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I'm trying to figure out how to use this feature.

Do I enter "I" under the "T" category when I buy something that is going into inventory or when the customer purchases something from my inventory? 

I have a couple of customers this campaign that are purchasing goods that I want to take out of my inventory.  When I enter that item on their sales order, will it automatically take it out of my stock or do I have to do this manually?

Thanks

Kim

Hi there

I am wondering also on this inventory situation...

If you have something in your inventory (and you have a large inventory, that you cant even try to remember what you have and dont have) how does MBA register that you want to use an inventory item not order another one.?

Thanks

Linda B Aussie

Hi Stan,
You asked why a rep would want to order an item rather than take it out of inventory?
I do that all the time which is why I quit using the inventory feature as it would not order the items I wanted if I had it in inventory.
Many times I am trying to reach a certain sales level and therefore need to order those items, rather than take them out of inventory, or my sales level according to Avon will drop.
Other times I have the items in inventory to use at events or I want to keep my inventory with a certain number of each product so I have them on hand. 
So the inventory feature is not convenient for me at this time.  I hope I explained that well enough.

Yes, you can override the Price/Cost amounts in My Inventory. 

From an Accounting Point of View the problem with Inventory is that it is an Asset (similar to Cash, this is a Balance Sheet account) and not an Expense (which is an Income Statement Account).  So when a Rep buys Inventory it should not be added into My Accounting as an Expense until its sold (then it should be part of Cost of Goods).

However some Reps want to just put all purchases for a Campaign down as Cost of Goods and don't want to carry the cost in Inventory.  That is they Expense the whole cost during one campaign (when they buy it) and in the next when they sell the item it is pure profit as they have already expensed the Cost of Goods portion in previous campaign.  Another problem that has come up is Reps sometimes get Free items at Sales Meetings (maybe as a prize) and want to add it to Inventory to sell but it was free so there is no Cost (no Cost of Goods the item is 100% profit).

MBA lets you do it either way but you have to enter the Inventory cost/expense portion by hand.

Cheers,
Stan

I will have to think about this for a bit.

An issue with a Avon business is that on the surface it is Brochure driven not Inventory driven.  This can be a problem because an Inventory item may no longer be available (not in Current or last one or two brochures) so from a Brochure perspective does not exist and therfore does not have a Current Retail price.  This is the reason I have a Retail Price in Inventory (item may several or many months old, may even be discontinued).

When I first created MBA for Avon the first Reps I talked to were not concerned with Inventory (in fact they were not even concerned with tracking Customer balances).  They ran their business in a very simple manner, Customer ordered product, they ordered it from Avon, when they deliverd it they collected in full.  No Inventory, no Customer balances, very simple accounting.  Then one wanted to sell items she had won as prizes at Sales meetings. Then another wanted to not bother with some Returns, she would just keep them and resell them later.  This is where/when Inventory was added on to MBA and has continued to grow from there. 

Cheers,
Stan