Retail User Manual
Version 362
Document Date: Winter 2018
Contents
Introduction
The Yellow Dog Inventory Retail 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 Retail 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.
Support Information
Support Hotline: 757.663.7514 (9am – 5pm EST Monday – Friday)
Emergency Support: 757. 663.7514, option 1
Submit Tickets to Support: Portal.Yellowdogsoftware.com
To access our Knowledge Base or Support Forum, click here.
A couple of basic things to keep in mind:
- All 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 guide if you have questions about your interface type.
- Make sure the Yellow Dog Inventory client application has a connection to your database. Your implementation guide 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.
- 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.
System Navigation
The Inventory Items screen, the first screen you see when you log in, is the main point from which most Yellow Dog Inventory functions originate. The left hand side is our navigation menu, while the top section contains filters for the data displayed in the list below.
There are two sections on the right-hand side. The first, to the far right, is the blue section called On Form Help. Each screen you encounter in Yellow Dog Inventory has its own reference section. Hovering over the section of the screen in Yellow Dog Inventory will put a blue box around the correlating section of the on-form help, and vice versa. This can be a great help while learning the system, but if you’d rather keep your screen space for the program itself, use the right-pointing arrow on the top to minimize it to a narrow, vertical blue bar. If you need it again, just click on the bar.
To the left of that are our action buttons that assist with items, documents, etc.
Navigation Menu
The left-hand sidebar of almost all Yellow Dog Inventory screens is the navigation bar. Related groups of functions are divided into sections.
Item Management:
- Inventory Items: The primary list of all item data, able to be viewed, sorted and filtered in several ways. This is where most item creation and editing will be done.
- Matrices: Section to create several related but dimensionally-different items (e.g. small red shirt, small blue shirt, etc.) This is mostly used by retail clients.
- Recipes: This is where food and drink recipes are created and managed.
- POS Item Map: Items and Recipes can be linked directly to items created at the Point-of-Sale (POS) to deduct inventory for the sale of that POS item. This is also where COGS departments are attached to POS items.
- Item Lists: Create and maintain lists of items used for various functions (order guides, etc.) Any function in Yellow Dog that includes Add Items From… can pull an item list.
- Label Queue: Print multiple labels for multiple items in one place here. When receiving using the Purchasing module, you can opt to add all received items to the Label Queue and print them later at your convenience. This can be used by F&B clients to create shelf tags.
- Schedule Retail Changes: Used for 2-way retail syncs only.
- Manual Sales Entry: Sales not pulled from a POS (for example, a food truck or catering event) can be entered here. These will show in sales reporting.
Physical Inventory
- Physical Inventories: Documents that will record the on-hand of items when they are counted. Counts can be entered manually, or can be brought in from other sources.
- Count Sheets: A list of items that serves as a counting template.
- Sessions: Lists of item counts taken using a mobile device running ydiMobile or a Yellow Dog counting app or manually entered
- Manual Adjustments: Changes made to an item’s on-hand outside of counting, POS sale, or purchasing; for example, waste, damage, and theft can all be recorded with a manual adjustment. Transfers between non-Yellow Dog managed locations can also be done this way.
Worksheets
- Purchase Order: A single document that will then create multiple purchase orders for multiple stores.
- Replenishment: A flexible document that will generate multiple Purchasing documents to resupply outlets. Defaults to Transfers for moving stock from store to store, but can be set to any purchasing document.
Purchasing
- Requests: A document that indicates that items are needed. Can be converted into a Purchase Order or a Transfer
- Purchase Order: Document of items that are required from a vendor. Can be converted into a Receipt or Invoice.
- PO Approvals: Requires a higher-level employee to confirm the accuracy/completeness of a Purchase Order. Can be set to use dollar total thresholds or a ranked hierarchical structure.
- Receipts: Acknowledges that items have arrived, and will increase the on-hand of items on the document as of the time it is committed. Can be converted into an Invoice or a Transfer. EDI documents can be created as Receipts.
- Invoices: Primarily used to track expenses on received orders. When used without Receipts, will add the quantities of items to a stores on hand as of the time it is committed. This is the final chance to affect cost of items with expenses. Invoices are the default document for EDI invoices.
- Transfers: Used to move items from store to store in multi-store locations.
- Return to Vendor: Tracks items that are being sent back to the supplier. EDI Credits will generate here.
Reports
- Standard Reports: The list of all reports available in Yellow Dog. Most reports are filterable on time ranges, vendors, levels, etc.
- Saved Reports: Frequently generated reports can be re-run quickly and easily. Saves filters, sorting, etc. Use the date range dropdown (yesterday, last week, last 30 days, etc.) rather than specific dates. These Saved Reports can be automatically emailed out using the SendSavedReportsEmail application.
Common Setup
- Dimensions: Characteristics or attributes about items; for example, size, vintage/year, region, wine varietal, special order lead times, etc.
- Inventory Levels: How items are organized. Up to 4 tiers of levels can be set in Yellow Dog - Department, Sub-department, Category, Sub-category.
- Vendors and Manufacturers: List of companies that supply inventory items, either directly as a Vendor or indirectly as a Manufacturer or supplier.
- Flags: Tags that indicate specific locations within a store. Items can be assigned to multiple flags, i.e. they can exist in multiple places in a store. However, flags do not hold on hand counts.
- Recipe Types: Labels that assist in organizing and filtering recipes; e.g., Batch/Prep, Main Courses, Desserts.
- Events: A specific tag for a time range. Commonly used by stadiums for events but can also be used for special occasions like wine or beer dinners, holidays, etc.
System Setup
Accounts: Used to set up Manual Adjustment reasons, Invoices expenses, COGS Departments & Categories, and accounting interface export codes.
- Autonumber: Algorithms used to auto-generate document codes and item SKUs.
- Interfaces: Where third-party codes for integrations are mapped. These can be set per Store, per Level, or per Item.
