Inventory > Creating a Stock Number

Every inventory item must have a unique Stock Number or Stock Keeping Unit (SKU). You can create your own stock number, use the manufacturers code, use the product's Universal Product Code (U.P.C.), or use some combination. Creating a stock number that is meaningful to you is important for generating sales information, sorting inventory, and getting the most out of RetailEdge.

It is often more useful to devise your own SKU. A typical SKU might be created as follows:

PAT	12345	XXL	GRN
Vendor Code	Item Code or Description	Size	Color

The advantages of creating your own stock numbers are that:

1.	It can be useful when looking at a set of items in your inventory. You may not find it as easy to determine what an item is by just looking at a 12 digit number.

2.	It allows you to use 50 characters to describe each item in the inventory instead of just 12.

3.	You can insert date codes into a SKU you create to track inventory by years or seasons.

4.	A manufacturer's part number might track the item information the same way you would wish to. For example, the manufacturer might have their item codes set up to track both color and size when you wish to only track size.

If you wish to use a manufacturer's code or UPC for look-ups from the Sales Screen, you should consider entering these codes in the UPC1 or UPC2 fields for the particular item.