Item Master Display — Operator Guide
1. What this screen is for
This is the master list of every stock item Solar Alternatives owns a record for. One row is one item — one SKU. The screen exists so warehouse people can keep the warehouse facts about an item correct: where it lives, who made it, how it is counted, how much we like to keep on the shelf.
The item itself is created and priced in QuickBooks. This screen does not invent items and does not change money. Think of QuickBooks as the item's birth certificate and this screen as its address book.
2. Who is allowed in
| Access level | What you can do here |
|---|---|
| Admin | See everything, edit every warehouse field |
| Level 1 | See everything, edit every warehouse field |
| Level 2 | See everything, edit location and description-type fields (bins, general location, manufacturer, part number, notes, group) |
| Level 3 | Look, search, sort and export. No edits. |
If a box is grey or will not accept typing, that is not a fault — it is either a QuickBooks-owned field (locked for everyone) or a field above your level. Your level is shown next to your name in the top right corner of every screen.
3. How to get here
From the Logistics Main Menu, click the Item Master Display & Maintenance tile. (Once you are inside the app, the same screen is the Item Maintenance link in the top bar, and the banner names it Item Master Display & Maintenance.) The screen opens with every active item listed, newest changes included, nothing filtered. Everything in this guide is reached by tile or by a link on the screen itself — you never need to type an address.
4. Finding the item you want
Search box. Type any part of a SKU, item name or purchase description and press Enter. It matches anywhere in the text, so typing 275 finds PV-275 and 9275-B. Capital letters do not matter. Leave the box empty and press Enter to go back to the full list.
Dropdowns. General Location, Group and Manufacturer each filter the list to one value. They stack: Gen-Loc "Warehouse A" plus Group "Racking" shows only racking in Warehouse A. Set a dropdown back to blank to remove that filter.
The round chips above the list are shortcuts to clean-up work, each with a live count:
| Chip | Shows |
|---|---|
| Needs a bin | Active items with no primary bin — nobody can be told where to find these |
| No manufacturer | Active items with the manufacturer blank |
| No UOM | Active items with no unit of measure, which blocks counting cleanly |
| Changed today | Everything edited since midnight — the quickest way to check your own or someone else's work |
| Archived only | Items switched off, normally hidden. Use it to confirm something really was retired. |
Click a chip to apply it, then click Item Maintenance in the top bar to clear it (the chips are plain links, so clicking the same chip again just re-applies it). Chips replace each other rather than stacking, and applying a chip clears the search box and dropdowns you had set.
Paging. The list shows 200 items at a time. Above and below the table you get First / Previous / Next / Last buttons, a "Page 3 of 21" readout, and a Go to page box for jumping straight to a page. The bar at the top of the list also tells you exactly where you are, e.g. "Showing 401–600 of 4,182 items". Paging keeps whatever search, filter, chip and sort you had on; changing a filter or a sort puts you back on page 1.
One important habit: if you are looking for something and do not see it, search for it rather than paging around, and check whether a filter or chip is still switched on before you decide the item is missing.
5. Sorting
Every column heading with an underline is clickable. Click once to sort A→Z or smallest→largest; click the same heading again to reverse it. The little arrow in the heading shows which column you sorted and which direction.
Two things worth knowing:
- Blanks always sort to the bottom, both directions. That is on purpose — sorting by Primary Bin descending should not bury the filled-in rows under a screen of empties.
- Sorting keeps your search and filters. It only reorders what is already on screen.
6. The columns
Columns marked 🔒 come from QuickBooks and cannot be changed here. If one of those is wrong, it must be fixed in QuickBooks; it will flow back on the next sync.