- Options
- Global: System behavior
- Inventory: Item behavior
- Fonts: System-wide font for item data and section labels
- Labels: Names of sections and titles can be edited here, e.g. Manufacturer can be changed to Supplier, Flag to Location
- PO Approval Setup: Ranks for the PO Approval are created and maintained here. Every Location Type can have a different set of approval rankings.
- Print Templates: Used to define labels or any printable document.
- Employees
- Employees: List of user logins with employee access options, if not using groups.
- Employee Groups: A pre-defined set of store specific user accesses that can be quickly assigned to a new or existing user login.
- Employee Options: Allows for different login types, such as Active Directory or Windows.
- Employee Roles: Defines the hierarchical rankings for who is notified about POs for approval.
- Stores: List of outlets in Yellow Dog.
- Store Approval Types: Stores will have hierarchical PO Approval rankings determined by the store type. These are determined in the PO Approval Setup section.
Top Menu Bar
Log Out
This logs you out of Yellow Dog. We recommend doing this anytime you leave your workstation to ensure nothing is being done under your login without your permission.
Change Password
This requires you to know the old password. If you’ve forgotten your password and are unable to log in, please contact your system administrator or our Support department.
Refresh Data
This button forces the system to refresh the data that is being displayed. Occasionally, using this may clear up an issue you’re seeing with the data being displayed.
Recalculate Costs
Version 362 introduces the ability to have Yellow Dog recalculate costs on demand. This will process any data up to that point and allow for the most up-to-date reporting. Larger databases with a lot of history will take more time to recalculate.
Tools
- Change Support Blurb: Changes the text at the very top right of Yellow Dog.
- Change Superuser Password: Edits the high-level admin account access login.
- Check SQL Connection Speed: Can determine if there is a slowdown in SQL.
- Get Database Info: Displays database statistics and connection information.
Help
- About – displays technical assembly information along with a link to our Knowledge Base. The Knowledge Base is a great place to review software documentation, videos, and other direct and indirect support resources to help assist you. This also includes live chat with a support technician during business hours 9am-5pm Eastern Standard Time (Holidays will affect these hours).
- Change Log – This gives a list of updates made to each released version of Yellow Dog. This is not dependent on the version of Yellow Dog Inventory that was installed.
- Support Menu - Brings up a How to Contact Us page.
- Remote Support – Launches Teamviewer 10 QS.exe, our preferred remote connection tool.
- Change Support Blurb – the same as in the Tools section. This can be customized to a client’s needs if they want a system admin to be contacted before YDI Support.
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 fourteen 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 standard information.
- All Stores – This shows on hands/on order for all items in all stores in the database that the user has access to.
- Activity – This shows event dates for the items: Created, First Received, Last Received, First Sale, Last Sale and recent 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. Not typically used in Retail
- 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. Not typically used in Retail.
- Third Party/Interface Codes – This view shows all pertinent interface information as of the last sync and is highly dependent on your POS set up.
- Merchandiser – This view allows for more specific item filtering based any or all up to 10 dimensions in Yellow Dog.
- 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 attention to items with no cost; these can significantly impact inventory valuation.
- Web Items: Lists all items set to push to and/or pull sales data from an interfaced web cart. There are additional right-click options in this view for setting web cart specific properties.
- 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. Mostly used by retail clients or clients with barcode scanners.
- Interactive View – Item data fields in this view can be edited directly on the screen, similar to how a spreadsheet behaves. Previous versions of Yellow Dog required a Vendor to be selected, but 362 allows all Vendors to be displayed at once.
Filters
There are several 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 can be specific to that store, such as retail price.
- Manufacturer or Vendor – Use the Manufacturer or Vendor dropdown to view only items that belong to the specified company.
- 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. “No Count” items, hides items for which you don’t keep track of on hands.
- Include Inactive/Removed – If you check the “Include Inactive/Removed” button, all 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.
- There is also a new column that shows Status - Active, Inactive, Deleted, or NoCount.
- 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.
These hyperlinks appear in any section where Vendors/Manufacturers or Levels can be selected from a menu.
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.
The right-hand sidebar of the main Inventory Items screen are the main action buttons for the screen.
- Create New Item starts from scratch in creating new items
- Edit Item opens the item you have selected. You can also double click or hit Enter.
- Remove Item archives items with no on hand count. More information on removing or archiving items can be found later in the manual.
- Print labels prints labels for a single selected item. You can then choose the count and the template.
- Adjust on-hand quantity allows for a manual adjustment to on hand counts for items due to reasons that don’t involve sales or purchasing actions.
- Create new item based on… copies certain attributes of the initial item, such as vendor, level, description, price and interface settings. It is a quick way to generate similar items.
- Item History Reports are great audit reports that show everything from changes to items to on hand adjustments from sales, invoicing and physical inventory on hand resets.
All of these options, among others, are available in the right-click menu as well.
Right-Clicking
Right-clicking on an item on the Inventory Items screen brings up this menu of options, based on permissions.
- Create, Edit or Remove the selected item.
- Create Purchase Order containing the selected item or items.
- Set Level, Vendor or Stores availability.
- Set Dimensions such as Size, Color, Season, Material, etc.
- Set Evergreen Status: In version 362, items can now be flagged as Evergreen. These are items that do not age (i.e. aren’t dependent on season or don’t expire,) and can be exempted from Aging reports.
- Set Inactive or Active allows you to deactivate or activate items without opening the item itself. This means you can also perform this action on multiple items at once.
- Set Interface Code may or may not be available to you based on your permissions. This allows users to quickly change interfaces of multiple items at once.
- Set Recipe Behavior is only available in the Recipe/Kit/Batch Items Only view. This allows you to quickly change recipe behavior for multiple items at once.
- Set Web Items Properties is only available in the Web Items view. This allows you to quickly change web item behavior for multiple items at once.
- Merge Items allows you to combine SKUs, UPCs, etc. of two or more items into one. PLEASE NOTE: This can cause issues with item behavior, so please contact your Implementation Guide or our Support department as there may be alternative methods to achieve what you are trying to accomplish.
