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The Additional Units of Measure function allows more than one unit of measure to be specified for a product or service. For example, if the same bottle of wine is sold as an individual bottle, a case of 6, and a case of 12.


The Additional Units of Measure functionality can be used in the following situations:

  • to automatically disassemble a case into singles if purchased in cases and sold as singles;
  • to automatically assemble a case from singles if sold as a case and is kept in stock as singles;
  • to do the unit of measure conversion if purchased in kg and needs to be converted to lb, etc.


Previously, this would have been done by adding a bill of materials to a product and selecting auto-assembly but this new feature provides a more simple way to set up the conversions. Functionally, the two methods are identical. Because of this, a product that already has some additional units of measure linked cannot have a bill of materials with auto-assembly/disassembly selected.


NOTE: Adding additional units of measure to an SKU enables auto-assembly/disassembly. Please note that Auto-disassembly triggers when goods are received (receive tab in Purchase), while Auto-assembly triggers when sales order is authorised. If you do not wish to trigger auto-assemblies/disassemblies, you can simply add a BOM to the product and manually assemble/disassemble. 


Prerequisites


Table of Contents


Create a product with additional units of measure

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Let's take an example of a single item and a 12-pack.


To create a product with additional units of measure:

  1. First, you need to create your smallest unit as the base product. This will be the single item in this example. 
  2. You can create the other products for additional units of measure beforehand, or create a new product when adding an additional unit of measure to the base product. 


NOTE: The products should have the same costing method, but different units of measure. 


  1. On the base product (smallest unit), scroll to the Additional Units of Measure tab and click +. You will be able to select an existing product from your inventory or to create a new product.
  2. Set a conversion ratio for the base product in the Number of.. field. This can be an integer or decimal number. 
  3. Select if you are selling the additional unit product. You also have the option to assign a price for your first price tier.

When viewing the additional product, you can see that in the Bill of Materials tab the information has been generated by the system automatically. It has auto-assembly and auto-disassembly enabled and also has a link to the base product.


NOTE: You can still have a bill of materials assigned to the base product, however you can't use auto-assembly or auto-disassembly for the base product.



NOTE: Each additional unit of measure product has a different SKU. Sales are recorded for each SKU. When running a sales report, you may filter the products and its units of measure to obtain the sales total for all the products on different units of measure.



Setting up products in this way will do the following:


If you purchase a  5 12-packs, they will be automatically disassembled into singles.

Now when you look at the availability report, you can see that there are 60 singles on hand, but 5 12-packs, 10 6-packs and and 60 singles available for sale.


If you sell a 6-pack or 12-pack, the system will automatically assemble single items into a 6-pack or 12-pack.


NOTE: If the quantity of the base product has been allocated to sales or assemblies, this will reduce the quantity shown in the Available column.


Importing and exporting items with additional units of measure

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Instead of individually creating additional units of measure for your products, you can import them into DEAR via a comma-separated values (CSV) file. You can also import products with updated units of measure and/or delete products with additional units of measure using the same CSV file. Export the CSV file to make changes in bulk to existing additional units of measure. 


If your units of measure are available in a third-party system, you need to export them out of the system into a CSV file. To help you prepare the file for import to DEAR, Table 1 below shows the specifications of the DEAR Additional Units of Measure template file. 


COLUMN NAME
VALUE TYPE
COMMENT
Action
String
Can be any one of the following: Create/Update/Delete.
Optional for Create and Update.
Required for Delete.
BaseSKU
String

BaseProductName
String

BaseUnitsOfMeasure
String

AdditionalUnitsOfMeasureSKU
String

AdditionalUnitsOfMeasureProductName
String

AdditionalUnitsOfMeasureName
String

NumberOfBaseUnitsInAdditionalUnit
Decimal

IAmSelling
Boolean
Required for new products


Example:



Import and export of the Units of Measure CSV takes place from the Products screen. 


Importing Units of Measure:

  1. Navigate to Inventory → Products.
  2. On the Products page, click the Import button at the top, then select Units of Measure from the list.
  3. On the Import Units of Measure page, download the template file, which has the correct product headings DEAR needs in order to import the units of measure for your products. Take note of the download folder.
  4. Navigate to the download folder, then open the template file. Using Excel or another spreadsheet program, copy and paste the additional units of measure that you exported out of your third-party system into the template. Make sure the data you copy matches the column headings provided in the template.
  5. Import the file back into DEAR by either dragging it into the designated spot or selecting it from your computer. If the template file does not have any issues, the records are uploaded into DEAR. 
    • An error message appears if there is an issue with the template file. If there are valid products that can be uploaded into DEAR, click the Upload Valid Lines button to upload the valid products into DEAR. To download a file with the invalid products, click the Download Invalid Lines button. Review the template file, making sure to check that it conforms with the template specifications set forth in Table 1.


You can export the units of measure you've set up in DEAR to a CSV file for further analysis and/or manipulation from outside the system, then either re-import it back to DEAR or to another system, for example, your accounting application.


Exporting Units of Measure:

  1. Navigate to Inventory → Products.
  2. On the Products page, click the Export button at the top, then select Units of Measure from the list.
  3. When prompted, download the file to your computer, taking note of the download folder. 

Additional units of measure and production

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As Additional units of measure add an assembly BOM with auto-assembly/disassembly enabled to an SKU, they will be exploded to the base unit when used in a production order. This is known as a Phantom BOM in DEAR, as the explosion happens automatically in the components list, without creating a separate assembly order. 


Please see Phantom BOM - Additional units of measure and production for detailed information. 

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