Substruct Knowledge Base

This problem is due to items being scanned too quickly in Cougar Mountain. To prevent this, adjust the “Reread” and “Good Read” delays on your barcode scanner. For the Handheld 3800g (Substruct’s recommend barcode imaging device) print or scan the barcode bellow. “Medium” speed is recommended for both.

If their are errors or discrepancies, do the following:

• In AR, go to Options > File Maintenance > Recalculate Master File…
• From here you can either enter in the customer’s account number, or rebuild the totals for every customer. It is recommended that you do this when you are closed and not using Cougar Mountain on other computers.

Paul Linn, manager of Zettler Ace Hardware in Columbus, OH, came up with these tips for using Substruct Utilities for Inventory Control and Computer Assisted ordering.

Why should I bother keeping accurate on-hands? And why use Computer Assisted Ordering?

• According to Ace Hardware Corp., stores that use Computer Assisted Ordering have larger sales increases with less inventory on hand. Plus, Computer Assisted Ordering is more productive: an Ace order takes less than 2 hours to complete.
• If you have more than one store, accurate on hands make stock balancing between different locations possible; increasing turnover for each location along with being able to take advantage of pallet purchases for multiple stores. At minimum you can check stock at other stores using the computer and an Internet connection.
• When your on hands are accurate, year-end inventory is just a matter of printing reports and counting bulk goods.

So how do I keep my on hands accurate?

• If everything that enters or leaves your store goes through the computer system, your inventory will be fairly accurate.
• Point of Sale - Cashier accuracy in Point of Sale is vital. More inventory errors happen at the register than anywhere else. If the product has a UPC code, scan it. Train your cashiers to use the “Create Special Order…” feature for items that are not in the system, and make sure they scan every item. Try to avoid using the quantity field; scan each item like they do at the grocery store. (How many times have you seen a cashier ring up four 60 watt light bulbs when there was actually two 60’s and two 100’s, but the packages look the same.)
• Run your Substruct Non-Inventory and “Create Special Order…” reports daily and follow up with your cashiers.
• Receiving - Don’t forget to receive dropship (3rd party) orders and interstore transfers using Cougar Mountain’s “Adjust Stock Quantities”. Everything that enters the store should be received, not just Ace orders.
• Policy A, defective, and store use goods should all be processed through POS using the tendered key.
• Shrinkage happens! Follow the 80/20 rule - 80% of your inventory problems come from 20% of your SKU’s. If you can control the 20%, the other 80% will take care of itself.
  • Check for out-of-stocks weekly - After you have receivied your weekly order and updated it into Cougar Mountain, check all empty Ace peg hooks using the Cycle Counts module. Then have a detail oriented employee print out and go through the exceptions report. Keep in mind that the chances are if the computer says you have something in stock, it probably has more than 1 peg hook or it is stocked in the wrong spot.
  • Stocking - Have your stockers write down SKUs and counts of any overstocked items that they stock, then adjust your inventory using Cycle Counts after the invoice has been updated into Cougar Mountain. Remember: If the peghook is full and you’re receiving more, chances are the on hand is incorrect.
  • Be very careful when using Cycle Counts. Having an inaccurate person taking inventory is just as bad as having an inaccurate cashier.
  • Cycle counts - do on a systematic basis; 1/12th of the store - once a month, 1/52th once a week, etc. When you are counting, scan UPC codes, not bin tags. Also make sure all items have the same UPC code for that peg hook or shelf spot.

Once you have finished editing your Cycle Counts section, you must then update it into Cougar Mountain. From the main Cycle Counts window, hightlight the section(s) you wish to update into Cougar Mountain and then press the Update Selections button.When you update a section or sections in to Cougar Mountain, the following things happen:

 

• An Inventory Adjustment Batch is created in the Inventory module of Cougar Mountain. This batch contains all of the records that have a “Count” that is different that the current “On Hand”. After this batch is created you must go into Cougar Mountain and post it.See below for more information on posting batches.
• A “COUNT CORRECT” line is added to the history file of every record that has the same “Count” and “On Hand”.
• The Min (Minimum On Hand), Def Min (Default Minimum On Hand), and Dis (Discontinued Code) fields are updated into Cougar Mountain. Each of these fields are colored red so it is easy to remember what fields update into Cougar Mountain and which ones are just for reference.
• The section or sections that you are updating get changed from “Pending…” status to “Complete” status.

Posting a batch in Cougar Mountain

Follow these steps to post the batch in Cougar Mountain.

• After you press “Update Selections”, a dialog box will appear informing you of the three-digit batch code that was created in Cougar Mountain. Remember this code.
• Open the Inventory module of Cougar Mountain.
• From the Adjustments menu, choose Post… and select the three-digit batch code from the drop-down list. You should see “SUBSTRUCT AUTO-BATCH” next to the code.
• Click OK to post the adjustments.

Your Cycle Counts are now finished updating into Cougar Mountain.

When ever you adjust on hand counts with Substruct Utilities, you must also post an auto-generated batch in Cougar Mountain for the counts adjusments to take place. Every time Substruct Utilities creates one of these batched you will notified.   

Posting a batch in Cougar Mountain

Follow these steps to post the batch in Cougar Mountain.

• After you press “Update” button in any module of Substruct Utilities, a dialog box will appear informing you of the three-digit batch code that was created in Cougar Mountain. Remember this code.
• Open the Inventory module of Cougar Mountain.
• From the Adjustments menu, choose Post… and select the three-digit batch code from the drop-down list. You should see “SUBSTRUCT AUTO-BATCH” next to the code.
• Click OK to post the adjustments.

Your changes will now post into Cougar Mountain. This step can take a few minutes depending on the size of the batch.