- Parent Child Relationships:
- Set Parent/Child – allows you to create a parent/child relationship. Once you click this, you will be asked for the parent item, then you will need to set the numerical relationship between the items in the Item Editor.
- Swap Parent/Child – changes the parent to a child item. This only happens if there is only one child per parent.
- Break Parent/Child – removes the relationship.
- Set as Recipe Ingredient so the item can be used to create Recipes.
- 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.
- Print Labels allows you to print labels for the selected item. To print labels for multiple items, use the Label Queue.
- Adjust on Hand Quantity opens the manual adjustment editor.
- Create New Item Based On… copies all information about the item, except for the Yellow Dog SKU, into a new item. The new item can then be edited as necessary.
- Item History Report can be used to audit items. Choosing to show only on hands will display sales, receipts, returns, manual adjustments, etc. Choosing to show all information will also display changes to item cost, price, description, etc.
Common Setup
Your Yellow Dog Inventory implementation guide 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, lead times on special order items, etc.
More Dimensions
The default Dimensions screen has two dimensions; however, eight additional dimensions are 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.
Inventory Levels
Levels are how inventory items are categorized in Yellow Dog Inventory. Typically, the hierarchy is as follows:
The number 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, with the correct permissions, users can 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 boxes next to the stores that the level will be available to.
- Temporary levels are used by EDI syncs to create new items. Items in these levels need to be moved to their correct levels weekly.
- From the Interfaces tab, you can customize how Yellow Dog Inventory communicates with your POS system. You will now be able to select which stores’ interfaces you’d like to see. This will especially help clients with large enterprises on a single database. Please see the section on Interfaces for a brief overview of them and contact your implementation guide 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 selecting Move and choosing where you want it to go.
Vendor and Manufacturer 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, Assigned to Items as…, etc. You can also Create New, Edit, and Remove Vendors.
Primary Vendors
In version 362, Yellow Dog now allows for Primary Vendors to be selected for items. To set this as a feature, navigate to System Setup. Under Global Options/Purchasing, select “Force Purchasing Documents to respect Primary Vendor”.
Then, under the item, on the Stores tab, set the Primary Vendor for the item. If a Request or PO is created for the non-Primary Vendor and the item is added, this error is generated. Users will also see this error if they attempt to convert a Request into a PO using a non-Primary vendor for this item as well.
Locations/Flags
Locations (called Flags in previous versions of Yellow Dog) allow you to indicate storage locations, making ordering and physical inventories easier. To create a new Location, 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 “Locations” to a more useful title, go to System Setup\Options\Labels.
Once you are done creating Locations, use the Locations 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 “Gift Basket,” “Bundle,” etc. Use the action buttons on the right side to Create, Edit or Remove Recipe Types.
Events Calendar
The Events Calendar is a new feature in Yellow Dog that allows for the user to tag days with event types for filtering reports.
Setting Up Events
- First navigate to the “Events” tab under Common Setup.
- To set up Event tags, click Edit Tags. Click Add, then enter in your first tag. You can either choose Save and Close or Add New to continue adding tags. The tag is usually what type of category the event will fall under for example a stadium client may set the event tag which league may be playing or if it is a day or night game.
- To add a new Event you will choose the “Create New Events” tab from the right hand menu
- You will first add a description and set the dates the event will run through (For one day choose same start and end date and set the time for 12am – 11:59 PM which is the default setting).
- Next you will choose your event tag.
- You can create the event tags from this screen by clicking on the blue hyperlink next to the event tags line if you haven’t already.
- You can now add any notes for that event type and choose to save and close the page at the bottom right of the screen.
Events feature in reports
- Once you have your events set up, you will be able to run sales reports using the events filters.
- Choose the event tag or tags you would like to run the report for.
- Set all other filters needed.
- Click Generate to create the report.
- You can now sort and group your reports by the events.
General Item Management
Creating Items
From the right-hand side of the Inventory Items screen, click Create New Item. This will activate the SKU Wizard:
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 during implementation.
In the example, only the Department code (030) is part of the SKU that is being generated for the new item.
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 new Item Based on [Item]”.
- 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 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.
Item Editor Tabs
Retail Details
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.
- 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
- From the Stores tab, you can 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.
- For clients with 2-way interface: Setting Multiple Price Levels. From the Stores 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 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. - Performing On Hand Adjustments from the Stores tab. On hand adjustments are usually intended to track damage or 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 [Store]”. 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
Parent/Child relationships are most commonly used for inventory items that are purchased in different sizes than they are sold or used. Typically, the parent will be the larger size (e.g., Case) and the child will be the smaller useable/sellable size (e.g., Each or Bottle.) The Parent can be the smaller size depending on your business needs, but in all situations the Parent is ALWAYS where the on hand quantities of items are tracked.
Other Details
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.
- Evergreen – this allows for items with no “aging” that are excluded from those reports.
These behaviors may be affected by an attached recipe and that recipe’s behavior. For more info, see the “Create Kit or Recipe Tab” section.
Create Kit or Recipe
If you are creating bundled items, such as a gift basket, use this tab to attach the bundle (called a Kit or Recipe in Yellow Dog) to a countable inventory item.
Attaching Recipes to POS Items
Use this tab to set up groups of items that will behave as one, such as a gift basket. To connect a recipe to the item, click the ellipsis (…) next to “Kit/Recipe”.
This will bring up the “Lookup” screen where you will need to select the appropriate recipe.
Recipe Behavior
The Kits/Recipes tab makes assigning behaviors to your kit/recipe items simple with a dropdown menu of recipe item behaviors:
- The POS Menu Item Recipe behavior is used most often in F&B environments. These recipe items aren’t produced until they are ordered. A burger might have a recipe that includes the bun, patty, and toppings. While the ingredient items are counted separately, they are sold as one unit.
