knowledge base

The Company Settings dialog is for defining company-wide settings within inFlow. You can get to it by selecting Settings from the inFlow menu and choosing General Settings.

Company Info

The information under Company Info contains basic information about your company that will be shown in printed documents and reports. All fields, including the logo, are optional. The company address entered here will be used as the default receiving address for Purchase Orders.

The Misc. Info field can be used to keep any extra information that you want shown in the header of your printed documents and reports. For example, you can print a tax identification number (VAT #, GST #, etc.) for your business here. Or you could choose to show a company slogan here.

Products and Inventory - Products

Show Product Description

Checking the Show Product Descriptionoption will show the description in:

• Product details
• Product listing
• Product dropdown in Sales Order/Purchase Order line items
• Printed docs (ie. Sales Order, Invoice, Purchase Order etc.)
• Reports

Un-checking it will hide Product description everywhere.

Show Units of Measurements

The Show Units of Measurements option allows you to assign a Unit of Measurement (UoM) to each of your products. For example, you might use a UoM of “pieces” for some products but a UoM of “packs” for others. Check this option if you want the UoM for each product shown alongside the quantities, e.g. “5 pieces” instead of just “5”. Leave the option unchecked if you want quantities shown as just the number.

Checking the Show Units of Measurements option will:

• Allow the user to enter in different UoM in Product Details in the Extra Info tab of Product information.
• Show different UoM when entering in Quantity in Sales Order or Purchase Order line items.
• Enable conversion from Sales/Purchasing UoM to Standard UoM .

Un-checking it will hide UoM everywhere and conversion will not be performed

inFlow Inventory allows you to choose which type of units of measurement (Unit Type Length and Weight) you use for measuring the length and width of your cases and products. For length, you can choose to measure in Metric units (mm, cm or m) or Imperial units (inches or feet). You can also choose to measure the weight in Metric (g or kg) or Imperial (lbs or oz).

Products and Inventory – Inventory

Default Location

Locations in inFlow are major places where you keep inventory, like your Main Warehouse, Secondary Warehouse, Receiving Dock, etc. The set of locations should be set up in advance, and locations will be chosen from a list.

Sublocations can be used for extra information to keep track of inventory more precisely. Sublocations will typically be a short code describing the location, such as the aisle number or bin number. Sublocations can be freely typed and new sublocations will be added automatically when first used.

The Default Location should be set to the location you use most often, e.g. your main warehouse. Creating a new Product will default to the use of this location. Each user in inFlow can set Default Location in Personal Settings to override this.

You can add/remove/update Locations in the Receiving Address dropdown in a Purchase Order. Move down to the Receiving Address and click Edit Receiving Addresses. Click Add to add new Receiving address and Remove to remove the existing one.

Setting Up Locations

The Edit Locations button allows you to add or remove locations from inFlow.

Removing locations that have previously been saved does not actually delete the location, but instead deactivates it so that it won’t be used in the future. Clicking the Show All checkbox allows you to view inactive locations and reactivate them.

You can also click Edit Sublocations to modify the set of sublocations within each of your main locations. The list of sublocations is primarily as a reference of sublocations that have previously been used. Users may enter new sublocations not in the list of known sublocations.

Setting up Receiving Addresses

The receiving addresses are the addresses at which your company commonly receives stock. These addresses are saved so that they can easily be chosen in Purchase Orders. The Company Address set up in Company Info is already included as a choice in Purchase Orders, so it is not necessary to add the Company Address separately as a Receiving Address.

Receiving addresses have a name to describe their location. To edit an existing Receiving Address, double click the name of the address. Clicking Add lets you add a new receiving address, and highlighting an existing address and clicking Remove removes it.

Warn About Negative Inventory

In many companies, inventory is not precisely tracked, so inventory quantities in the system may drop below zero. inFlow Inventory will normally give a warning before this occurs and require confirmation.

To allow negative inventory without a warning, uncheck the Warn About Negative Inventory option. Leaving it checked will pop up a warning dialog whenever you are about to fire inventory transactions that will make inventory go negative (i.e. Adjust Stock, SO pick, etc.).

Clicking Proceed in the popup will make the transaction happen. Clicking Cancel in the popup will not make any transaction happen.

Un-checking the warning option means that the system will not popup a warning dialog whenever you are about to fire an inventory transaction that will make inventory go negative.

Show Sublocation

The usage of sublocations is optional. You can choose to track inventory more precisely by using them or to keep things simpler by not using them. To use sublocations, check the Show Sublocation option.

Pricing and Tax

Currency

You can set the currency that you deal in by selecting the appropriate option from the Currency dropdown. inFlow does not provide any currency conversion functionality, it just uses the type of currency for displaying purposes.

The default Currency setting is Windows Currency, which formats currencies in inFlow by following the Windows settings; available under Regional and Language Options from Control Panel. inFlow must be restarted for changes in the Windows Currency formatting to take effect.

Pricing Schemes

Pricing Schemes are sets of prices that you charge your customers under different circumstances. For example, you might have one pricing scheme for Wholesale orders, another pricing scheme for Retail orders and a third pricing scheme for Employee purchases. Pricing schemes allow you to quickly choose the correct prices when taking an order.

