Visma.net ERP
About non-stock item support
Non-stock items may be "products" that consist of no physical entity and thus cannot be stocked in warehouses (as with labour, services, or charges) or physical entities for which you do not need to track quantities in a warehouse because very small quantities are required. Many stores sell items that can’t be found on their shelves, such as product warranties, or services such as product assembly, installation, or customisation. Some items are obviously non-stock, such as labour rates and services, but the decision about whether to consider other items (such as gift-wrapping) stock or non-stock depends on the company's inventory policies and other conditions.
In the system, non-stock items are handled differently from stock items kept in warehouses. For stock items, the Inventory workspace maintains all cost, quantity, sales, and cost-of-goods-sold information. Since non-stock items do not require tracking of quantities, the Inventory workspace maintains only standard costs and base price information for them.
Even if the Logistics functionality is not enabled in your system, you can use non-stock items. However, you will not be able to define the item classes and the posting classes for them, and it will not be possible to update their prices and costs in bulk.
Types of non-stock items
Visma.net ERP supports the following types of non-stock items:
- Non-stock item:
A general type of non-stock item generally bought for internal needs or for using in sales but not for selling separately. - Labour or Labour class:
A non-stock item mostly used as a source of general ledger accounts for recording sales of labour. - Service:
A non-stock item to designate service fees. - Charge:
A non-stock item that represents specific type of charges. - Expense:
A non-stock item that represents specific type of expense.
You can create item classes for non-stock items to provide default settings for each type of non-stock items used in your business.
With such classes defined, users specify an item class when they use the Non-stock items (IN202000) window to define a new non-stock item, and the system fills in many values, thus saving time and increasing accuracy.
Settings for non-stock items
Information about non-stock items and their properties is maintained using the Non-stock items (IN202000) window available in the Customer ledger, Supplier ledger, and Inventory workspaces. The list below describes some of the settings you can provide for a non-stock item using this window:
- Item ID:
Every non-stock item is assigned an unique identifier based on the INVENTORY segmented key.
For details on identifier configuration possibilities, see: About item IDs.
For material non-stock items, you can specify a default warehouse and select whether the items require shipping and receipts on purchase. - Units and conversion rules:
For each non-stock item, you can select the units of measure (UoMs) used as base, sales, and purchase units for the item and specify conversion rules for them and for other UoMs used for the item. You can select UoMs from the list of those available for the item class or type new UoMs manually.
Note that every conversion rule is specified with respect to the UoM chosen as the item's base unit. - Packaging options:
If the non-stock item requires shipping, specify the weight of the base unit and the UoM used to measure the weight. - General ledger accounts and subaccounts:
Purchases and sales of non-stock items do not affect companies' assets, so the general ledger accounts and subaccounts used for non-stock items are limited to sales accounts, expense accounts, and accounts required for posting transactions related to kit assembly if the item is a kit or a kit component.
Corresponding subaccounts are used to detail records within each account.If receipt is required for a non-stock item, a price variance account and a purchase accrual account are required to record purchases of this non-stock item.
When the receipt is matched to the invoice, any price variance for the non-stock item is recorded to the specified price variance account.You can create posting classes to provide default sales / expense accounts and subaccounts for non-stock items.
If a non-stock item has not been assigned to a posting class, the default expense subaccount is generated according to the rule specified in the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)window. - Valuation method:
Only the standard cost method applies to non-stockitems. - Price information:
For non-stock items of all types, you can specify price classes and assign prices that become effective on specific dates.
Labour-type non-stock item
Non-stock items of the Labour type are processed in the system differently from non-stock items of other types.
They are used in the Projects and Time and expensesworkspaces as a source of accounts to be used in contract and project invoicing.
For labour-type non-stock items, the system allow tracking of costs as for items of other types. Also, you can define prices and maintain the price lists for labour-type items.
In Visma.net ERP, to account for work hours and overtime hours spent on projects and contract servicing, employees use time cards.
To calculate cost of labour, the system uses the work hour rates specified for each employee on the Employee rates tab of the Employees (EP203000) window.
The cost of overtime labour is calculated based on the employee work hour rates multiplied by the factor specified as the Overtime multiplier in the Time and expenses preferences (EP101000) window.
Non-stock item costs
Non-stock items do not affect company's inventory balance.
However, to make it possible to enter the non-stock item cost and use it in the non-stock item price calculation, Visma.net ERP enables you to maintain standard costs for non-stock items.
The standard costs are determined outside of the system by cost experts, and the values should include some of the indirect and direct costs allocated.
You can specify the standard cost for a non-stock item as a pending cost using the Price/cost information tab of the Non-stock items (IN202000) window.
Along with the pending cost, you can specify a date when the cost will become effective. Standard costs are defined with respect to the base unit of the stock item.
If you want to update standard costs for non-stock items, use the Price/cost information tab of the Non-stock items (IN202000) window: Enter a pending cost and the date for the new cost and select the Update cost action. The system displays only the last cost and current cost.
The historical costs that were effective before the last cost are not stored in the database.
If you want to make similar changes to many or all non-stock (and possibly stock)items, use the Update standard costs (IN502000) window.
By using the window, you can enter new costs and compare current and pending costs side-by-side for all items that you select.
If you are satisfied with the changes, you can update the current standard costs with the pending standard costs for all items or only selected ones.
Prices for non-stock items
Default prices are maintained for non-stock items, as well as for stock items that your company sells to its customers.
Default prices are specified for the base units of stock items and are specified in the base currency.
Default prices can be entered for non-stock items individually using the Non-stock items (IN202000) window and can be updated any time on per item basis.
Default prices have no expiration dates and cannot be specified as based on the items' quantities.
For more information, see:About default prices.
Related concepts
Related tasks
Maintain default prices for non-stock items
Specify standard costs for non-stock items
Related windows