- A Batch Recipe item is made ahead of time but not produced in Yellow Dog using manual adjustments. When added to physical inventories, Batch Recipe Items will bring in their ingredient items, along with any related batch recipes and their ingredient items.
- Production items, made in house to sell, 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.
- The Retail Kit behavior allows users to assemble and disassemble the kit, count the kit in physical inventories, and sell or return the kit at a POS. The ingredient items are only affected by manual adjustments. These kits are usually store-assembled gift baskets or bundles of items.
- The Purchasing Kit behavior allows users to receive by the recipe and sell by the ingredient. For example, if a vendor sells a display of products as a set but the individual components are what you are selling then use this behavior.
- The final behavior is “Other”. This behavior is used to set non-standard, possibly conflicting, item behaviors.
If you have questions about kit behaviors, please contact your implementation guide or Support.
Additional Vendors
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. Yellow Dog now also allows multiple vendor SKUs per Vendor, which is especially helpful for those clients with EDIs. The Create Alias option in Invoices uses this new feature. For more information, see the EDI subsection of Purchasing.
The Additional Vendor tab 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 guide if you require access to this tab.
The rest of the tabs in the Item Editor, except for Interfaces, are geared towards Retail operations. A brief explanation of them follows, but speak to your implementation guide 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.
Label Queue
This tab allows you to add the item 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 store. Please contact Support or your implementation guide if you have questions.
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 or with the right-click feature. 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 its 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.
Manual Adjustments now allows you to specify a date/time. This allows you to set the date and time the adjustment will affect the item’s on hand.
- You can adjust multiple items at once.
- Choose “Add Items” and select the other items you wish to adjust.
- Or choose “Add Items From…” and chose your source.
- 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.
- 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. Please see the next section for information on setting Accounting 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.
Accounting Codes
Accounting Codes allow the user to set standardized codes for things such as waste; production of recipes; transfers to departments not in Yellow Dog, such as HR; etc.
To create Accounting Codes,
- Navigate to System Setup\Accounts\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.
- Lastly, decide whether or not you would like the accounting code to affect COGS. For more information on COGS, please see that section.
Manual Adjustments List
362 adds a new list of all manual adjustments made in the system. This list can be filtered by date, level, vendor, and store, as well as sorted by column like the main Inventory Items screen.
Recipes/Kits
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.
POS Item Map
POS Item Mapping allows users to attach recipes to POS items in one-way interfaces and map COGS categories. As with the level interfaces, you can now be store-specific when setting these.
For one-way POS integration, choose the store that you’re working with. If your stores share a POS server with identical item numbers for items, then select all the applicable stores. If your stores are on separate, or non-identical servers, choose one store at a time or uncheck “Automatically select matching rows”.
Once you start mapping POS Items or COGS departments, click “Hide POS Items that have…” to shorten the list of items you’re working with.
To map a POS item to a recipe:
- Click “Show recipe columns”, then use the ellipses to select recipe.
- Or, if the item only has one ingredient item, or you would prefer not to build recipes through the recipe module, check “show ingredient columns”. Make sure you confirm the count on the UOM.
Other options:
- Search – behaves like main Inventory Items Search.
- Ignore POS Item – removes from view. Check “Show ignored POS Items” to bring them back.
- Don’t Ignore POS Items – displays an item you’ve ignored.
- Copy Recipe – allows you to assign one recipe to multiple items – helpful when working with multiple revenue centers or multiple items with the same recipe.
- Paste Recipe – the other half of the Copy Recipe function
- Insert unsold POS item – Items that have been sold since the sync have been run are automatically added to the list. This adds every other item.
- Set COGS Account/Reset COGS Account – where COGS are assigned to POS items; this is primarily used in F&B food cost reporting.
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.
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.
- Choose the Store you wish to adjust the items from and enter the Ticket and Reference number.
- You can use the ellipses to bring up a calendar as well as the Item Lookup.
- 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
Yellow Dog Inventory gives you the ability to periodically check actual on-hand counts against the counts as reported by Yellow Dog Inventory, and then update Yellow Dog Inventory with new on-hands. This process is called a Physical Inventory.
Creating a Physical Inventory
Through Physical Inventories
- Navigate to Physical Inventories.
- Create a new physical inventory by clicking the Create New Physical Inventory button on the right side of the screen. If you have access to more than one store, you will be prompted to select the store to perform the Physical Inventory for.
- Select the items you want to count. You can select “Add active items for store …, filtered by vendor or level (recommended)” or you can Select from other options. It is *highly* recommended that you choose the first option.
- If you would like to count specific Vendors/Level combinations, you can make that selection here.
- If you are confident that any items that do not have an on-hand count in the system will not need to be counted, you can remove them by selecting “Skip Items with zero on hand”
- From the Review screen, you may add, edit, or remove items that should or should not be part of this Physical Inventory. Once all changes have been made, click “Select All ### Items”
- Now, bring in your counts if you have already gathered them. You can add from a GoFetch session, a regular Session or an Excel, CSV or text file. Alternatively, you can hit Skip to enter manually.
- Each count source you choose will create a new column.
Through Sessions
- Navigate to Sessions
- Apply filters, if necessary
- Highlight the sessions you wish to use to create the inventory.
- Click “Create Physical” or Right Click and choose the same.
- Add Related Items, if desired (recommended)
Physical Inventory Editor
Effective Date/Time
From the Physical Inventory Editor screen, you can set the Effective Date and Time that this Physical Inventory will be applied to the system.
IMPORTANT: When committing a Physical Inventory, the counts will be applied to the system as of the EFFECTIVE DATE AND TIME that YOU set. This gives you the ability to count on a Sunday evening and come back Monday morning and commit the counts without losing any data integrity. In general, it is best to complete your Physical Inventory at one time.
Columns
Each source will bring in a column, however, you can create new ones with the buttons on the right hand side:
- Add Column
- Rename Column
- Remove Column
You can use the “Choose Columns” option to hide these at any point.
