Documentation/ Checking the line items/ Units and conversion
Units of measure and the conversion factor
The supplier invoices in cases and the stockroom counts singles. The conversion translates one into the other: you say how many of your own units are in one of the supplier's, and the quantity and the price are worked out again.
Document › Items tab › the item's line › unit of measure block
On this page
What it solves
The same item gets measured two ways: the supplier delivers it in cases, pallets or kilos, and the business handles it in singles. Without a conversion, the stock, the recipe costing and the price per unit are all in the supplier's scale rather than yours.
The example the application itself uses: a 330 ml soft drink, 24 to a case. Quantity bought 10, supplier's unit "case", your unit "each", factor 24. The answer is 240 cans.
The three values
| Value | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier's unit | The one on the document. | Case |
| Unit you want | The one the business uses. | Each |
| Conversion factor | How many of your units are in one of the supplier's. | 24 |
The order matters: first the unit on the document, then the unit you want to get to, then the factor.
The preview before you apply it
Before you confirm, the screen shows what the conversion will do:
| What | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Quantity | 10 cases | 240 each |
| Unit price | The case price | Worked out per single |
The line's amount does not change. The conversion spreads the same money across more units: if ten cases cost a certain amount, those 240 singles cost the same. What changes is the quantity and the unit price.
If you have also set an agreed price, the preview shows the effect of both together.
Applying the conversion
The screen asks outright whether you want the conversions applied, with two answers: apply the conversion or keep the original. Until you say yes, the document keeps the values exactly as they arrived.
The conversion goes in when you save the line.
It is permanent
The conversion attaches to the item, not just to this document: from then on, future deliveries of that item are converted automatically. It is a rule, not a one-off edit.
Where an item already has a conversion, the line shows it as conversion active and gives the factor in use.
Changing or removing it
An existing conversion cannot be edited directly: you remove it and create a new one. The application says so if you try.
When you remove a conversion:
- The document's original values come back, and the screen says which values you will get.
- The application asks you to confirm.
- Future uploads stop inheriting that conversion for that product.
The rules it enforces
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| The factor is required and has to be greater than zero | A factor of zero or nothing would wipe the quantity out. |
| If the two units are the same, the factor has to be 1 | Converting a unit into itself with any other factor would produce false quantities. |
| There is an action to clear every conversion field | It lets you start again without deleting the line. |
| The resulting quantity has a ceiling | A wildly wrong factor would produce a figure that cannot be stored; the application says so. |