Raw Material Quick Guide

Below are a few notes about how raw materials are processed in swim:

Most raw material is tracked as quantity stock (Q number).
The 'Quantity' for the Q number can be any unit of measurement i.e. grams, ounces, units, carat weight, mome weight etc. The price is the cost and sell price per unit of measurement e.g. for loose stones, if the quantity is in carat weight, the price is per carat.
To increase the quantity on hand, use 'Stock item details page or the ''Enter Stock From Invoice'.
To decrease the quantity on hand, use 'Enter Stock From Invoice' or 'Stock item details page'.
If you want to track raw material with one 'Q' number that comes from multiple suppliers e.g. loose 1 pointers that come from four different suppliers, first enter the invoice from the supplier, but do not add any stock. Then create a new invoice for $0 with a supplier of 'Workshop' or a name that you want to use, and then enter the stock from this $0 invoice. That way the 'Q' number will always stay the same.
To assemble the raw material into another piece, on the components tab use 'Stock' as the supplier and the stock number is the 'Q' stock number.
You can disassemble a piece by selecting 'Remove' next to the component. This will then take the component off the piece, and place it back into stock e.g. if I had Q1000 currently with 5 on hand, and disassembled a piece with Q1000 as a component with a quantity of 3, after hitting remove on the component, Q1000 would have a quantity on hand of 8.
To make workshop tasks, and assembling and entering of stock quicker, print out a stock listing of your raw materials and a stock barcode ticket of each item. Place the barcode ticket on the report so that when assembling stock or adding new stock you can scan the barcode.

Tracking raw material by jewellers is the same process as tracking raw material in general. The only difference is that you have a 'Q' number for each jeweller. To do this, the supplier code entered needs to be the raw item, with the jewellers name at the end.

To start, we suggest creating all the 'Q' numbers with a zero quantity on hand for each jeweller, plus a 'Q' number for that raw material that is the general pool/safe quantity the jewellers take their quantity from.

To create the initial 'Q' numbers just follow the steps below:

Go to 'Stock Menu'/'Enter Stock From Invoice'/'New Invoice'.
Select the supplier 'Workshop' (or other name that is set up to specifically track raw material).
Fill in the remaining invoice details with invoice amount as $0 and select 'Enter Stock'.
Select form type 'Quantity', enter the quantity of 0, supplier code e.g. '18YRaw' for general pool, '18YRawJohn' for specific jeweler, enter the cost, enter the department e.g. 'Raw Metal', enter the category e.g. '18Y', enter the item description e.g. '18Y Raw', John'. This will then create a 'Q' number for John's Raw 18Y stock holding.
Continue this process for each jeweler and for a general pool item (So for example if I had two jewellers, I would create three Q numbers with supplier codes '18YRaw' (for general pool item, '18YRawJohn' (for John's holding), '18YRawPeter' (for Peter's holding)).
To update the quantity on hand, you use 'Enter Stock From Invoice' or 'Stocktake Menu'.

Below are some advanced tips for raw materials:

Custom Designing Jewellery: Assembling is the best way to enter custom design pieces. For the gold, labour, stones etc. you enter these as 'Components'. So when first entering stock into the system through the 'Assemble' stock area, select the 'More Details' tick box before you click 'Assemble'. When the 'More Details' popup appears, click on the 'Components' tab. You can then add all the components and the cost.
Adding Item as Component: You can add components that are not stock items (eg labour), or you can add components that are stock items. To add a stock item as a component, the supplier name is 'Stock' and the supplier code is the stock number. So for your gold, if you want to track how much you have on hand, you can add it (through invoice) as a quantity stock item (i.e one number and a quantity on hand (in grams) and a price per gram). Then when you are creating items, add that stock item as a component with the qty of grams that you are using. Some clients do it this way. Others don't track the gold as a stock item, and just add it as a component (not from stock) when they are creating the piece.
When creating a piece using the jeweller's raw material, the 'Q' number is added as a component to the piece. This will decrease the jeweller's raw material holding. If disassembling an item, the quantity will be returned back to the 'Q' number (the jeweller's holding). You can then place that holding back in the general pool using the method below.
Moving quantity between the general pool and the jeweller's pool: To move stock from the general pool to the jeweller's pool and vice versa, create a new invoice and enter the stock with a positive quantity for the one you are increasing, and a negative quantity for the one you are decreasing.
Stocktaking: To stocktake, create a new stocktake, enter each 'Q' number and the quantity on hand, then use the reports to check for any missing quantities.