Sort By
From your new Physical Inventory, use the “Sort By” dropdown to decide how your worksheets should look. The sort order on the screen will be how your worksheets will print.
You can sort by:
- Item
- SKU
- Item List/Count Sheet Order
- Level, Item
- Vendor, Item
- Manufacturer, Item
- Dimension, Item
- Bin, Item
- Variance Quantity, Item
- Variance Quantity (Descending), Item
- Variance Cost, Item
- Variance Cost (Descending), Item
“Print Worksheet” will print based on the sort order chosen.
Find
Search key words in the description
Check “Hide rows that don’t match Find” to only show filtered items
Disable automatic recalculation
If recalculation takes longer than 2 seconds, this will appear as an option. Check to speed up the physical and reduce autoprocessing.
Counts
With Locations
You can use Locations to print worksheets. Locations are custom markers in Yellow Dog Inventory to denote a storage location. For example, shelf stable juice may be under the “Dry Storage” Location as well as the “Walk-in Cooler” Location.
- Choose a Location from the dropdown, then choose “Print Worksheet”. If you wish, you can also apply a sort order using the Sort By filter. You will need to follow these steps for all Location you wish to print count sheets for.
- Save and Close and perform your manual count.
- Choose the Flag you are entering from the dropdown and enter your on hands in the column for that Flag. You will notice items shared between Flags will have multiple places to enter in counts. These will add together to create a final on hand number.
With Count Sheets
- To set up a count sheet you will navigate to the “Count Sheet” tab in the physical inventory module
- From here you will be able to create new sheets as well as edit existing sheets.
- To create a new sheet, you will click the “Create New Count Sheet” on the right-hand menu.
This will open the Count Sheet editor where you can choose to add your items in the following ways:
- Add Item- simply grab any item available
- Add Items From- Here you can choose from several methods such as pars, sales, text CSV or excel files.
- From Flags- whenever you add a flag to a count sheet, it will add any items assigned to that flag as well as add any additional items added in the future
- Level- this will add all items under the chosen level and add any additional items assigned to that level in the future
- Once you have chosen your method of adding the items to your count sheet, you will now set them in the order needed
- To set the order you will highlight the item and use the arrows to the right to order the items as needed.
- Once the sheet is set up as needed you will want to add a description at the top of the page and choose to save and close at the bottom right.
At this point, you can either print your Count Sheet or upload it to the new mobile platform on your smartphone or connected device.
Please see the mobile app manual for further information on this.
If you’re using printed sheets, when your count is complete, open your Physical Inventory and enter your counts in the “On Hand Counted” column.
If you have multiple people counting with worksheets, you can use the “Add/Rename Columns” button on the right-hand side to add a column per counter to keep track of each person’s counts.
With a Data Collector (YDIMobile)
Follow the steps in the beginning of this section to create a new physical inventory.
Make sure the device is connected to your PC via either the cradle or USB cable and the scanner is powered on. To test if the handheld is truly connected, open Windows Explorer and ensure that YDIMOBILE has become an accessible drive.
If this is your first time using SyncYDIwithHandHeld.exe, follow the directions starting on page 5 of the ydiMobile Guide. After it has been configured, move on to Step 3.
You can configure the handheld to sync for a single store, which is useful when there are multiple stores to be counted. Simply go to the “Stores” tab on the sync, select the store you wish to count and hit Go on the main tab. This will limit the sessions stored on the handheld to the store you have chosen, reducing the number of sessions you need to go through to import your counts.
- Run SyncYdiWithHandheld.exe (this will update the device with all new items and updates). The sync can generally be found either as a shortcut on your desktop or C:\ YellowDogInventory\ SyncYdiWithHandheld.
- Disconnect the device from the computer and follow the onscreen instructions to launch YDIMobile.
- Once the program opens, select your employee. *Depending on the version you are using, it may not prompt for an employee. In that case, skip this step
- Click Count Inventory Items.
- From the Select Session screen, click Create New Session and enter a session name. Choose something that is both unique for this inventory and for the handheld if there are multiple handhelds being used; e.g., JeffGiftShopSept17. The device name and time are logged along with the session name.
Then, select the store you are counting if you have access to multiple stores.
- Click “Add Item”.
You are now ready to scan your items. Use the bright blue buttons on the sides of the device to enable scanning.
When an item is scanned you will be prompted to enter a count for the item. Yellow Dog Inventory can handle decimals if necessary. Use either the on-screen numbers, +/-, or the keypad located at the bottom of your handheld to enter in your counts. Once completed click Submit and move on to the next item. Alternatively, scan each barcode and the system will tally the count for that barcode.
Occasionally, an item with an unrecognized UPC will be scanned. From here, you can either search for the item using the search field below the error message. Click the item you want associated with the barcode, and enter your count.* Or, click “Create Item” and enter in the description. Fill in any identifying information that will be helpful as you will be able to finish creating the item when you import your counts.
If you make a mistake on adding a UPC to an existing item, hit File, then Edit (Item), click in the UPC field, then follow the directions on-screen. Click the UPC you wish to remove, then hit Yes when prompted. Click Close then Close again. Change the count to 0, then hit Submit. Then, hit “Add Item” to go back to scanning.
- Once your count is complete, click Close and then Exit.
- Open your Physical Inventory and click Import Counts From…
- Select Add counts from Session.
- Click Launch Sync YDI with Handheld. This will sync the device with Yellow Dog Inventory and allow you to choose the sessions you wish to import.
- Select the sessions you would like to import and click OK.
NOTE: If any problem items exist in the import, it will show you now. Examples of problem items include inactive/removed items that were scanned or items that are not assigned to the store.
If the item should be in the system, selecting it and clicking “Edit Item” will prompt you to fix it, either by un-deleting it or making it active in the store.
Or you can remove it from the session by clicking “Remove Selected” or “Remove Problem Items” to remove all problem items in the session.
