Items are often packaged in multiple units. For example, multiple consumer packages fit into an outer box. And outer boxes are stacked together on a pallet for easy transport. Exact Online offers the option to use only 1 packaging unit. As a result, in the logistics process, the number of consumer packages processed often has to be entered manually.
In the Barcode Scan App it is possible to link multiple packaging units to an item. This allows you to book in a pallet of items at once without having to calculate how many end packages are on a pallet yourself.
Creating a packaging unit
To work with packaging units, you first need to configure a number of settings in the Barcode Scan App for Exact Online. To do this, go to the app settings and select the Packaging units tab. Check the box next to the option “Use different packaging units” and press save:
Then press the “Packaging units” button. There you will find an overview of the packaging units that have already been created:
Press the “Add packaging unit” button to create a new packaging unit. Give the packaging unit a clear name and press “Save”:
The packaging unit has now been created and we can link items to this packaging unit.
Linking an item to a packaging unit
To link an item to a packaging unit, go back to the settings and press the “Packaging units per item” button. Select the item you want to link to a packaging unit.
In the overview you can see which packaging units are already linked to the item. Press the “Add packaging unit” button to link a new packaging unit:
Using packaging in the Barcode Scan App
When you can enter a quantity of items in the app, the different packaging units now appear. With the plus and minus buttons you can quickly enter the number of packages. The app will automatically convert this to the quantity in the unit used in Exact Online:
By pressing the plus button next to the sea container, 1,000 items are now added per step. This way you can quickly count and enter the number of packages. The app then takes care of the conversion.
Deleting packaging units
To unlink a packaging unit from an item, press the trash can button behind the packaging unit:
When you want to completely delete a packaging unit, it is important that it is no longer linked to an item. Select the packaging unit to see which items are linked to this packaging unit. When no more items are linked, a button appears to completely delete the packaging unit:
Importing packaging units from extra item fields
In Exact Online you have the option to add extra fields to an item. In this case, we have added an external barcode in the BSKU field. This is for example a barcode used by the supplier and attached to the items upon delivery:
We can use these fields to populate the barcode linked to a packaging unit. To do this, go to the settings in the Barcode Scan App and then the Packaging units tab. There, press the “Create packaging units from extra item fields” button:
There you can then perform an import. The barcode field linked to the selected packaging unit is then populated with the value entered in the BSKU extra field in Exact Online.
The image below shows an example of this:
When the submit button is pressed, an import is performed and a packaging unit relationship is created for all items. The barcode field is entered in the barcode field. Note that this is a manual action. So when you make a change in Exact Online, you need to recreate the packaging units.
After the import, the BSKU packaging unit has now been created for the above item. The barcode entered in the extra field in Exact Online is used as the barcode field. For the quantity, the value 1 has been applied in this case.
By pressing the button below, all packaging unit-item relationships are deleted:
This allows you to quickly perform a new import of the item extra fields from Exact Online. Note that manually created packaging unit-item relationships will also be deleted.