Creating Product Families

Use Product Family Maintenance to create, copy, delete, and maintain product families.

The Allow Duplicates In Product Familiescontrol maintenance record determines whether you can enter duplicate components in a product family. Entering duplicate components facilitates in ordering items grouped together in different configuration blocks. You must be assigned level 2 of the PRODUCT.FAMILY.MAINT authorization key to add or edit product families. If you are assigned level 1 of the authorization key, you can only view product families.

When you create a product family, you can build it out of the following components:

Individual products
Existing product families
All products in a price line
All products within a category

In addition, you can determine whether a product family can be used with the Web Order Entry companion product.

Note: Comments added to product families display in the body of sales orders.

To create a product family:

From the Maintenance> Product Additional menu, select Product Family Maintenance to display the Product Family Maintenance window.
In the Branch/Territory field, enter the branch or territory in which to create a product family, or enter All to create a product family for all branches and territories.

Enter All for one of the following reasons:

A branch does not have specific products defined for that family. Branch-specific product families are independent of the default family, not a subset of it.
You want the product family to be used with Web Order Entry.

Note: You can edit or view product families only for branches or territories to which you have been assigned access.

Click New to display the Create a New Product Family dialog box.
In the Product Family ID field, enter an ID to assign to the product family.

Note: When entering a new product family ID, the system does not allow you to use an ID already assigned to a price line. This restriction prevents conflicts when accessing price lines or product families in Sales Order Entry. In addition, do not use the ampersand (&) character in product family IDs.

Click OK to return the ID to the Product Family ID field in the Product Family Maintenance window.
In the Description field, enter a short description of the product family.
Select the Display in WOE check box to use this product family in Web Order Entry; otherwise, leave it blank.

Note: The Display Catalog Products In WOE control maintenance record determines whether nonstock items display in Web Order Entry, regardless if they are included in a product family.

In the Product Description column, enter any of the following components to build the product family:

Component	Action
Individual product	Enter the product. In the Quantity column, enter the quantity of the product to add when the product family is added to an order. In the UOM column, the system enters the product's default unit of measure defined for sales transactions. In the Comment column, enter a comment to display with the product when the product is entered on an order if needed.
All products in another product family	Enter an ampersand (&) followed by the product family ID, for example, &zoepumps. Leave the Quantity column blank. This applies to individual products only. In the UOM column, the system enters the each (ea) unit of measure. Leave the Comment column blank. This applies to individual products only.
All products in a price line	Enter the word line followed by a tilde (~) followed by the price line ID, for example, line~zoe. Leave the Quantity column blank. This applies to individual products only. In the UOM column, the system enters the each (ea) unit of measure. Leave the Comment column blank. This applies to individual products only.
All products containing a selected word or phrase in the product description	Enter an exclamation mark (!) followed by the word or phrase, for example, !brass hex bushing. Leave the Quantity column blank. This applies to individual products only. In the UOM column, the system enters the each (ea) unit of measure. Leave the Comment column blank. This applies to individual products only.

Save the information and exit the window.

Note: You must rebuild the product family index whenever you create new product families.

More Options from the Product Family Maintenance Window

The Product Family Maintenance window also offers these options:

To...	Select this menu option...
delete the current product family record	File > Delete The system prompts for confirmation.
copy the current product family record to a new branch, territory, or product family ID	File > Copy The Product Family Maintenance dialog box displays. To see how to copy a current record, click here. To copy the current record: Use the File >Copy menu option to display the Product Family Maintenance dialog box. In the From family field, verify that you the correct product family to copy is displayed. The system enters the current product family ID. In the From branch/territory field, verify that the correct branch or territory from which to copy is displayed. The system enters the current product family's assigned branch or territory. In the To family field, enter the product family to which to copy the information as needed. In the To branch/territory field, enter the branch or territory to which to copy the information as needed. Click OK to copy the product family.
view the product record for the selected product	Options > Product Maintenance The Product Maintenance window displays in view-only mode. Note: This hot key is active only if you have the PRODUCT.MAINT authorization key and the cursor is positioned on an individual product.
display the products assigned to a selected price line	Options > Expand The Products from <price line> dialog box displays. Add or remove products from the product family list, as needed.
view changes made to the product family	Options > Log The Maintenance Log Viewing window displays.
attach a note to the product family	Options > Notes The Edit Note dialog box displays. Enter a note and click OK.