Multiple Sessions for the same Physical Inventory
In Yellow Dog, you can have multiple sessions from one or multiple data collectors. When importing these sessions, each handheld will create a new column with the session name at the top. This is useful when dealing with large amounts of inventory, for control and count purposes. The sessions remain saved in Yellow Dog and on the handheld until removed.
Single Scanner
To add multiple sessions from a single scanner, select every applicable session after Sync that you would like to import.
Multiple Scanners
It can be helpful to name sessions based on date, store, and employee name. For example, Bethany, Mary & Curt are each using a scanner to count both the Lobby Gift Shop and the Casino Store. Recommended session names would be:
Jan17Casino Bethany Jan17Casino Mary Jan17Casino Curt
Jan17Lobby Bethany Jan17Lobby Mary Jan17Lobby Curt
To add multiple sessions from multiple scanners, repeat the process for a single scanner as many times as needed.
NOTE: After the first scanner is synced, that scanner’s sessions will appear again in each subsequent scanner’s synced sessions. You do not need to import these again. Ignore them and import the unique sessions from any subsequent scanners.
Finishing an Inventory
Once you have updated all the inventory counts, you can see information on the physical inventory at the bottom of the screen. The variance count indicates the number of items that is different from what the Yellow Dog system has calculated should be on hand. A positive number means you have more inventory, a negative number indicates less inventory on hand than calculated. The variance cost is calculated using the cost calculation you have chosen; Yellow Dog’s default is weighted average.
We recommend running the Detailed (Select by Physical Inventory) report under Standard Reports/Physical Inventories before committing. You will need to select Show Uncommitted.
When all counts have been entered and you are ready to commit the Physical Inventory, click Commit Physical Inventory.
You have the option to either Commit Physical or Commit Physical and Recalculate Costs. If you have many inventories to review and commit we recommend skipping Recalculate Costs, and waiting for Maintenance to run overnight and calculate all of those costs at one time. Otherwise, you can commit the physical and recalculate to finalize.
If you have items that have not been counted, the system will prompt you. If you are confident any items that were not counted do not need to be counted, click ‘Yes Commit Counts”. This will set any items that were added to the original inventory but not counted, even those with counts in the system, to zero.
If you did not miss items, the system will simply prompt you to commit the inventory. Both prompts will also display the effective date and time.
Run the Detailed Report again as a final check. Most clients use this to turn in their numbers to the accounting/finance department.
IMPORTANT: Once you commit the physical inventory, the counts that you entered in to the “Counted” column will become your on-hand counts as of the Effective Date and Time.
Sessions
This screen allows you to manage both handheld and regular sessions from the main Yellow Dog client. On this screen, you can:
- View existing sessions imported from the handheld – helpful for confirming successful imports and troubleshooting
- Remove sessions – useful for keeping the handheld organized and limiting the import list when adding sessions to a document or inventory
- Adjust on Hand – allows user to change the on hand before importing. Useful for correcting miscounts without resyncing
- Launch Sync – shortcut to launch the sync. Works the same as the desktop shortcut.
- Configure – your implementation guide will walk you through configuring the sync. This will need to be done on each computer the handheld is plugged into.
Worksheets
Replenishment
The Replenishment worksheet is a tool for clients that utilize a warehouse to generate requests or transfers for multiple locations within a single screen. This tool uses algorithms to decide which stores requests get priority fulfillment based on sales for a chosen timeframe. **Pars and Reorder Points must be set for this tool to work. **
- To start replenishment, you will first go to the replenishment tab on the left-hand menu
- This will open the worksheets menu page, you will now choose “Add” from the right-hand menu
- This will open the replenishment wizard where you can choose to create a new document or use a template from a previous document
- The next page will allow you to add filters to the replenishment if you choose a template, the filters are auto-populated
- On this screen the first thing you will want to do is fill in the description field. This description will be the identifier on any other purchasing docs that are created from this document. You can add an extended description to the field below that if needed for more granularity
- Next you will choose the store fulfilling the replenishment (Usually a warehouse but you could use this for store to store transfers as well).
- Next you will identify the stores that will be receiving items (also known as the replenishment stores)
- Next you can choose to use any of the listed filters (levels, stores, etc.) to help keep lists shorter and easier to work with. This is not needed to complete, but is recommended.
- Next you can choose how you want your data sorted in the worksheet by selecting one or more sort options. If no sorts are chosen, items will follow your global sort selection (usually alphabetically by description).
- The next section is the sales range section, this is used in the system to determine which stores should get priority if the warehouse store does not have enough stock to fulfill the quantities needed. The “Smart Math” function will calculate the usage and determine which store should get the items based on the percentage of sales.
- If you plan on using this filter arrangement again you will want to choose the “Save as Template” option on the bottom right of the screen
- Once you have set all your filters you will choose the “OK” tab at the bottom right and Yellow Dog will begin to build the replenishment grid
- From this grid you can review and edit the order amounts, reorder points, par levels, as well as set multipliers by item or across the whole grid if the standard pars are not enough for the next event but you do not want to permanently change your standard pars.
- Once you have made any needed changes to the grid, you will then choose to commit the replenishment at the bottom right of the screen
Now that the replenishment has been committed, you will now open the Transfers module and you will now notice that there are new open transfers (The description field will be amended with the replenishment record # and description) - Now you will open the new records and Issue the new transfers when ready.
Purchase Order
The Purchase Order worksheet assists in generating POs for multiple stores within a single screen.
Before selecting the items to order, select the parameters to create the Purchase Order – Vendor, Buyer and Receiving stores. Once these selections have been made, the Purchase Order Worksheet Editor will open.
Yellow Dog will auto populate a Purchase Order Number and Description. This can be changed with certain user permissions.
Then, fill out the Start and Cancel ship dates as well any instructions or references for this order. Use the +/- to the left of “Worksheet Details” and “Additional Worksheet Details” to see the full worksheet if your screen resolution requires it.
