Product Features : Inventory Control Functions

The heart of Retail Pro is a sophisticated Perpetual Inventory which reflects and contributes to activity in every other module.

Stock on Hand, In Transit, On Order

• Inventory by Vendor, Department, Class, Style, Color, Size

  Complex inventory can be sorted by vendor, department, class, subclass, style, season, color, size etc. Retail Pro displays inventory on a lineal display or in a matrix such as a size/color grid. There is no extra data entry needed to update inventory movement; the actions of ordering, receiving, ticketing and selling on the system are all that is needed to keep the database current.

  Often one wants to view only the inventory items that match specific criteria. Retail Pro filters out items that do not match the user's viewing criteria. Users can quickly see items selected by vendor, department, style, size, color, price range, date last received or last sold, etc. Once having called up a selected group of inventory items the user may flip from store to store viewing the same selection in different locations. Having selected an item, a keystroke will display the quantities of that item on hand in each store of the company.

  The grid-like layout of the matrix displays a great deal of information in a compact format. Using the matrix format, it is possible to create a brand new style in inventory, with hundreds of size/color combinations in less than a minute.

• Stock On Hand, On Order, Received, Sold

  Inventory screens can show company totals on hand, on order, received and sold for each inventory item. Or one can select cost, price, margin, first/last date sold, dates received, UPC codes, or other elements. From any store a user can view quantities for other stores, back rooms or warehouses. This can all be done with inventory look-up; no reports module or printed reports are necessary.

  These numbers can be viewed "on the fly" while in the midst of generating a Purchase Order or other system activity. In a report, one can see inventory data for a selected group of stores. Stores may be grouped by size (Type A, B and C stores) or by geography (Midwestern Region, etc.) or any other common factor.

• Min/Max Levels

  To keep a steady stock watch for the reorder of basic goods is time consuming and vital to profits. Retail Pro can use each store's own sales history to compute what the Min-Max levels of an item should be. The retailer can devise a strategy (e.g., days of supply modified by season) which the system will implement by consulting past sales levels. This profit-enhancing feature uses sales history to calculate scientifically what and when to reorder, with less paperwork and less guesswork.

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Purchase Orders, Receiving And Ticketing

• Automated Orders and Receiving

  Over and under-buying is the most common costly mistake in retail, yet is one of the easiest to reduce by the use of effective computerization. Retail Pro's streamlined purchase order functions increase control over the many products carried by even a small retail operation. Creating purchase orders is both quick and easy. A one step process adds new merchandise descriptions into the inventory, includes it on the PO, incorporates it into On Order quantities with expected ship dates, and, if desired, prints high quality price tags.

• Over- and under- shipments and vendor substitutions can be smoothly handled.

  As merchandise is received, Retail Pro generates a voucher that clearly displays all the information needed to verify the shipment against the P.O. and packing slip. Returns to Vendor can be generated on the spot or later. Receiving without a PO is also facilitated, as merchandise can be entered on the fly or instantly called up. Merchandise in the system whose UPC codes have been scanned in, can be received by direct scanning of the UPCs directly into the receiving document.

  This one-step receiving process updates inventory by units, cost and retail, and implements authorized price adjustments. It produces designed or standard price tags for the quantities of goods received. Receiving vouchers can update accounts payable. Retail Pro supports drop shipments to multiple stores by providing receiving capability at any remote site, where earlier P.O.s will have been distributed by the system.

  The Case to Unit Conversion feature helps retailers who buy by the case and sell by the unit. A PO can be entered by the case and will be converted by the system into units of inventory.

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Pricing And Markdowns

• Setting Prices and Margins

  The price of merchandise is normally set either at the time the order is placed or when goods are received and ticketed. Retail Pro knows the cost of goods from the P.O., and when the retail price is entered, it will insert the correct margin %; or vice versa. Desired margin levels can be entered for entire departments or classes of merchandise, and the system will thereafter suggest the appropriate retail prices without further prompting.

• Variable Price Levels

  Often different sites in the same chain require different price levels because of local conditions or sales. Retail Pro provides the use of up to 240 different price levels to accomodate these conditions. Alternate pricing levels can also be set up for employees, preferred customers or wholesale accounts. Use of these pricing variances are fully recorded for reports, and the effects on maintained markups are exactly tracked.

• Markdowns and Planned Pricing

  The Markdown module can mark prices up or down, by dollar amount or percentage, and can round prices by cents or dollars. It can print special markdown reports and generate markdown tags, as well as restore prices to their earlier level.

  Planned pricing is a merchandising tool in Retail Pro used to establish up to four price changes in advance for any group of items. Example: graduated price reductions in the last weeks of a season.

