Create Inventory Transactions

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Describe inventory management.
  
• Create an inventory control template.
  
• Create an inventory transaction template.
  
• Create an inventory record.
  
• Create an inventory transaction.
  

Explore Inventory Management

Inventory management involves tracking inventory and managing orders in the stock. Sales managers such as Gustavo can use inventory management to manage inventory movement or product stock.

In the retail industry, stores such as NTO place orders for stock with manufacturers such as Alpine Group. The manufacturer issues purchase orders to the vendors who ship the products to the manufacturer’s warehouses. The warehouses then store and distribute the products to retail stores and wholesalers. Finally, the retail and wholesale stores sell the products directly to consumers.

Fatima has set up the order template and order item template for NTO. Next, she sets up the inventories or stock of products. She makes a note that inventory management is only available in the CG Cloud offline mobile app and not the desktop version.

She can use the CG Cloud offline mobile app to work with three types of inventories.

• Inventories: Use inventories to track products that sales reps deal with. A manufacturer owns the products in the inventory and keeps the products in the storage space.
  
• Quotas: Use quotas to manage any limits on the number of products that a manufacturer can provide to a customer, such as advertising material and product samples.
  
• Cash Floats: Use cash floats to track cash transactions or payment collections for an order. Payment processes use inventory to assign the collected cash to a manufacturer.
  

When a sales rep places an order on behalf of a customer, CG Cloud validates the ordered quantity against the available stock or the quota allocated for the customer or the rep. Reps can use this order information to better manage the order.

Admins such as Fatima create inventory transaction templates to define the rules that govern inventories and quotas. For example, out of 100 assigned product units, if the rep delivers 20 units, the remaining 80 units are shown as available.

Inventory management also facilitates validations, which sales reps can use to avoid releasing an order when the allocated inventory or quota is exceeded.

To manage inventories for an order, Fatima sets up Inventory Control in the order item template. She can use the order item template to set up and maintain order item inventory transactions, which is the junction object that contains the inventory control template and the inventory transaction template.

Here are the roles and responsibilities of users handling inventory management.

Create an Inventory Control Template

An inventory control template defines the properties of an inventory, such as the inventory measurement unit and whether the inventory is relevant to manufacturers or customers.

You can also use an inventory control template to create an inventory or quota for a product, by assigning the product to the template. The assignment is valid for a specific period.

Fatima creates an inventory control template that sales reps in Gustavo’s team can use.

1. Click .
   
2. Find and select Inventory Control Templates.
   
3. Click New.
   
4. Select Inventory and click Next.
   
5. Provide the following details.
   
   • Inventory Control Template Name: Groceries
     
   • Sales Org: 0001
     
   • Description Language 1: Groceries
     
6. Click Save.
   

Create an Inventory Transaction Template

In the CG world, inventory movements refer to the increase or decrease in inventory in response to orders. For example, a sales rep can reduce the inventory by releasing an order or increase the inventory by creating a return order. They can also add products or quantities from a replenishment order.

Inventory transactions are the records of inventory movements. CG Cloud creates an inventory transaction when a sales rep releases an order. Sales reps can also create inventory transactions manually to record the initial product quantity values of an inventory.

An inventory transaction template defines the behavior of inventory transactions. Fatima creates an inventory transaction template that sales reps can use to record inventory transactions.

1. Click .
   
2. Find and select Inventory Transaction Templates.
   
3. Click New.
   
4. Provide the following details.
   
   • Inventory Transaction Template Name: Initial Transaction
     
   • Sales Org: 0001
     
   • Description Language 1: Initial Transaction
     
   • Select Use Inventory Reference 1
     
5. Click Save.
   

Create an Inventory Record

Inventory records are used to track the products that sales reps deal with. They also define quotas for reps and customers for controlled distribution of specific products based on legal requirements or company rules.

Admins such as Fatima can create three types of inventory records in CG Cloud: Inventory, Quota, or Cash Float. The properties of an inventory record depend on the inventory control template that an admin uses to create the inventory.

You can also add other attributes to the inventory, such as the initial quantity of the inventory. You can define the inventory or the quota for a sales rep or a customer on multiple levels based on the organization unit and the customer hierarchy.

Chantelle Johnson, a sales rep in Gustavo’s team, visits and performs retail activities for NTO stores in the Hayes Valley neighborhood in San Francisco. It’s the peak of summer and the sales for the Dash Cranberry energy drink are at an all-time high. While this is good news for Alpine Group, Chantelle is having difficulty tracking the inventory movements for the drink. To help her, Fatima creates an inventory record.

1. Click .
   
2. Find and select Inventory.
   
3. Click New.
   
4. Find and select Groceries.
   
5. Provide the following details.
   
   • Customer: Northern Trail Outfitters
     
   • Product: Dash Cranberry
     
   • User: Chantelle Johnson
     
6. Click Next.
   
7. Provide the following details.
   
   • Description Language 1: Dash Cranberry Inventory
     
   • Valid From: Select the current date
     
   • Valid Thru: Select a future date
     
   • Click Save.
     

Create an Inventory Transaction

Admins such as Fatima create inventory transactions in CG Cloud to record inventory movements. They can associate multiple inventory transactions with an inventory record.

Fatima has already created inventory records in CG Cloud. She now creates an inventory transaction based on the inventory transaction template she created earlier.

1. Click .
   
2. Find and select Inventory Transactions.
   
3. Click New.
   
4. Provide the following details.
   
   • Inventory Transaction Template: Initial
     
   • Amount: 1000
     
   • Currency: USD
     
   • Inventory: I-0000013
     
5. Click Save.
   

Create an Order Item Inventory Transaction Template

An order item template can be associated with multiple inventory control templates and inventory transaction templates. This association helps sales managers review and analyze the order and inventory details for a product easily.

Remember Fatima created an order item template in unit 2? It’s time for her to put it to good use.

As the final step of inventory management, Fatima associates the order item template with the inventory templates.

1. Click .
   
2. Find and select Order Item Templates.
   
3. Select the Sales template.
   
4. Click New Order Item Inventory Transaction.
   
5. Provide the following details.
   
   • Inventory Control Template: Groceries
     
   • Inventory Transaction Template: Initial Transaction
     
6. Click Save.
   

Track Inventories with Efficiency

Fatima finally has Alpine Group’s inventories sorted. And with CG handling all the inventory tracking, sales reps such as Chantelle can release their orders in peace. Well done Fatima!

Before Fatima takes a well deserved coffee break, she’s got one more task to complete. In the next unit, follow her as she sets up order payments.

Resources

• Salesforce Help: Set Up Inventory Management