1. Open Paradigm and click the inventory tab.

2. Click “Inventory Items”.

3. When viewing the Inventory List page click on the Add icon.

4. Specify on this screen if you want to track the inventory stock, if you want to track the serial numbers,and if you want to create an assembly item. This popup may be turned off in your company preferences, if so, this information will need to be entered in the standard item form.

The Track Inventory Stock check box will keep track of the units in stock every time the selected item is bought or sold.

The Track Serial Numbers check box will determine if the selected item should use serial numbers or not. If you enable this option then every time you sell this inventory item the Select Serial Numbers form will open where you can assign the serial numbers to the items you are selling.

The Create Assembly Item check box is used to set up inventory that will be built or assembled based on other inventory items.

5. Assign a Product ID, which must be unique for each inventory item. This Product ID will be used throughout Paradigm Accounting to reference this inventory item. When you have finished entering data for each field, press TAB or ENTER key to move your cursor to the next field.

6. Enter any other information for the inventory item.

The Vendor Number field is used to enter your vendor’s part number of the inventory item. This will be the number that prints on all your purchase transaction invoices and orders. This way you can use your Product ID number to create a Vendor Purchase Order but when you print that purchase order it will use the part number that the Vendor will recognize.

The Vendor ID combo box field is used to assign a vendor to the inventory item. You can select any vendor that has been previously entered by starting to type the Vendor ID or click on the drop down arrow to search vendors. To enter a new vendor click on the pencil icon.

The Vendor Site combo box is used to assign one of the selected vendor’s sites to the item. These must be set up in the Vendor before they can be added to an item.

The Item Class combo box field is an important field that must be assigned properly. This field tells Paradigm Accounting how to update your General Ledger. If you click on Item Class: it will let you adjust how each item class works. When you select an item class from the drop down box you will notice that the GL Accounts Impacted area will automatically fill in the Account IDs used to update your general ledger. The Item Class you select will also set the Track Stock status on the detail page.

The Category combo box field is used to assign a category to each inventory item. This can be helpful if you want to group certain inventory items with others. Click on Category: to open the window where you can add, delete or modify inventory categories.

The Sub-Category can be changed by clicking on Category:. An inventory categories window will appear and you can select the Sub-Category tab.

The Manufacturer combo box field is used to enter the manufacturer of the inventory item. You can click the pencil button to open the Inventory Manufacturers form where you can add, delete or modify manufacturers.

The Sales Description field is used to enter a detailed description of the inventory item. The description field is a memo field, which is capable of storing up to 64,000 characters of text.

The Purchase Description field is the description that will show up on purchase transactions. If this field is left blank, the Sales Description will be used.

The Additional Info field is used to enter an additional description of up to 50 characters. This can be used to enter short notes about the main description.

The Color Set field can be used to assign a particular set of color options to this item. These colors will be available when adding this item to an order. Click the hotlink to open a color set builder and make new color sets or edit existing ones.

The Color field can be used to assign one particular color to this product. Click the hotlink to open a list of colors and add new ones.

The GL Accounts Impacted area will display the three Account IDs that are automatically filled in when you select an Item Class. You can override any of these accounts and change them to any other valid GL Account.

The Standard Cost field is the cost you assign as the inventory items standard cost. It is also the cost the Pricing Method field will use to calculate the Sales Price if you enable it.

The Standard Cost 2 field can be used if you need to give a inventory item a different cost than your regular Standard Cost. This is used when you want to give special pricing for the item.

The Current Cost field is used to track the items actual cost you paid for it. The Current Cost will get updated automatically every time you create and post a Purchase Invoice that uses this inventory item. This will always let you know what your latest cost is for this inventory item. Since this field constantly changes when you create Purchase Invoices the Standard Cost is provided to hold a constant cost that only changes when you change it. The Current Cost field will be locked after you are finished entering a new inventory item. The pencil button next to this field can be used later to unlock the Current Cost field when you view existing inventory items.

The Pricing Method combo box can be used to assign one of four different pricing methods to the inventory items Standard Cost field. This can be very helpful if you are looking to add a set amount to the cost of your inventory items. You can choose from Fixed Dollar Amount, Markup Standard Cost, Markup Standard Cost 2, Percent of Margin, or None. When you first create a new inventory item the Pricing Method field will be set to None. This can be changed at any time to a different Pricing Method.

The Discount Sensitivity Code can be used to specify the maximum customer discount that is allowed to be applied to this item. Click the hotlink to set up new sensitivity codes.

The Rounding Precision is used to specify the rounding that is used for this item.

The Sales Unit Measure is the unit of measure that will be used by default on sales transactions. Click the pencil to add or edit units of measure.

The Purchase Unit Measure is the unit of measure that will be used by default on purchase transactions.

A Minimum Margin can be set to give users a prompt if they define a discount or sales price that goes below the minimum discount percentage. See also: Minimum Acceptable Margin