Columns read left to right in this order on the screen:
| Column | Means | Editable |
|---|---|---|
| (tick box) | Selects the row for a bulk edit | — |
| SKU | The item number. The same number QuickBooks, the handhelds and every report use. | No — never changes |
| Item Name 🔒 | QuickBooks item name | No |
| Description 🔒 | The purchase description — what prints on a purchase order | No |
| On Hand 🔒 | What QuickBooks believes is on the shelf right now | No — changed by counting, not typing |
| UOM | Unit of measure — how we count it. Pick from the list; the list is maintained in Settings. | Level 1 and up |
| Cost 🔒 | Base purchase cost, no tax or freight | No |
| Vendor 🔒 | Who we normally buy it from (the item's primary vendor) | No |
| Manufacturer | Who makes it | Level 2 and up |
| Mfr Part # | The manufacturer's own part number, for ordering and warranty | Level 2 and up |
| Group | Item group, for reporting and for grouping like items | Level 2 and up |
| Gen-Loc | General location — the building or area, chosen from a list Admin maintains | Level 2 and up |
| Primary Bin | The one box on a shelf where this item lives. Free text, match the label on the bin. | Level 2 and up |
| Secondary Bin | Overflow location when one bin will not hold it all | Level 2 and up |
| Min | The level at which we want to reorder | Level 1 and up |
| Max | The level we refill to. Must not be lower than Min. | Level 1 and up |
| Lead Time | Vendor lead time in working days, used to work out when to order | Level 1 and up |
| Count Group | Which cycle-count rotation this item belongs to | Level 1 and up |
| ABC | A, B or C — value ranking from the ABC report. A items get counted most often. | Level 1 and up |
| Notes | Anything the next person needs to know. Free text. | Level 2 and up |
| history | Opens the audit trail for that item — see section 8 | Link |
Dropdown columns (Gen-Loc, Group, UOM) offer the approved list first, then any value already sitting on an item that is not on the list. If a value was retired in Settings it stops being offered for new work, but items already using it keep it — nothing gets silently rewritten.
7. Making changes
Click into a field, type, then click away or press Tab. It saves on its own — there is no Save button. The cell flashes to confirm. If the save is refused you get a message saying why; common ones:
- "controlled by QuickBooks" — a 🔒 field. Fix it in QuickBooks.
- "your access level cannot change …" — above your level. Ask a Level 1 or Admin.
- "min qty cannot be greater than max qty" — fix the other number first.
- "UOM must be one of …" — use a value from the list.
Changing many items at once. Tick the checkbox on each row you want, and a blue bar appears at the top: choose the field, type the value, click Apply to selected. Same permission rules apply, and each item is written and logged individually, so if one row fails the rest still go through. Read the count in the bar before you click — bulk edits are fast in both directions.
Export hands you a spreadsheet of exactly what is on screen, filters and all. Use it to work off a list on the floor, or to hand someone a snapshot.
8. Audit trail — who changed what
Click history at the end of any row. You get that item's changes newest first: the field, the old value, the new value, who did it and when. Every edit on this screen, every bulk edit, every count that posted and every spreadsheet upload is in there. Nothing on this screen can be changed without leaving a line, and lines cannot be deleted.
That is the first place to look when a number looks wrong — usually it answers the question without anyone having to guess.
9. When it looks wrong
- Qty On Hand looks wrong — do not type over it, you cannot. Count the item on the handheld and let the count post the correction. That keeps QuickBooks and the audit trail honest.
- An item is missing — clear the search box, clear the dropdowns, click Item Maintenance to drop any chip, then look again. Still missing? It may be archived (chip: Archived) or it may not exist in QuickBooks yet.
- A QuickBooks field is stale — check the "last synced" note at the top of the screen. If the sync is old, tell the Logistics Manager.
- Something you saved came back different — open history on that item; you will see who changed it after you.
Anything you cannot settle from the audit trail goes to the Logistics Manager first, and the Business Consultant while the system is still being rolled out. Names, phone numbers and email are on the Contacts & Definitions tile on the main menu.
Bins are stored in capitals
Bin and ABC boxes show capitals as you type and are saved in capitals, whatever you type. You do not have to hold shift, and you cannot end up with a12 and A12 as two different bins.