationships:

• By far the most “work-intensive” of the solutions, using parent-child relationships to assist with substitutions is best for products that have few substitutes available, as more substitutes can yield a bulky list of children in the Inventory Item screen. 
  

• From the Inventory Item screen, find the existing item. Highlight the parent and all children using Shift-click or Ctrl-click and right click. Choose “Break Parent/Child Relationship”.
  

• Close Yellow Dog and reopen it. (If you have multiple items you need to do this too, it may be helpful to break them all at once before restarting Yellow Dog)
  
• Find the parent, all the children and the substitute item(s) and highlight them. Right click, then choose “Set Parent/Child Relationship”. This option will likely not be there if you don’t exit out of Yellow Dog.
  

• Choose the parent, then set the relationship quantities. Existing children should keep theirs, just set them for the new children. In this case, the new item is a 40-pound pack, while the old is a 50-pound case. Check “Use in Purchase Orders” and finish filling out the details.
  

• Save and close the item.
  
• You can now receive Invoice as normal without replacing it every time.
  

Return to Vendor

Sometimes you will need to return items to your vendor - whether they were damaged in transit, recalled by the manufacturer, or any number of other reasons.

• Navigate to Return to Vendor and click Create New Return to Vendor.
  
• Select the store to return the item from and the Vendor to return the item to.
  
• Fill in the appropriate fields. Quantities in returns will always be positive.
  

• If you need credit expenses for things such as freight or tax, please contact your Implementation Consultant.
  
• When all of your edits have been made click the Commit Return to Vendor button. Once the Return to Vendor has been committed, the quantity being returned will be deducted from your on-hand count.
  

Inventory Transfers

If you have two or more stores in Yellow Dog Inventory, you will be able to transfer stock from one store to another.

Important: In order for items to be transferred from Store A to Store B, they must be “Available” in both stores.

• Convert an Invoice, Receipt or Request into a Transfer or create a new Transfer from the Transfers section.
  
• Select the store to transfer items FROM and click Select in the bottom right corner.
  
• Select the store to transfer items TO and click Select in the bottom right corner.
  
• Select the items you wish to transfer. Adjust quantities as necessary, and then click Issue Inventory Transfer.
  
• If you have access to the store receiving the transfer, you will then be prompted to accept the Inventory Transfer.
  
• By default, the items leave the FROM store and are in “limbo” until accepted in the TO store, appearing in neither stores’ on hands. Please let your implementation consultant know if you would prefer inventory to stay in the FROM store until its accepted.
  

Reports

For detailed information on each report, please see the separate manual covering Reports.

There are three main report sections in Yellow Dog Inventory – Standard Reports, Saved Reports and Item Lists. 

Standard Reports

Standard Reports are reports that are included with Yellow Dog Inventory. There are over 150 common reports as well as less common ones based on frequent customer requests. If you would like your report list to the left of the filters instead of on top, right click in the Standard Reports screen and choose “Reports on Left”.

To generate a report, select the report you wish to run. Most reports can be filtered by timeframe, store, level and vendor. Other reports give you the option to select specific SKUs and include items with no activity or count.

After you have set the filters, click Generate in the upper right hand side of the filter section.

From here, your report is further customizable by clicking the blue “change columns, sorting and grouping” hyperlink in the top right corner. You can choose up to three columns to sort by, as well as add and remove the columns. Once you have the columns you want, you can click and drag to reorder them. 

You can print your report or you can choose to export it to Outlook, a CSV file or Excel. You can also save your customized report template and it will then appear in your Saved Reports.

Saved Reports

Reports you commonly refer to can be added to your Saved Reports for ease of access. Simply run the report you need, customize it as you want and click “Save Report Template” in the lower right corner.  Once it is saved, you can Execute, Rename or Remove the saved reports. For saving reports, the date range of that report *must* be generic, e.g. Last 7 Days, Last Month, Yesterday, etc. If you choose specific date ranges, i.e. 11/01/15 to 11/30/15, you will constantly be running that date range. 

