| Inventory Files |
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Level 2 and Higher.
Inventory Files hold the levels of each of your products at the end of the year. They provide key data during the preparation of inventory reports. (For more information on generating inventory reports, see Inventory Options.) The primary function of an Inventory File is to provide a starting point to calculate how much inventory remains at a given point in time. That's called "Available Inventory." When you generate the Sales Activity and Inventory Report, you'll notice that it begins with a product's "Available Inventory" (shown below). "Available Inventory" comes from an Inventory File.
How Inventory Files Are Named Inventory Files are created by the program each year and contain the ending inventory of that year and any added inventory the following year. They have a fairly simple naming system. For example, an Inventory File which holds the end of the year inventory levels for 2014 is named InvEnd14.dbf. One that holds the end of the year inventory levels for 2015 is named InvEnd15.dbf. (The extension ".dbf" means dBase file, a common and time-tested file format for database files). Unlike Balance Files, which are created every six months, there are no mid year Inventory Files. All Inventory Files are indicated with the "End" designator. Note that in addition to end-of-year inventory levels, inventory files also hold inventory added in the following year. See "Contents of a File" (below) for more information.
Fiscal Years Other than the Calendar Year. AnyOrder allows you to work with a fiscal year which doesn't coincide with the calendar year. For example, your business's fiscal year may go from July 1st to June 30th of each year. If you have a fiscal year different than the calendar year, make sure that you've entered the necessary information in Basic Set-up. One important point to remember about fiscal years is that by convention, the second of the two years is used to name the fiscal year. Thus, Fiscal Year 2014 (FY 2014) extends from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. AnyOrder uses this naming convention when referring to Inventory Files. Thus, an Inventory File named InvEnd14.dbf holds the ending inventory for fiscal year 2014. If your fiscal year extends from September 1 to August 31, an Inventory File named InvEnd14.dbf would include your inventory levels as of August 31, 2014. Note that in addition to end-of-year inventory levels, inventory files also hold inventory added in the following fiscal year. See "Contents of a File" (below) for more information. To keep things simple, examples in the help documentation are based on a calendar year. To make the examples in the text directly applicable to your fiscal year, substitute the start of your fiscal year whenever January 1st is used. (For example: substitute June 1st for January 1st for a fiscal year of July 1 to June 30.) The same holds for ending dates. Substitute the end of your fiscal year whenever December 31st is used. (For example, substitute June 30 for December 31st.) Substitute the end of the first half of your fiscal year when June 30th is used.
Contents of a File. It is helpful to look closer at what an Inventory File holds. InvEnd14.dbf would hold the inventory levels of your products at the end of 2014. As you get into the next year (2015), you may decide to add more inventory. InvEnd14 is where you should put that information. In other words, if you add inventory during 2015, it should be recorded in the InvEnd14.dbf file. That can be a bit confusing. At first glance, you might think that you should add it to the InvEnd15.dbf file, but the ending inventory level is always calculated by the program, taking in account what has been sold during the year. Since an ending level is not known until the year is over with, the file needs to allow for added inventory as the year goes on. Once the year is over with, then the ending inventory figure is firmed up. As you get more comfortable with the program, it will become clearer. To make sure you don't enter information in the wrong file, the program has plenty of reminder notes and internal checking features to make sure the proper file is being used. The diagram, below, illustrates how starting inventory is record in an Inventory File
How Cost Per Item is Calculated. AnyOrder uses the Cost Average method of inventory valuation. For more information on how AnyOrder calculates cost, see Inventory Cost.
Accessing Inventory Files. Actually, you don't need to have much contact with Inventory Files. You can enter inventory information, starting inventories and additions to inventory in the Product Information Database and never have to deal directly with the file. To reach it, select PRODUCT TOOLS and PRODUCT INFORMATION from the Menu Bar. If, however, you'd rather see the contents of the file and have the flexibility to make changes then the Inventory File Screen is where that is done. The Inventory File Screen is reached by doing the following: 1) Go to the Inventory Options Screen by selecting PRODUCT TOOLS & INVENTORY FUNCTIONS from the Menu Bar. 2) From the Options Screen, choose "Manually Update Inventory" and the Inventory File Screen will appear. For information on making changes to directly to an Inventory File, see Inventory File Screen.
When Inventory Files are Created. Inventory Files are created in different parts of the program. The primary place, however, where Inventory Files are created is in Inventory Options. Each time you click the "Current Inventory" button, AnyOrder looks for an Inventory File which it can use to obtain starting inventory levels for your products. If it doesn't find it, it creates it. It's helpful to examine this in more detail since it is through this process that your inventory files are kept updated. Let's say it's March of 2015 and you are running a current inventory. In order to figure current levels, AnyOrder needs to know what the inventory levels were at the end of 2014. That's found in the Inventory File: InvEnd14.dbf. AnyOrder will search for it. If it doesn't find InvEnd14.dbf, it looks for the 2013 file (InvEnd13.dbf). If it finds InvEnd13.dbf, it will use it as the starting point, and will do a complete inventory for 2014. Armed with 2014 data, it now has the information to create InvEnd14.dbf. With the newly created InvEnd14.dbf, AnyOrder goes back to where it started and completes work on the inventory report for March of 2015. (See the diagram below for illustrative view on how this process works.) Thus, you can see as long as you run at least one inventory a year, new and updated Inventory Files will be created. (Actually, you can even miss a year since AnyOrder will create new files from two years back.) The beauty of this system is that file is not created until after the end of the year. That way you get a full accounting of what's been sold, and the Inventory File stays accurate. Inventory Files can also be created in the Product Information Database when you enter a starting inventory level. The same process is followed as described above. If the file doesn't exist, a new one is created, but only after inventory data is calculated for the proceeding years.
Inventory Files - A Visual View of How They Work. The following illustration shows how Inventory are used. It uses a specific example, ranging in time from January of 2015 to January of 2016. You'll see that in February (see # 1 in the illustration), 500 units are added to the Inventory File (InvEnd14.dbf). In August, (see # 2 in the illustration), 300 more units are added. The illustration also shows how the Inventory File is used when you actually run an inventory (PRODUCT TOOLS >> INVENTORY FUNCTION >> "Current Inventory." In November, 2015 (see # 3 in the illustration), an inventory is run. Another inventory is run in January of 2016 (see # 4 in the illustration). When this inventory is run, the program needs to create a new Inventory File. It creates the new file and enters the end of the year inventory for 2015. It then calculates the current inventory level.
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Here's some other helpful information: How Starting Inventory is Recorded in an Inventory File.
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