Updating in-Stock Paper

Overview

This topic describes how to add or update in-stock paper. Although in-stock paper is generally paper you keep on hand, it doesn't have to be. More important is that you're willing to sell it in broken reams or partial boxes. Say a customer orders 200 one-color letterheads. On in-stock paper, Morning Flight will add 40 sheets for setup and spoilage. When printed on any other kind of paper, it will add 300, the assumption being that no vendor will break open a ream of cut-size paper and sell you less than 500.

Something else that sets in-stock paper apart from the rest is the pricing of colors: They're all priced the same. There are pros and cons here. With just two prices (one for whites, one for colors), maintaining the paper file is a snap. Update ivory ... and canary and blue and pink are updated along with it. That's the good news. The downside is you can't have a higher price for dark colors. With in-stock paper, that shouldn't be an issue. Dark colors are infrequent sellers, "Ladenhüter" (guardians of the store) in Germany, "White Elephants" (don't ask me why) in the States. Poor candidates for inventory in any language.

What if you needed to carry a higher-priced color of, say Classic Laid Cover, for a particular customer? Simple. Make a new in-stock item and label it "Classic Cover - Dark."

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1.	Click the My Store button, then click My in-Stock Paper.

2.	In the black panel, click Cover/Label.

3.	Click either the Add button to create a new in-stock paper item in the cover/label category, or the Update button to edit an existing one. For this demo, we'll add a new item, based on 80 lb Classic Laid Cover, shown under the highlight bar.

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4.	Place the cursor over the paper type (where the glove is pointed) and keep clicking until the type reads "Coated Cover." Place the cursor over the weight and click that until it reads "100 lb." Those are shortcuts. You can accomplish the same thing, only slower, by clicking the Weight/Type button.

5.	click the Size button and change the size to 11x17.

6.	Click the Vendor button to enter the vendor. If your vendor file is empty, add a new vendor or just leave the vendor's name blank.

7.	Enter the Name of the paper and Carton Content.

8.	Enter the Cost of 1,000 11x17 sheets in the one-carton brackets, for both white and colors.

These are costs, not prices you charge you customers. You'll find that as you enter your cost in the one-carton bracket, costs in the other brackets automatically adjust. Obviously, Morning Flight has no way of knowing what's in your paper vendor's price book, so don't expect those estimated bracket costs to be actual. Approximate paper costs may be close enough for quoting 500 letterheads but are far too risky to use for 10,000 catalog sheets.

Click the Price button. That will do two things: First, it will turn off estimated auto-pricing for the adjacent brackets. Second, it will allow you to enter into those brackets the actual costs from your vendor's price book. Specify whether the costs are per 1,000 sheets or per lbs./kilos, and how the brackets are arranged. Click OK twice. First to close the price window, then the in-stock paper window.

If you want to turn auto-pricing back on, click the Reset button.

As you can see, Morning Flight lets you enter paper costs in any conceivable configuration your vendor might be using. For "Price Basis" you have a choice of cartons only, weight only, or cartons up to a full carton, and beyond that by weight. Click the radio buttons and watch the captions change to get a better picture of how it all interacts.

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Clicking the Color button will price color paper the same as white.

Clicking the One-Price button will price all brackets the same as one carton.

Clicking the Sort button before you click OK will show you whether you've inadvertently entered costs in the wrong order. Morning Flight will automatically sort costs when you accept the window.

Updating Colors

Here we'll add a new color, Baronial Ivory, to 80 lb. Classic Laid Cover.

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1.	In the paper selection window, place the highlight bar over 80 lb Classic Laid Cover, 8-1/2x11.

2.	Click the Color button.

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3.	Click either the Add button to add a new color, or the Update button to edit an existing one. For this demo, we'll add a new color.

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Enter the name of the Color, then either click the appropriate Color Bar or drag the blue bullet to it. That does two things. First and foremost, it tells Morning Flight whether to use white or color pricing. Second, when you're looking for a particular paper, it lets you limit your search to a color group.