Next, add items. Items can be added directly from:
- inventory
- Matrices
- Store Specific lists
- Locations
- Pars/Reorder Points
- sales
- Count Sheets
- A previous Physical Inventory
- ydiMobile sessions
Just like in Purchase Orders, only items that are assigned to the selected Vendor will be available to bring into the worksheet. Additional information on the item can be viewed by selecting the Choose Columns hyperlink on the right-hand side. Items can be removed by highlighting and selecting “Remove”.
Once items have been entered, use the Order Sheet to identify the quantities to be ordered for each store. The user can view both current on hands and quantities on order for each store by navigating thru the different tabs on the left-hand side of the Order sheet.
Once the order is complete, the user will Commit the Purchase Order Worksheet. Once committed, the system will then create a Purchase Order for each store on the worksheet containing all items that are to be ordered. Users from each of the stores will then be able to review, place the order and then commit the PO in the system.
Purchasing
The Purchasing section of Yellow Dog Inventory enables users to handle every aspect of the “Purchasing Flow”.
Each purchasing screen has filters at the top. The main filters are for Store, Vendor, Committed Date Ranges and the Search feature.
You can also Filter by Status.
in 362, we have added the ability to select or deselect all statuses on the main screen of all purchasing modules. This feature aids in filtering different statuses of purchasing documents more efficiently.
Users can click on the Green Check Mark to select all status and see all types of documents or click on the Red X to deselect all and choose the type of status that is needed to view.
Purchasing Documents
The document types you use will depend on how you purchase items for your location. All of the Purchasing components work similarly 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 filters 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 the Stores tab section 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 guide 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.
- Sessions are created using Yellow Dog handheld software, mobile app, or manually in the client itself. For more information on ydiMobile, please see the section on Sessions
- 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 mobile software 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 & Features
- 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 cost, 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, such as keg deposits.
- 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.
- Total Line Count – in v362, we have added a total line count amount. This displays the sum of all costs for the line items only. It will not take into account any additional expenses that may be added to the overall cost on the invoice whether distributed or not.
- Search feature – each purchasing document now has a search field that you can use to for SKU or Description. Yellow Dog will highlight the returned search in dark grey. Keep in mind if you are only typing in part of the SKU or Description, by default Yellow Dog will highlight the first occurrence of what you typed and not all instances of them.
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 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 requester why they’re not getting a full count 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. You can use the old method, which only requires one approver, or you can create Hierarchical Approvals. That method requires some additional setup and is below.
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. Contact your implementation guide or Support for assistance setting this up.
Hierarchical PO Approval
PO Approvals now have an emailed, ranked system in addition to the currency threshold that exists. This uses the Yellow Dog API to send emails to required people, and they can accept or reject the PO through a web portal. Email addresses are set in the Employees section in Yellow Dog, so everyone who will be approving POs will need an employee login set up, even if they do not use Yellow Dog. The employee requesting approval will receive notifications upon approval or rejection, so they will need to have their email included as well.
- Start by setting the Purchase Order Approval Method to Hierarchy in System Setup/Options/Global.
- Build Employee Roles. This will determine who gets emails, and in which order they receive them.
- Assign the Employees to their roles. Employees can have different roles in different stores.
- Build Store Approval Types. Different store types can have different hierarchies of approval. A backup notification role can be set here as well, for redundancy.
- Set the Stores to their appropriate Approval Types.
- Configure the PO Approval Setup for each store type. This is where the roles are sequenced for approvals, per Store Approval Type.
- Begin requesting approval. The status will change in the PO Approvals button of the PO as the process continues.
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. Or you can update your Windows Regional settings to show more decimal places.
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.
Item Aliases
Invoices created by EDI frequently include new items as well as those substituted by the vendor. When a new item is created via EDI, it will appear in the Invoice Record with a notation in the Notice column that it is a new item without any transactions. (Clients upgraded to v360 may need to choose the Notice column from the Choose Columns menu.) These items can then be substituted with existing items, if necessary, by clicking the Create Alias button. Please note the items must have a one-to-one packaging relationship for this to work, e.g. 25# case to 25# bag. If the item is new and not a substitute, the notice can be disregarded.
Create Alias will open the Item Lookup screen. From there, search for the existing item. In the example below, the new 990016 item is being aliased with the existing 300031 item. You can tell which items are new by the level they are assigned to. Most EDI levels begin with a 9.
Once you select the existing item, the system will prompt you to confirm the alias.
This function is related to the “Multiple Vendor SKUs” option on the Additional Vendors tab of the Item Editor. If you look at the old item after aliasing it, it should now have the new item’s vendor SKU as well as its existing one.
Once the invoice is correct, enter any notes you may have, then commit the invoice.
Invoices with Purchase Orders
Previously, clients who created Purchase Orders for their EDI Invoices would need to go back and cancel or rescind them in order to update On Order amounts. In 362, we’ve added the ability to mark Purchase Orders as invoiced via EDI.
Once you receive and commit an EDI Invoice in Yellow Dog, you will now be able to navigate back to the Purchase Order that it matches and check the box “Invoiced Via EDI” in the upper right-hand corner. By checking this box, all items in the purchase order will no longer have the “On Order” amounts and the Purchase Order status will change from Ordered to Invoiced via EDI.
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 “Create Alias” function will solve the problem. However, for non-“one-to-one” substitutions, you will need to either manually replace the item or create the new item as a child of the original parent.
Replacement
- To replace an item that is not a one-to-one 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. Change the quantity to reflect the relationship between the items. For example, if we are replacing a half gallon jug of oil with a gallon bottle, the cost stays the same, but the quantity is divided by 2, since there are 2 half gallons to a gallon. If the item you normally buy is smaller than the replacement item, your quantity would be multiplied. Once you’ve made your replacement, make sure to validate the cost is correct based on the size you selected.
Parent-Child Relationships
- By far the best of the non-“one-to-one” solutions, using parent-child relationships to assist with substitutions needs to be done before the invoice is touched at all.
