1 Inventory: Using CounterPoint Processing Markdowns Overview A markdown is a change to an item s retail price (Price-1). This change in Price-1 could actually be a reduction (markdown) or an increase (markup or markdown cancellations). The single term markdown is used for both as a matter of convenience. If you specified in Setup / Inventory / Control to keep merchandise history, all markdowns are recorded in merchandise history as changes in the retail value on hand of the items. Changes made to Price-1 outside of Inventory / Markdowns are not recorded as markdowns. Price-1 can also be changed by using Inventory / Items, Inventory / Prices / Items prices, and Inventory / Prices / Group price changes. However, only Markdowns allows you to schedule such price changes in advance, and records the value of the markdowns for later reporting on the Retail Inventory Value report. If you plan to use markdowns and the Retail Inventory Value report to manage and report your retail value: Answer Yes to Keep merchandise history? in Setup / Inventory / Control. Answer Yes to Track markdowns? in Setup / Inventory / Control. Don t make changes to Price-1 in Inventory / Items, Inventory / Prices / Item prices, or Inventory / Prices / Group price changes. (Those changes will not be recorded in merchandise history as markdowns.) Avoid taking markdowns on the first day of your reporting periods. (Such markdowns are accurately recorded, but they make it impossible to accurately calculate beginning values for the period) Take markdowns as the first activity of the day to ensure the accuracy of the unitsmarked-down figure. The following steps are performed to take a markdown: Steps Description Step 1 Step 2 Use Inventory / Markdowns / Create to create markdown transactions for the items to mark down. These transactions are created with a planned markdown date, so that markdowns can be planned in advance. Any number of transactions may be created for a given item to schedule markdowns to occur on different dates. (This step may be skipped if you use Inventory / Markdowns / Enter to create individual markdown transactions.) Select Inventory / Markdowns / Worksheet to print a markdowns worksheet, to use in reviewing scheduled markdowns.
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 2 Steps Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Description Use Inventory / Markdowns / Enter to enter, remove, or change individual markdown transactions before posting: You may manually enter or remove individual transactions. You may change Planned markdown date, Quantity to markdown, or New price-1 for existing markdown transactions. You may remove specified groups of markdowns. Use Inventory / Markdowns / Remove, if necessary, to remove existing markdown transactions that have not yet been posted. Use Inventory / Markdowns / Post to post markdowns. During posting: Retail prices are changed. The markdowns are recorded in the Merchandise History file (if you specified in Setup / Inventory / Control to retain merchandise history). A register is produced. When posting markdowns, you can use the planned markdown date to determine which markdowns should post. Markdowns are effective as soon as they are posted. Creating markdown transactions Select Inventory / Markdowns / Create.
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 3 7. Planned markdown date The current system date displays as the default. Enter the date on which you plan for the markdowns to become effective. 8. Markdown by Enter the percentage to use in calculating markdowns. Press: F1 To alternate between entering a markup or markdown. F2 To alternate between entering a dollar amount or a percentage. 9. Basis Price-1 Price-2 Price-3 Price-4 Price-5 Price-6 Reg price Last cost To use Price-1 as the basis for the markdown calculation. To use Price-2. To use Price-3. To use Price-4. To use Price-5. To use Price-6. To use the item s regular price. To use the item s Last cost. NOTE: If you select Price-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 and have specified in Setup / Inventory / Control to use multi-location pricing, and have a location price on file for the item, that location price is used in the markdown calculation. If there is no location price on file, the item default price (from the Item file) is used. 10. Quantity to markdown Available To calculate markdowns for the available quantity from the Inventory file at the time markdown transactions are posted. On-hand To calculate markdowns for the on-hand quantity from the Inventory file at the time markdown transactions are posted. Counted To calculate markdowns for a counted quantity, to be entered manually after the transaction is created. Initial value This field appears only if you enter Counted in the preceding field. Specify the initial value to use in creating the markdown transactions. Current qty available Current qty on hand Leave <blank> for Zero. For the current available quantity from the Inventory file. For the current on-hand quantity from the Inventory file.
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 4 When the transactions are created, the quantity you specify as the initial value is used as a default. Changes can be made prior to posting the markdown transactions, using Inventory / Markdowns / Enter. 11. Rounding method Specify the method to use for rounding the calculated markdowns. None Round to nearest cent Round to nearest price point Increase to next price point If you don t want to round markdowns. To round to the nearest cent. To round to the nearest price point. (See the Using price points section on page 4 for more information.) To increase to the next price point. (See the Using price points section on page 4 for more information.) 12. Print or create? Print report Print report / create transactions To print the Markdown Transaction Log showing all markdown transactions that would be created, without actually creating them. To print the Markdown Transaction Log and create the markdown transactions. Using price points Price point A price point is a particular price at which merchandise is sold. For example, the price points in your store might be $0.79, $1.79, $2.79. By selecting a rounding method of Round to nearest price point or Increase to next price point, you can ensure that each calculated price coincides with one of your price points. Price mask In our example ($0.79, $1.79, $2.79), a two-digit price mask of 79 defines the price points. In other words, no matter what price was calculated, the last two digits of that price are masked with 79. Some businesses require multiple price masks, or even different price masks for different price levels of goods. Price points allow you to define up to three distinct price levels and up to sixteen price masks within each level. For example, your low-price goods are under $3.00 and you price them at $0.79, $1.79, and $2.79. Your moderate goods are more than $3.00 but under $9.00, and you price them at $5.95 or $8.95. The rest of your goods are over $9.00, and you price them in increments of $10.00, at $9.95, $19.95, $29.95 and so forth.