Once you have Saved Reports set up, you will be able to set up “Send Saved Reports”. This program will email you the reports you’ve saved to yourself or others on a schedule. Please contact your Implementation Consultant for more information on how to set this up.

Item Lists

You can also create and save items into Item Lists. These are handy to create if there are items that are frequently ordered together, you need to keep a barcode/SKU sheet by the register for items without barcodes, you want to create order guides, or to keep your physical inventory process organized. 

Click “Create New Item List”, add items from the Item Lookup, and reorder and remove them as necessary. You can also add items based on Par Levels; Sales, Transfers & Adjustments; Sales; GoFetch; ydiMobile; an Excel or CSV file; or another Item List.

System Setup

• Accounting Interface – From here you can set accounts for Manual Adjustments, Inventory, Invoice Expense, Return to Vendor and Global.
  
• Interfaces – From the Interfaces tab, you can customize how Yellow Dog Inventory communicates with your POS system. Please contact Yellow Dog Inventory support for questions about your specific interface.
  
• Options – You can use this tab to change the font and font size of both the Yellow Dog Inventory system and labels. This is also where cost calculation is set.
  
• Purchase Order Approvals – From here you can set Rank approvals for each store to limit the amount certain employees can order or approve order of.
  
• Print Templates – Use this tab to work with print templates. Please see the Print Templates section for details.
  
• Employees – From here you can add, remove & modify employee information, as well as permissions. Consult the Employee Security and Access section for detailed information.
  
• Employee Groups – Employee Groups are good to use if you have multiple employees that need the same permission. Simply create a new Employee Group with the correct permissions, and then in the Employee screen, select “Manage access using Employee Groups”.
  
• Employee Options – From here, you can connect employee passwords to their Windows or Active Directory passwords.
  
• Stores – The stores tab lets you see store details such as Active SKUs, Accounting ID, Company ID, Addresses and Revenue Center.
  

Interfaces

Interfaces are how Yellow Dog Inventory controls item behavior in the point of sale. There are three places to control interfaces. Each store you have access to will have its own interface section. Also, each integration you have will have its own columns, e.g. accounting, POS, etc. If you have questions about your interfaces, please contact Support or your Implementation consultant.

By Store

This section is available under the System Setup module. Setting interfaces here will set them for every item in the store.  Unless you know exactly what you’re doing, this is a bad idea.

By Level

Under Common Setup, each Level has an interface tab. From here, you can control the interfaces for all of the items in that particular level. We will attempt to set your system up this way whenever possible.

By Item

In the Item Editor, the last tab is the Interfaces tab. Setting interfaces here will only affect that item. This is the best place to change settings as they are easy to change back.

Keep in mind that interfaces are overwritten by those below them in the hierarchy. Interfaces set by level will overwrite any set by store and those set by individual item will take precedence over any store or level interface.

Cost Calculation

Yellow Dog Inventory has a few options for determining calculated cost. 

• Weighted average – To calculate this cost, Yellow Dog Inventory will divide the cost of goods available for sale by the number of units available for sale, which yields the weighted-average cost per unit. This gives product a value somewhere between the oldest and newest units purchased into stock.  Keep in mind, this is based only on the product that you theoretically have on hand, e.g. every time Yellow Dog calculates your on hand for that item is zero, it will start averaging again until the next time you hit zero.
  

• Per store – takes into account only the cost paid for that particular store, which is useful for large enterprise clients that will be purchasing the same goods from multiple suppliers depending on the store location.
  
• For all stores – takes into account the cost paid at all stores, which is useful for clients with multiple revenue centers at a single geographic location.
  

• Vendor price – Uses the most recent default vendor price from the timeframe you are pulling the report, i.e. a report for 3 months ago will use the default vendor price for 3 months ago.
  
