Tip of the Month for December 2010

Lost Sales Tracking

Answers offers some extensive and very flexible options for tracking Lost Sales items.

• There are three ways to record a Lost Sale.

  1. Record a Lost Sale when entering a sales order for the item.  When the users are keying in a sales order, if there is insufficient quantity of the item, Answers automatically back orders the item.  If the user takes the item off of backorder, or backorders less than suggested (leaving a quantity that is insufficient), the user is presented with the Insufficient Quantity window.  From this window, the user can choose to backorder, use a "substitute" item if available, or mark the quantity as "Lost Sale".  When the order is invoiced, the quantity the customer originally wanted but you were not able to fill will be recorded as lost with an "out of stock" reason code.

  2. Record a Lost Sale in Order Entry without entering an order for the item.  If the customer is not ordering the item, perhaps they called to check on it, or when you told them you did not have enough of the item they decided not to order any of it, you can record a lost sale in Order Entry without having to enter the line item on the sales order as described in #1 above.  You can enter the stock # on the order, and then choose Inventory from the menu bar or the right click menu, and then choose Lost Sale.  At this point the user will be able to enter the quantity lost and select a reason code.  This will record the lost sale and the item does not need to be left on the order and/or invoiced on the ticket.

  3. Record a Lost Sale in Inventory Inquiry. If the customer has called to check on the availability and/or pricing of an item and decided not to purchase the item or did not purchase because you were out of stock, you can record a Lost Sale in Inventory Inquiry.  From the Query menu in Inventory Inquiry, you can select Lost Sale and enter the customer, quantity, and reason code for the loss.  (The Lost Sale icon can be configured to display on the toolbar as discussed in the September Tip of the Month: Customer Price Query and Configuring the Inventory Inquiry Toolbar).
   

• Configuring Lost Sale Reason Codes is done through the Codes File Maintenance program.  There is a code for Lost Sale Reasons.  Answers sets up HPRICE (Price Too High) and OUTSTK (Item Out of Stock) automatically and it is recommended that you leave the OUTSTK code because this code will be used when a lost sale is recorded from an invoice (#1 above).
   
• Reviewing Lost Sales Data can be done with reports or through inquiry displays in Inventory Inquiry, Suggested PO Review, and Purchase Order Entry.  One reason people want to keep track of lost sales is for purchasing information, and Answers makes it easy to see how many items have been lost and why.

In Inventory Inquiry, on the Purchasing Controls tab is the Lost Sales button.  This button will bring up a display listing all the lost sales for this particular item.  The display includes the date of the loss, the reason code, quantity, how the lost sale was recorded, the customer, the operator code, and the sales order # if applicable.  There is an options button that allows the user to view lost sales only from order entry, invoices, or inventory inquiry and to restrict the lost sales by reason code. 

Additionally, in the Options window, users can enter a date range.  Only the lost sales within that time period  will be displayed, along with a total for that time period.  So, if the purchasing agent is reviewing for a particular month, they can get a grand total of the items lost in that month.

This same display window is available from the YTD Info window on the Purchasing Controls tab and the Units History tab in Inventory Inquiry.  It is also available from the Unit Sales window in Suggested PO Review and Purchase Order Entry.

On the Inventory Reporting menu, under Status Reports, there is a Lost Sales Reporting option that has a summary report listing all items with lost sales and the totals, as well as a detail report showing the dates, reason codes, and quantities lost similar to the screen displays.