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 5 You would define your price points as follows: Price changes are calculated in the normal manner. Then, if you specified Increase to next price point as the rounding method, the price is rounded to the next higher price point. If you specified Round to nearest price point, the price is rounded to the closest lower or higher price point. This window appears if you specify Round to nearest price point or Increase to next price point in field 11 (Rounding method) to round or increase markdowns to the nearest or next price point. If you have previously saved default price point information, that information displays automatically. Press F1 to clear the displayed price point information. Cut-off price Enter the cut-off price for each level. Press Enter for Unlimited, if this is the last level you will define. Your entry for the Level-2 Cut-off price must be higher than the Cut-off price for Level-1, and Level-3 must be higher than Level-2. # of digits Enter the number of digits to use for the price masks, between 1 and 5. The number entered here cannot be greater than the number of digits entered for the value of Cut-off price. Price masks Enter up to 16 price masks for each level. Leave <blank> when you have finished entering price masks within a level.
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 6 The masks within each level must be ascending. NOTE: If you specified 3 or more for # of digits, you must enter a decimal point in the appropriate position of each mask. Save as default price points? This question appears after you have finished entering price points. Specify whether to save these price points as default entries for the next time you use Inventory / Markdowns / Create. Entering markdowns Select Inventory / Markdowns / Enter. 1. Item # Enter the item number (or barcode) of the markdown transaction that you want to enter or change. Press: F1 To scan through existing markdown transactions in order by item number. F2 To alternate between using F1 to scan in order by item number or by category. When an existing markdown transaction is displayed, press: F2 To generate tags for this markdown. (See Working with Tags for more information.) F3 To delete this markdown transaction.
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 7 2. Location If you are not using multi-location (as specified in Setup / Inventory / Control), this field defaults to the Main location specified in Setup / Inventory / Control, and cannot be changed. Enter the location at which this markdown should be taken. Current price-1: Current qty on hand: Current qty available: These display-only fields appear after you have entered an item and location in fields 1 and 2, and contain information about this item from the Item and Inventory files. 3. Planned markdown date The current system date displays as the default. Enter the date on which you plan for the markdowns to become effective. 4. Quantity to markdown Enter the quantity to mark down. Press: F1 To use the quantity on-hand when the markdown transactions are posted. F2 To use the quantity available when the markdown transactions are posted. 5. New price-1 Enter the new retail price (Price-1) for the item. Approximate value of markdown: This display-only field appears after you enter a New price-1 in field 5, and shows the approximate value of the markdown based upon your entries on this screen. Field number to change? Press F2 to generate inventory item tag(s) for the marked down item (see Working with Tags for more information), or if you have already entered tag information for this transaction, to cancel the tags. The inventory item tags may be printed later using Labels / Print / Labels from tags. (See Working with Tags for more information.)
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 8 Removing markdowns Select Inventory / Markdown / Remove. Individual markdown transactions can also be deleted using Inventory / Markdowns / Enter. 7. Cutoff markdown date The current system date displays as the default. Enter the markdown date through which you want to remove transactions. Press F1 for None, to remove transactions without regard to date.
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 9 Printing the Markdown Worksheet Select Inventory / Markdowns / Worksheet. You can use this worksheet to help you physically count the merchandise to mark down. After any changes are made to the markdown transactions (and before posting), you can print a new worksheet to verify the accuracy of the transactions and to show variances between the quantity to mark down and the quantity on-hand. 7. Cutoff markdown date The current system date displays as the default. Enter the last markdown date to include. Press F1 for None, to include transactions without regard to date. 8. Print in order by Item number To print the worksheet in order by Item number. Category To print the worksheet in order by Category. Location To print the worksheet in order by Location (if using multi-location). Check the Markdown Worksheet for warning messages regarding any errors in your markdown transactions. Use Inventory / Markdowns / Enter to correct any errors prior to posting the markdown transactions.
Inventory: Using CounterPoint - Processing Markdowns 10 Posting markdowns Select Inventory / Markdowns / Post. When markdowns are posted: Price-1 for the appropriate items is updated in the Item file and the Price file (if location-specific prices exist for the item). If you specified in Setup / Inventory / Control to keep merchandise history, merchandise history is updated. The Markdown Register prints. 7. Cutoff markdown date The current system date displays as the default. Enter the planned markdown date through which to post markdown transactions. Press F1 for None, to include transactions without regard to their planned markdown date. 8. Actual markdown date The cutoff markdown date entered in field 7 displays as the default. If you specified None in field 7, the current system date displays as the default. Enter the date to record as the markdown date for each markdown. NOTE: The date you enter here is used to update merchandise history, and appears as the transaction date on merchandise history reports. 9. Print in order by Item number To print the register in order by Item number. Category To print the register in order by Category. Location To print the register in order by Location (if using multi-location).