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Split Items

The Split Items setting allows you to sell Items in packs and for cashiers to be able to split those packs so that the contents can also be sold in smaller quantities.

For example, you may sell light bulbs individually and in boxes of four. If there are no individual light bulbs on the shelf, a cashier will be able to open a box if a Customer only needs to purchase a single unit.

The Split Items setting is where you should establish the relationship between the pack and the smaller unit. Both the pack and the smaller unit should exist as separate Items in the Item register.

To work with the Split Items setting, first ensure you are in the Point of Sales module using the [Switch Module] button in the Navigation Centre. Then, if you are using Windows or Mac OS X, click the [Settings] button, also in the Navigation Centre and double-click 'Split Items' in the resulting list. If you are using iOS or Android, select 'Settings' from the Tools menu (with 'wrench' icon) and tap 'Split Items' in the 'Settings' list. The 'Split Items: Inspect' window opens, listing the Split Item records that you have already created. Double-click one to modify it or select 'New' from the Create menu (Windows/Mac OS X) or + menu (iOS/Android) to create a new record: configure it as appropriate and as described below. When the record is complete, click the [Save] button (Windows/Mac OS X) or tap √ (iOS/Android) to save.

Item
Paste Special    Item register
Enter the Item Number of the larger Item (i.e. the pack). The Item Description will be brought in to the Description field below.

Split Item to
Paste Special    Item register
Enter the Item Number of the smaller Item (i.e. the Item that can be removed from the pack). The Item Description will be brought in to the Description field below.

Factor
Specify here how many of the smaller Item are contained in the larger Item. In the example illustration, a box contains four light bulbs, so the Factor is 4.
You should enter a separate record in the Split Items setting for each Item that can be broken up for its constituent units to be sold individually.

When you sell a constituent unit in a POS Invoice, subsequently running the 'Update Stock' Maintenance function will cause stock levels to be updated as follows:

  • If you hold stock of the constituent unit, its stock level will be reduced by the quantity sold.

  • If you do not hold stock of the constituent unit, the relevant quantity of the boxes or packages will be broken up. In other words, the relevant number of units of the box or package Item will be removed from stock and the constituent units will be added to stock. The stock level of the constituent unit will then be reduced by the quantity sold.
This process is invisible to the cashiers: the cashier only needs to scan the constituent units and the remainder of the process will be handled by the 'Update Stock' function.

If a Customer hands a box or package to a cashier to ask the cashier to break into the package, the cashier needs to be careful only to scan the constituent unit, not the box or package as well. Scanning the box or package will mean that the 'Update Stock' function will remove the box or package from stock twice, because it will assume that the cashier scanned the box or package to sell it, not to break it up. It will then remove a second box or package from stock when it processes the constituent unit, if there are no constituent units in stock.

It is possible to add a "Split Item" button to the POS Invoice window, but in most circumstances this is not recommended because the process described above is more efficient and assumes less knowledge on the part of the cashiers. If you add a "Split Item" button to the POS Invoice window, cashiers can then scan the box or package, click or touch the "Split Item" button to break the Item up and then scan the smaller Item. However, if you do not have any of the constituent unit in stock, the 'Update Stock' function will still remove a box or package from stock automatically. The result will be that too many boxes or packages will be broken up and too many constituent units added to stock. In other words, the cashier will need to know that they should only use the "Split Item" button if there are already some constituent units in stock, and this is knowledge that they probably won't have.

Note that you can only use Split Items in POS Invoices, not in Bar Tabs. The 'Update Stock' function in the Restaurant module is not the same as the 'Update Stock' function in the Point of Sales module, and doesn't support Split Items.

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