You can modify the pricing schemes you use by clicking the Edit Pricing Schemes button. This will bring up a dialog where you can modify the list. Removing pricing schemes that have previously been saved does not actually delete the pricing scheme, but instead deactivates it so that it won’t be used in the future. If you add/remove/update Pricing Scheme, it will be reflected in the Pricing Scheme dropdown list whenever applicable (i.e. SO/PO, Product Details screen, report filter, etc.).

Checking the Use Current Cost option instructs the system to use the current cost rather than the historical cost of the product when doing any calculations. This will happen even if the report or dashboard graph dates are set in the past.

Tax Settings

inFlow Inventory is designed with a general purpose tax system to help you handle the complexities of issuing sales taxes.

You may find the Startup Questionnaire accessible from the Settings menu useful for some guidance in setting your tax settings.

Show Taxes

Checking Show Taxes will include the Taxing Scheme field in SO/PO, reports, customer, customer Tax Exempt #, Product Tax Code, etc. Un-checking it will not show anything related to tax anywhere. If your business never charges sales tax on top of your normal prices, then you can uncheck the Show Taxes option to avoid showing taxes altogether.

Taxing Schemes

The sales taxes that should be charged typically vary according to the location of the customer that you’re shipping to. For example, foreign customers may be charged a different tax rate than your local customers, or they may be tax-exempt. This can be set up in inFlow by using different Taxing Schemes for different customers.

If you set the Default Taxing Scheme, new SO/PO will always use this taxing scheme if no taxing scheme is specified for the customer/vendor. If you add/remove/update Taxing Scheme, it will be reflected in the Taxing Scheme dropdown list whenever applicable (i.e. SO/PO, Product Details screen, report filter, etc.).

You can set up the different Taxing Schemes by clicking the Edit Taxing Schemes button in Company Settings, under Pricing & Tax. For each taxing scheme, you should set:

Name - A descriptive name assigned to this taxing scheme.

Primary Tax Name - The name of the primary tax to be printed on the invoice. e.g. “Tax”, “GST” etc.

Primary Tax Rate - The rate of the primary tax, as a percentage.

Secondary Tax Name - The name of the secondary tax to be printed on the invoice. Leave this blank if no secondary tax is charged.

Secondary Tax Rate - The rate of the secondary tax, as a percentage. Leave this as zero if no secondary tax is charged.

Add Secondary Tax on top of Primary - Most commonly, secondary taxes are calculated as a percentage of the pre-tax base amount. Check this option if the secondary tax should instead be calculated as a percentage of the amount after applying the primary tax. This is sometimes known as a Piggyback Tax.

Tax On Shipping - Set this option on if tax should be calculated on top of the charges for freight. In most places, shipping costs are taxable, but this varies depending on local tax laws.

Removing previously saved taxing schemes does not actually delete the taxing schemes, but instead deactivates them so that they won’t be used in the future. Clicking the Show All checkbox allows you to view inactive taxing schemes and reactivate them.

Product Tax Codes

Some products may be tax-exempt. For example, in Washington, USA, no sales tax is charged on food items. inFlow also allows you to set certain products to be tax-exempt by using Product Tax Codes.

If you have set the Default Product Tax Code, newly created Products will use this tax code by default. If you add/remove/update Product Tax Code, it will be reflected in the Product Tax Code dropdown list whenever applicable (i.e. SO/PO, Product Details screen, report filter, etc.).

If your business taxes all products in the same way (this is usually the case if you do not sell any tax-exempt products), then you can uncheck the Show Product Tax option to avoid showing whether products are taxable or not on your invoices. Checking it will show Product Tax Code in Product Details and PO/SO line items. Un-checking it will hide Product Tax Code everywhere.

In the United States, sales taxes from different levels of government are usually combined and shown together on invoices. However, in other locations, two different types of taxes may be calculated and shown separately. For example, in Ontario, Canada, a 5% GST and an 8% PST are typically charged and displayed separately on invoices.

If you charge two types of taxes, then you should check the Show Secondary Tax option to show both types of taxes. On the other hand, if you only deal with a single tax, then unchecking the Show Secondary Tax option will simplify matters. Checking it will show the Secondary Tax column in Taxing Schemes, PO/SO totals, tax reports. Un-checking it will hide Secondary tax everywhere, and will not include secondary tax.

Product Tax Codes can be edited by clicking the Edit Product Tax Codes button in Company Settings under Pricing & Tax. For each Product Tax Code you should set:

Name - A name describing the Product Tax Code

Code - A short tax code to describe this Product Tax Code on printed documents like invoices.

Primary Tax Applicable - Check this if the primary taxes should apply to these products.

Secondary Tax Applicable - Check this if the secondary taxes should apply to these products.

Removing product tax codes that have previously been saved does not actually delete it, but instead deactivates it so that it won’t be used in the future. Clicking the Show All button allows you to view inactive product tax codes and reactivate them.

For most businesses, the default Taxable and Non-taxable Product Tax Codes will be sufficient. If however, you sell products in which only one tax is applicable (e.g. a PST exempt product in Ontario, Canada) you may add a Product Tax Code for this. You may also want to add different Product Tax Codes with different code values to explain why an item is tax-exempt.