How can I manage Wire?

Master Packs

Master Packs are the way iPoint handles bulk ordering. For example, you don’t order 1 foot of wire at a time. You’ll order a box or roll that contains 500 or 1000 feet. However, you may want to sell wire by the foot to track inventory and/or to ensure you’re covering your costs accurately.

Master Packs are set up as items that can be ordered from your vendor. But when they are received they are received as individual items. In our example above, you would order the Master Pack of wire from your vendor on a PO with the box or roll Part number. When UPS drops off the order and it is entered into iPoint, your wire inventory count will increase by 500 or 1000, even though you received the 1 box/roll SKU.

By setting up Master Packs, you are able to buy a box of 500’ of wire as this is the SKU that your vendor uses. But when the single box is received into iPoint, it is received as 500 individual feet of wire.

But in order to use Master Packs, there are some settings that need to take place.

Step 1 – the individual item (the single foot of wire)

1. Set up your per foot item like you would any other item
   1. This part will be an inventory item.

If the item is part of a master pack you will see the master pack it belongs to on the Add’l Settings tab.

Notice that an individual item can belong to multiple Master Packs. (e.g. a single foot of Cat6 might be part of a 500’ box and a 1000’ spool.) But a Master Pack can only belong to one individual item.

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Step 2 – the master pack (the item we buy from the vendor)

For our example, we are going to create two MPs.

1. Create two Master Pack items
   1. Wire 500 feet
   2. Wire 1000 feet
2. Open the Add’l Settings tab on the Wire 500 feet
   1. Select the item that will be received by this Master Pack – from the dropdown menu select the per foot wire item we created in Step 1 above
   2. In the How Many Units field enter a quantity of 500.
3. Now open the Add’l Settings tab on the Wire 1000 feet
   1. Again, select wire for the single item received.
   2. This time set the units field to a quantity of 1000.

Now you can order the 500 foot or 1000 foot roll/box.

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Using the master pack

So now we know, when creating a Master Pack item, you also have an individual item in your items database. So what exactly is the difference and how do you use each throughout iPoint?

Individual Item

• Inventory Item with a quantity of 1.
• Used on Proposals, Sales Orders and Invoices marked at the specific sold quantity.
• Will show up on the Product Manager
• Indicated by a Blue MP on a PO – this should indicate that the item is part of a master pack item so you can remove from the PO and add the master pack item instead
  

*As you are building a proposal or adding wire to a work order, you’ll add the actual quantity you want to sell. That means you’ll add the individual item with the quantity needed. If the speaker wire run is 150 feet, you’ll add 150 feet of the individual item.

Note: On the Product Manager, the individual item will not be marked as “on order” if you order the master pack item. Once received, you can allocate those items from stock.

Master Pack Item

• Non-inventory item
• Marked as a master pack with the linked individual item at packaged quantity.
• Used on Purchase Orders.
• Indicated by an Orange MP on a PO – once received, the individual item’s stock rises.
• When you update the cost of the Master Pack Item on the Item Details, it will prompt you to auto adjust the cost of the individual items.
  

*Now, when the wire is being added to a Purchase Order, you typically don’t say you want to order 150 feet of wire. Nope! You’ll order a box of wire. So for our example, you’ll want to remove the 150’ that was specified on the job and replace it with a Master Pack of wire. The reality is, that if you put 150 feet of wire on your PO, chances are your vendor will send you 150 boxes which will equal 7,500 feet! A bit overkill, don’t ya think?

You’ll notice that master pack items show up as a teal item in the Items list and are also prepended with an asterisk.

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Second, you’ll notice on a Purchase Order that a single item that is part of a Master Pack will display a blue MP next to the item. An orange MP indicates that the item is a Master Pack itself.

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