- From the Inventory Item screen, find the existing item and the replacement. Highlight both using Shift-click or Ctrl-click and right click. Choose “Set Parent/Child Relationship”.
- 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 the Invoice as normal.
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 Guide.
- Credit dollars will be positive if they are adding to the total dollars you are getting from the vendor. If you need to account for paying for shipping, the expense would be negative.
- When all 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: To allow 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 store’s on hands. Please let your implementation guide know if you would prefer inventory to stay in the FROM store until its accepted.
In 362, we have also added a permission that prohibits transfers to be made from items with a zero on hand or less in the From Store. If a transfer between two stores is created in the system, only items with a positive on hand in the FROM store will be available to transfer.
If an item without a positive on hand is added to a transfer, a pop up window will appear alerting the user that the item has failed to be added due to the amount on hand in the FROM store. The item will not pull into the Transfer editor at all. It will remain unable to be added until more is received in the FROM store.
Reports
For detailed information on each report, please see the separate manual covering Reports.
There are two main report features in Yellow Dog Inventory – Standard Reports and Saved Reports.
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 Export… to send it to Outlook, a CSV file, Excel, or PDF. 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 Guide for more information on how to set this up.
System Setup
Accounts
From here you can set accounts for Manual Adjustments, Inventory, Invoice Expense, Return to Vendor and Global.
Autonumber
This feature is configured during implementation, where your guide will set up SKU lengths and customize any other number requested such as Invoice, etc. In the example below, the Yellow Dog SKU is set to generate a 10-digit number, with each of the fields checked corresponding to values Yellow Dog will use to create it.
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
This tab allows for customization of the system, from item-specific settings, to system-wide settings such as font and calculated cost method.
Global
Cost Calculation Method
- FIFO
- LIFO
- Vendor Price
- Perpetual weighted average
- Last vendor price
- Weighted average (per store or combined)
Calculated Cost Refresh Frequency
How often Yellow Dog will check to determine what percentage of costs are calculated. Costs will be recalculated at a specific threshold if the ‘Enable Automatic Cost Recalculating’ option is selected. Larger organizations with much more data to calculate should leave this option off, as cost calculation for large datasets can cause system slowdown.
Purchasing
You can also choose between Hierarchy or Threshold PO Approval Methods.
Worksheets
This is where the methods are set for Replenishment worksheets such as Document Type, Multiplier Application, and the Algorithm used to determine replenishment. You can also choose to have the Purchasing documents automatically committed.
Foreign Currency
Yellow Dog now has options to deal with foreign currencies.
Global Options
If your business purchases product from vendors that use a different currency you will need to configure this in Yellow Dog. To do this go to the System Setup section in Yellow Dog on the left-hand side. Choose Options > Global towards to mid-bottom of the page is the currencies section. You will need to choose your businesses Native Currency and the secondary currency in the Other Currencies section. You will need to type the currency symbol as they appear on the exchange rate for example the Canadian Dollar CAD and the Euro EUR.
By Vendor
If you have a vendor that uses a currency different than your native business you can edit that vendor by going to the Common Setup section of Yellow Dog, click on Vendor and Manufacturers, then double click on the vendor that uses the different currency. This should take you to the Vendor and Manufacturers Editor section for that vendor and on the first tab labeled Details there is a section called Default Currency. This will give you the option to choose what currency this particular vendor and its items use.
Invoice Checkbox
If you have a vendor that you designate uses a different currency than your native currency. Then when you input an invoice for that vendor in Yellow Dog a check box will appear below the Description section on the invoice that confirms whether you want to display money in the foreign currency you designated for that vendor. If the invoice should be in the value of your native currency then you would uncheck this box within the invoice.
Employee Settings
The ability to change the currency designation is an option within the Employee Settings in Yellow Dog. If you open an employee or employee group the user is assigned to, there should be two sections where you can make this feature available or unavailable for the user.
Purchasing > All Editors > Foreign Currencies
System Setup > Options > Currencies
If you type “Currencies” in the search bar both sections should appear.
Recipes
Allows you to set the Default Target Cost Percent as well as allow recipes to have individual percentages.
Inventory
Maximum SKU Length
Standard is set to 12, but any limitations with this are generally POS-related.
POS Item Descriptions
Controls POS Descriptions 1 & 2 length and Default naming schemes for 2-way integrations Again, this is frequently driven by the POS that your system is integrated with.
Other Options
Fonts
Allows you to change the font. This is system wide and not user specific.
Labels
This allows you to change the labels used throughout the system. Examples include Supplier instead of Manufacturer, Location instead of Flag, etc.
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 or set up Hierarchy behavior, depending on your PO approval settings.
Print Templates
Use this tab to work with print templates. Please see the section for details.
Employees
From here you can add, remove & modify employee information, as well as permissions. Please see the separate Employee Permissions documents 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.
Employee Roles
This is used for Hierarchical PO Approval.
Stores
The Stores section lets you see store details such as Active SKUs, Accounting ID, Company ID, Addresses and Revenue Center.
Store Approval Types
This section is also used for Hierarchical PO Approvals. See the section on PO Approvals for more information.
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:
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- When you have your data field added, you can resize and move it as necessary. Right-clicking on the field will bring up several 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.
Cost Calculation
Yellow Dog Inventory has seven different cost calculation methods that you can choose from:
- Weighted Average Per Store
- Weighted Average All Stores
- Perpetual Weighted Average Per Store
- FIFO Per Store
- LIFO
- Cost As Vendor Price
- Last Vendor Price Per Store
If you have any questions about these methods or wish to change from the method you were implemented with, please contact Support.
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 guide.
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.
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, review the Employee Access Manual.
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 your 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 guide or Support.
Note: The computers must be on the same network as the server unless you are using our hosted option. If you have any issues, please contact Support.
Purchasing Supplies
If you need to purchase additional equipment or labels, please visit our web store.