Materials, categories, units and purchase history

The catalogue lists what your company buys: each material has a code (usually SAP's), a short text, a unit, its HSN or SAC code and GST rate, and a category.

Adding materials

• One at a time: Materials → Add material. Code, short text, unit, category, HSN/SAC, GST rate; and, if you like, a long text, a specification, approved makes, a default buyer and reviewer, and whether a technical review is needed before an award.
• Many at once: Materials → Import from Excel → your file → check the preview (New, Changes, Already there, Need a fix) → Import. Units and categories the file names that you do not have are added. An empty cell never clears a saved value.

Possible duplicates are shown when a new material's text looks like an existing one: check before adding a second code for the same thing.

Categories and units

• Categories group materials (Maintenance spares, Electricals...); a category can sit under another. Packets and reports use them. A category no longer used can be deactivated.
• Units come with the usual ones (NOS, KG, L, M...). Conversions say how units relate (1 KG = 1000 G), so quantities in different units compare correctly.

Attributes: what you keep about what you buy

Every industry keeps different facts: a steel buyer the grade and the heat number, an electrical buyer the BIS mark and the IP rating. Nothing of the kind is built in; Settings → Attributes is where your admin defines them.

• Add attribute: a name, a kind (text, number with a unit, a choice from your list, a date, yes or no, or a file such as a certificate) and what is kept about: materials (what the thing is), RFQ lines (what is asked this time), quotation lines (what the vendor answers), PO lines (what is ordered), contract lines (what is agreed with a rate) or vendors (what is known of them, such as a certification). The kind cannot be changed later; to change it, stop using the attribute and add another.
• Start from a pack: SourcePro ships sets for an industry (Steel, Electrical). Add pack adds the attributes you do not have yet and tells you which it skipped; then edit them like your own.
• Stop using an attribute you no longer want: it is no longer asked for, what was kept with it stays, and Use again brings it back.
• How it is used: an attribute kept about quotation lines can be *required when a quotation is confirmed*, and one kept about both RFQ lines and quotation lines can *must match* what the RFQ line asked: the comparative statement then points out a different answer, or none.

Once they are defined, a material's form (Add material and Edit) asks for them under Attributes: a text box, a number with its unit, a list of the options, a date, or yes or no. Leave one empty for nothing; a no is an answer, an empty field is not. The material's page shows what it holds. An attribute you stop using is no longer asked, but a material that holds a value for it keeps it, marked *No longer asked*. An RFQ line holds them too (see RFQs), and so does a quotation line: what the vendor answers, such as the heat number (see Quotations), and so does a PO line: what is ordered (see Orders), a contract line: what is agreed (see Rate contracts) and a vendor (see Vendors).

Purchase history

Materials → Purchase history holds what you paid before: imported from SAP (Import purchase history) and every PO issued in SourcePro. The last purchase price shows on each material and on the comparative statement, and reports measure savings against it.