Weight and dimensions

Business NXT contains several fields for specifying and calculating weight and dimensions for products and units.

Per unit

The Product table has separate fields for Gross weight, Net weight, Tare, Area, Volume and Density.

The sum of Net weight and Tare is calculated in the memory and displayed in the Gross weight column. In addition there are fields for Length, Width and Height. These are used to calculate Area and Volume.

If you want the area specified in m2 and the volume in m3, Length, Width and Height must be specified in metres with the necessary decimals.

Barcodes and units

The information in the Product table applies per unit of the base unit used to specify the stock for the product. You can override this information in the Unit and Barcode tables or in the order lines.

If information in the Barcode table is missing when a barcode is entered in an order line, this is taken from the unit referred to in the Barcode table and then from the Product table, in the following order:

  1. Order line
  2. Barcode
  3. Unit
  4. Product

If you don’t want the Area and Volume fields from the Barcode and Unit tables to be suggested in the order lines, you can just delete them in those tables.

Per line

The values per unit are used as defaults in the order lines, and are transferred with the product transactions. Column names will have per unit added to differentiate them from columns with the same name in which the current quantity is multiplied. Width and height are only calculated per unit.

This means that:

  • Net weight = Net weight per unit * Quantity
  • Tare = Tare per unit * Quantity
  • Length = Length per unit * Quantity
  • Area = Area per unit * Quantity
  • Volume = Volume per unit * Quantity
  • Quantity in basis unit = Quantity per unit * Quantity

Gross weight here will also be calculated as the sum of Net weight and Tare, and it will also be correct in break-line totals even if the column is not in the database.

You can also enter total values in the order lines. The value per unit or the quantity is then recalculated depending on whether you have checked the box Calculate quantity from weight/dimension under the Editing tab in the Processing method dialog.

Price and discount criteria

You can use the Quantity in basis unit, Net weight, Length, Area and Volume fields as criteria in the Price- and discount matrix table. You can specify prices and discounts not only on the basis of the regular quantity field, but also by such criteria as the total kilos or litres, running metres, m2 or m3 in the order line.

Recalculating stock balances

Business NXT can display stock balances in the same unit as in the order line when the stock balances are linked indirectly to the order lines.

If you want Business NXT to do this recalculation, you complete the Stock measure field in the order line with one of the following values, which can be suggested from the barcode, the unit or the product:

  • 1 - Quantity in base unit
  • 2 - Length
  • 3 - Area
  • 4 - Volume
  • 5 - Net weight

If you select 1 - Quantity in base unit, Business NXT divides the stock levels by Quantity per unit. If you select 2 - 5, Business NXT divides the stock levels per unit and multiplies by the appropriate per unit factor from the order line. If the per unit factor is not stated there is no recalculation. This means that the per unit factors must be defined for the current unit and not in the stock's base unit. If, for example, you are selling parquet in boards and packs, you define the dimensions per board in the Product table and per pack in the Unit table.

The same recalculation of the quantity in the order lines is also made when Business NXT updates the stock tables through such actions as saving orders. If the Stock measure field is not filled in, joined stock balances are not recalculated on screen, but when saving orders Business NXT divides the Quantity by Quantity per unit.

If you change Stock measure or the per unit factor in the order line, the stock balances in the joined windows will be recalculated immediately.

Example

One warehouse has 960 bottles of beer. For the product or in the order line you have specified the unit as bottles, the stock measure as 4 - Volume and the volume as 0.5 litres per unit. The stock balance will then display 960 * 0.5 = 480 litres.

If you change the unit to cases, the stock measure to 1 - Quantity in base unit and quantity per unit to 24, the stock balance will display 960/24 = 40 cases.

Per order document and order

The Order table has total fields for Net weight, Tare and Gross weight, Length, Area and Volume. These can be printed in the order documents in the usual way using the @Order macro. You can also print them in the order total line in order documents if you have made this selection in the Order documents dialog.

Fields in the Order table will be related to the outstanding quantities in the orders.
Note:
You can disable the calculation of weight and dimensions of a product by selecting Do not include totals/Weight and volume under Processing method/Post processing in the Product table. During data entry, the figure is calculated in the order head, although when you save the data, any lines with the Do not include totals/Weight and volume option selected are deducted from the total in the order head.