• Package, Kit and Quantity Pricing

  Retail Pro can support quantity pricing - such as "3 for $10.00" - when the price of an item changes by the quantity purchased. These price levels are established in the back office and take effect automatically at POS. Special pricing can also be set for kits or packages of goods containing pre-designated items, where the price of the kit may be less than the sum price of all the parts.

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Multi-Store Distribution And Transfers

• Distribution of Goods

  When distributions or transfers are ordered at the main office, Retail Pro will automatically inform all the sending and receiving stores as a routine part of the polling process each day. Actual transfers are securely managed using Out slips and In slips, which can be generated at store level by the system. Slips can also be quickly made on the fly with a bar code scanner at any site. This procedure maintains a current record of merchandise In Transit - including when it left, by whom it was consigned, and by what means of transport. Any discrepancy between quantities sent and received is automatically brought to the attention of the retailer. Most important, goods can be decisively and continuously expedited to the locations where they will generate the greatest profit in the shortest period of time. By comparing "Days of Supply" in several stores for an item or group of items, the system can recommend those transfers which will optimize sales.

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Open To Buy Forecaster

Retailers have long used 'Open to Buy' calculations to set buying strategies. The concept implies determining a unit or dollar amount that is "open" to be bought or spent. A crude "Open to Buy" would compute only dollars at retail by department. A modern OTB can tell the retailer in each month how much is open in Cost Dollars, Retail Dollars, and Units, by Department, Class and Subclass, and by Price Point. Open To Buy should also support "What If?" considerations, such as "What if our Turn is increased?" or "What if sales volume goes up 10%?". And it must be seasonally adjusted to compute correct stock levels by sales variations of previous years.

Retail Pro contains its own Open To Buy option with all these features, using data provided by the system. Thus a buyer can go to market armed with the knowledge of what to spend where, for maximum return.

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Pre-Set And User-Defined Reports

• Hot/Cold Seller Analysis

  Every retailer needs to constantly know what is selling and what's not. Retail Pro's "Best Seller" reports are instantly available for any store or group of stores, by specific style or item, by department, by manufacturer, or even by clerk or by store. It can rank any number of best (or worst) sellers by volume, profit, or units. And the report can be called up any time for any time period, current or past.

  This is one example of a Retail Pro pre-set report which can be activated for any time period and any range of activity.

• Comprehensive Pre-set and User Designed Reports

  Retail Pro's comprehensive report and analysis capabilities provide insight into all aspects of the business. Every inventory control and point of sale function generates key information that can be filtered and summarized into a wide variety of reports and graphs.

  Besides a large selection of standard reports, Retail Pro comes with a built-in report designer that allows the retailer to create, name and preserve reports and reproduce them at will. These reports can be laid out and filtered as desired to fit the purposes of the user, and can include or exclude any information areas recorded by the system. A script for a routine group of reports can be created which will print a series of reports at a desired time, such as at night after polling is complete.

  In the event that a user needs to combine Retail Pro data with data from other sources, or to create specialized reports not provided by the system, the system links to any of several commercial report generators through its Bridge data interchange tool.

• User Designed Inventory Screens

  From one retailer to the next there is a uniqueness that separates them and sets their stores apart. Each retailer has their own preference for viewing reports. This individuality has been kept in mind throughout the development of Retail Pro. A prime example of this is the adjustable view of inventory in Retail Pro. Up to ten unique screens can be designed by the user, choosing from a wide variety of information categories. New categories can be displayed with a simple keystroke. In addition to department code, vendor, item, cost and price, the categories include:

  - multiple description fields
  - last dates received and sold
  - UPC codes
  - alternate lookup codes
  - current on hand and on order information
  - historical received and sold information
  - over twenty other categories

• Pre-set and User Definable Matrix (Grid) Displays

  Retail Pro's basic matrix display gives you a style by style look at inventory. The pre-set grid layout displays a great deal of information in a compact format. For example, the user can see Sold and On Hand quantities for any time period, displayed in a grid defined by Vendor, Department, Store, Size and Attribute. This grid option includes the ability to see percent of total which each quantity represents. User defined grid displays also show quantities on hand, on order, sold and received, in units or dollars at retail, cost or profit.

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Physical Inventory

• Portable Data Terminal With Descriptions

  Studies show that an average of 4% of inventory in retail is lost through shrinkage caused by internal or external theft. Routine physical inventories can isolate shrinkage and greatly deter internal theft. Physical inventories with a Retail Pro portable terminal take only a fraction of the time required for manual counts, and accuracy is far better. The system reports any discrepancies between the physical count and recorded inventory on hand. Upon command, it updates the recorded inventory to match the new physical, and provides a complete report in the process.

  The portable terminal can perform quantity and price verifications using pre-loaded inventory data. When merchandise is scanned, the unit can display a brief description, correct retail price and the expected quantity on hand. This makes it easy to detect pricing errors, mis-ticketing, and missing merchandise on the spot.