When you are converting from an old POS software to RetailEdge you might be used to the concept of an open SKU or PLU to sell items not in your inventory.  You can add an open SKU to a sale when an item:

• is not in your inventory,
• has been purged from your inventory,
• was not properly converted from your old POS software,
• has a barcode that has been improperly formatted and can’t be scanned, or
• simply can’t be found at the time of sale.

RetailEdge has a number of ways to manage this, but we recommend selling a non-entered item when you need a way of selling an item and getting the customer out the door.

The Non-Entered Item #

You can enter a  non-entered item on to a sales screen by simply pressing the 0 (zero) key and Enter.   When you sell a non-entered item, you will be prompted for:

• price,
• quantity,
• department,
• description, and
• allow you select whether the item is taxable or not.

In the simplest form, you would just type in the price of the item, and press enter.  That will allow you to at least sell the item quickly.

Selecting a Department #

If you select a Department, RetailEdge will calculate the cost of the item, based on the selling price and the department margin.

Adding a Description #

When selling a non-entered item, we recommend you add a description to it.  This will allow you to describe what was sold so you can make a correction to the sales (exchange the non-entered item for the correct item) and keep your inventory quantities straight.  You can see this description on the the Sales Item tab in the Sales Manager

Checking Your Non-Entered Item Sales #

There are a couple of ways to see when you have sold non-entered items.  First, check your closing report at night.  The closing report lists Merchandise Sales and Non-Entered Sales.  If you see non-entered sales, this should be a big red flag telling you that someone selling non-entered items.

If you need to drill down on what non-entered items are being sold you can always run a Non-Entered Sales Report (referred to by some customers as the WTF report).  This will allow you to identify when, who and hopefully why these items are being sold.

Fixing The Sale #

If the non-entered item is being sold in place of an inventory item, the sales should be corrected as soon as you have identified them.   Once you have found the non-entered item in your sales history, you will want to exchange the item for the correct item.  If you leave these non-entered sales uncorrected,  your inventory quantities for the items sold are going to be incorrect.

Fixing The Issue #

If see a non-entered item being sold, you need to determine why it is happening.    Are the clerks not finding the item? Better descriptions and stock number naming can help you here.   Is it because you are selling items when they physically arrive in the store, and you have not entered them into the system yet? You should consider creating or importing Purchase Orders.  Putting items on Purchase Orders creates inventory items that you can sell before you are able to receive them.