How it works

A Units of Measure Set groups units of measure together and define the conversion between this units. The Units of Measure Set is then applied to one or more item. Once applied, you can specify the default purchasing unit and selling unit, which will auto-populate on Purchase Orders and Sales Invoices.

Setting up Advanced Units of Measure

For the purposes of illustration, we’ll use an example to explain how to set up Advanced Units of Measure. Our example will be motorcycle repair shop. This shop buys and sells oil to its customers and the mechanics also use it when servicing their customer’s motorcycles. The oil is purchased in a case of 12, but sold individually by the bottle. Sometimes the owner buys the oil by the pallet, which is 12 cases of oil, or 144 bottles. Here’s how to set this up in the software. The finished set record is illustrated at the end of the example.

Step 1: Create the Units of Measure Set

1. Navigate to Inventory → UoM Sets.
   
2. Click Create.
   
3. Enter a Set Name. The set may be used on more than one item, so name it with that in mind. We’ll call this set Oil – Bottle and this set can be used on many inventory items as the shop sells many different types of oil.
   
4. Enter the Base Unit. This should be the smallest unit that will be bought or sold. In this case, bottle.
   
5. Click Save.
   
6. Click the Create button to add a related unit of measure.
   
7. Add the name for the unit of measure. We’ll add case.
   
8. Enter the conversion factor for this unit of measure. Because there are 12 bottles in a case, enter 12.
   
9. Click the Create button again to create another unit of measure.
   
10. Enter the unit name. We’ll add pallet.
    
11. Add the factor for this unit of measure. Because there are 12 cases in a pallet, and 12 bottles in a case, enter 144.
    
12. Click save to Save the Unit of Measure set or Save and Close to finish.
    

1. Open the inventory item by navigating to Inventory → Items and double clicking on the item name.
   
2. Click the UofM tab.
   
3. Choose the UofM Set from the dropdown list. The base unit, default sale unit and default purchase unit are auto-populated based on the information on the Set. The latter two may be changed for this item if necessary.
   
4. Click Save and Close the finish.
   

Viewing and Editing Units of Measure Sets

Unit of Measure Sets may be edited if needed. To edit a set,

1. Navigate to the UofM Set list view by navigating to Inventory → UofM Sets.
   
2. To edit the UofM Set, double-click or right click and choose edit. If the list is long, use the search field to narrow the list.
   
3. Make the necessary changes and click Save and Close.
   

Deleting and Editing Units of Measure Sets

In order to delete a Unit of Measure Set, it must be removed from all items to which it is applied. An error message will appear if an attempt to delete the set is made and the set is applied to an item.

To delete a Unit of Measure Set:

1. Navigate to the UofM Set List View by navigating to Inventory → UofM Sets.
   
2. Choose Delete from the More Menu.