Product Group Master File
Previous Topic  Next Topic 


Product Group Master File allows you to view products that are divided up in the Stock Master file so they belong to a organizational hierarchy. That hierarchy follows the pattern of Category>>Group>>Price Group. Understanding how these relate and work, and what information on your inventory management can be revealed through proper use of applying these options, will contribute considerably to the management of your inventory and stock.


Each item code in the system must belong to a Product Group. Product groups are used in many reports throughout Autosoft5 that can be process in group order. Some of these include Stock Order reports, Sales reports, Stock Value reports and Workshop Group Sales Analysis report.


Autosoft training and pre-configured databases come with numerous default groups, and these groups affect not only stock, but Workshop Jobs (for Workshop module) and Fuel sales (for Service Station Fuel module) as well.


The system has the ability to handle 1000's of different groups. We suggest you put some thoughts on paper of your group layout before loading them into the computer.


An example of filter groups could be:


Filters [FA] = Air Filters

Filters [EN] = Engine Filters such as Oil Filters (see example below)




Header Area


Group - Enter the group name i.e Filters. Hit F4 to search for a group, or click the ellipsis at the right-hand end of the field.


Type - Enter the group type i.e. All, Job, Fuel or Stock.

Note: It is important that the correct Group Type is chosen for Parts or Workshop items. When carrying out a Parts Stocktake the Groups with type All or Parts are classed as Stock, consequently these Groups will print on your Stocktake Count Sheets. If the Group is a Workshop Group choose Job as the Type, these will not print on the Parts Stocktake Count Sheets, and will not be selectable groups in your Stock Master File. If you accidentally change a stock-group into a job-group, the parts in the Stock Master File may not show up correctly, or may have missing fields. They also will not be able to be added to a standard Parts Invoice.


Category - Enter category i.e. All Parts, All Workshop Jobs, etc.


Find Code - This is your suppliers group code. When automatic price updates are carried out from your supplier the groups are usually different to what you carry them under. This field is used to check the supplier group is correct for the part being updated.


Low Gross % - The low gross profit warning message will be activated in the invoice if the percentage gross profit falls below the percentage in the Low Gross % field. The System File also has a Low Gross % setting, which will be used if there is no value in the Product Group Master File.


Re-order Point - Is the stock level reached before the item is re-ordered. If the normal stock holding of an item was 100 and 10 were sold and there was no re-order point, 10 will be re-ordered. With the re-order point set at 50% the stock holding will reach 50 before the item is re-ordered. The re-order point can be adjusted to meet your requirements.


Queries Tab



There are a range of queries in the Query tab.


Group List

Products in Selected Group

Top 50 Stock Item Sales



General Ledger/Utility Tab


General Ledger (Optional)

General Ledger accounts can be assigned to categories to supercede the settings in the General Ledger Control account settings, and the Product Group GL settings. If you want to have specific mapping for Parts or Labour within particular Categories or Group, we suggest you contact us for a consultation.

Retail Transactions, Trade Transactions and Inventory GL Accounts -Requires GL Codes

Note: If the GL Codes are left blank the Control Accounts that are pre-set will be used.


Before new General Ledger account codes can be added in the Product Group Master File they must be setup in GL Account Maintenance first.  Enter the GL Account Code for Sale and Cost of Sale for Retail and Trade. If you do not want trade sales to appear separately in the P&L add the Retail GL Codes in Trade. If you want to use the default inventory GL Account Code leave Asset GL Account empty, if not add the inventory GL Account Code.


Don't Export to Web - Tick this when export to web is not needed


Run Utility Button


Note: Please ensure that a backup performed prior to any processing via the utility program to ensure your original data is kept.


Update Supplier, Price %, Matrix, Group or Bin - Three utility programs are in this one program.


Update Supplier by group

To select groups you can click on Select All for all groups or select individual groups and click on the right arrow to transfer them to the processing side of the screen.

You can also select groups by clicking in the select box on either side and send groups to the processing side or back to the non processing side. i.e. if you selected all groups and there are a couple you do not want to process just click in the select box and press the left arrow to return them.

To update a supplier by group, select a group or groups, select a supplier and click on process. All parts in the selected groups will be updated with the selected supplier.


Update Group prices by percentage

Select a group or groups (see above how to select), add a percentage to the Price Update % box and click on process.  After you click on process the Select Markup Option box will allow you to select either List Price (Selling Price), Average Cost, Current Cost or Last Cost for price update.  After the price update type is selected another box will ask if you want to update Buy In's, select Yes or No.  All parts in the selected groups will be updated with the new Selling Price.

Note: Only the List Price (Selling Price) in the Stock Master File is updated.


Update Price Matrix Descriptions by Group

Note: This program will only work if all Price Matrix Descriptions are setup.


To link Matrix Description to a Group, select a Group (or more than one Group) then select a Matrix in the Matrix field (at the bottom of the screen) click on process and that Matrix Description will be transferred to all Parts in that Group (or Groups) in the Stock Master File.


What are you trying to do?

Video/Knowledge base Guide

Create New Part Categories and/or Groups

http://service.autosoft.com.au/entries/21903580-How-to-Create-New-Part-Categories-and-or-Groups

Move Parts from 1 group to another

http://service.autosoft.com.au/entries/21987750-How-to-move-all-Parts-from-one-Group-to-another