• FIFO (first in, first out) - This method assumes that the first inventories bought are the first ones to be sold, and that inventories bought later are sold later. It is very common to use the FIFO method for F&B outlets or retail outlets that sell goods that have a limited shelf life, because the oldest goods need to be sold before they pass their sell-by date. This gives product a value closest to the most recent cost.
  

• LIFO (last in, first out) - This method assumes that the last inventories bought are the first ones to be sold, and that inventories bought first are sold last. Normally, this is due to increased cost of newer items because of inflation. However, because of its ability to reduce the reported profit, LIFO is used primarily for income tax deferral and is illegal nearly everywhere but the US.
  

Employee Security and Access

Yellow Dog Inventory has an extensive list of feature permissions that can be allowed or disallowed to individual employees or groups of employees.

Employee Access

To set an employee’s access on an individual basis, select Employees under System Setup and click on Create New Employee.

Next, enter the information required for this employee. First name, an Employee Number, and a Password are required. Middle and last names can be filled in if desired, but are completely optional. You can enter an email address, position, and any applicable notes in the Additional Information tab. Make sure to choose one or more stores that this employee has access to; otherwise, he or she will not be able to access anything at all, regardless of what Access Options are selected.

Tip: If a numbering system is already used throughout your company, it can be useful to use the same number as the Employee Number in Yellow Dog Inventory as well.

Access Options

To set permissions for Yellow Dog Inventory features, you can use the Manage Access Using Employee Groups checkbox (if Employee Groups have been created). Please note that more than one Employee Group needs to exist in order to use this function. You may also select more than one group per employee.

If the employee will not belong to a group, you will need to select options manually in the Access Options list. There is a default configuration in Yellow Dog Inventory, and each new employee will have default access until it is changes. You can use the All Off button to the right if an employee will only have a few options, you can re-set access to the Default configuration, or use the Clipboard to copy an employee’s access options. This can be useful if you want to create a group based on those options.

Most access options have several levels of access:

• Visible: The employee can see the selected features. If only this option is selected, they will not be able to edit the feature.
  
• Edit: The employee can change information in the selected feature.
  
• Edit After Committed: The employee can edit the selected feature after the document has been committed.
  
• Optional: If the Optional checkbox is selected, the user is not required to use this feature. 
  

Some options have a simple Yes checkbox, which will enable them. To see a full list of options, click here.

Employee Groups

Employee Groups allow a number of employees to be given the same level of access to the same stores without having to assign each employee’s access options manually. Multiple groups can be assigned to single employees. Keep in mind that Employee Groups are store specific. You cannot use the same employee group to manage two different stores’ supervisors unless you want them to have access to each other’s stores.  Use the Clipboard feature inside the Employee Editor tab to copy the same settings without affecting Store accessibility. 

To create a new group, go to Employee Groups under System Setup.

Once in the Employee Group Editor, click on Create New Employee Group. Give you group a name, select which store(s) it will apply to, and then select the appropriate options. See above for details on the available options.

Employee Options

Yellow Dog Inventory can also use Windows accounts and Active Directory to validate employees. You will have to set up access options, but employees will use the same information to log in to Yellow Dog Inventory as they do to log in to Windows or Active Directory. 

To enable these options, go to Employee Options under System Setup, then choose the appropriate box:

Make sure to include your Windows Domain so that employees will be able to log in. If you have any questions about your Windows Domain, please contact your IT Department.

Installing the Yellow Dog Inventory Client

To install Yellow Dog Inventory onto a new computer in a non-hosted environment:

• We will create either a Shared folder on the network for users to access or a desktop folder containing the files to be copied over to each computer that needs Yellow Dog Inventory installed. Typically, the folder will be copied over directly onto the C: drive. Open Yellow Dog Inventory initially with Run as Administrator.
  

To install Yellow Dog Inventory onto a new computer in a hosted environment:

• Contact your implementation consultant or Support. 
  

Note: The computers have to be on the same network as the server unless you are using our hosted option.  If you have any issues, please contact support.