Long SKUs Overview

The "Long SKU" feature allows you to have a longer SKU field of up to 30 characters in length, as well as provides you with sophisticated searching capabilities. "Long SKU" functionality is available if your system is converted to Mode 2. The terms "Mode 2" and "Long SKU" are synonymous.

In contrast to Mode 2, Mode 1 is the traditional Eagle for Windows mode, which allows for up to a 14-character SKU, and does not include the advanced searching capabilities that are unique to Mode 2. In Mode 2, the files use an internal number called a Shadow Number instead of a SKU. The Long SKUs are stored separately, and are linked to the data by the Shadow Number.

Features of "Long SKU" (Mode 2)

Mode 2 supports two sophisticated searching capabilities that are not available in Mode 1:

• Typematic searches, where you can type in the first few characters of an SKU (or, optionally, the first few characters of a manufacture part number or vendor alternate part number) in the SKU field and press <Page down>. The system will search for a match with the characters you entered, and then continues its search from there. The typematic search is done with left-justified values, thus SKUs will not be in numerical order. Click here for examples.

  Example 1: Searching on "120" would display a list similar to the following, in the following order:

  120

  1200

  120001

  12003

  12004188

  12006

  1201

  121

  Example 2: Searching on "LIN1" would display a list similar to the following, in the following order:

  LIN100

  LIN1001

  LIN101

  LIN1011

  LIN102

  LIN1021

• Item searches include manufacture part number and/or vendor alternate part number, whether you're performing a "matches" lookup (you type in the value in the SKU field, and press Enter) or a typematic lookup (you type in a starting value in the SKU field and press Page Down). If you set up your system to include Manufacture Part Number and/or Vendor Alternate Part Number in SKU lookups and typematic searches (option 2509 and/or option 2511 are set to Yes), the system takes your search criteria and finds SKU, Manufacture Part, and Vendor Alternate Part matches. Click here for examples.

  Example 1: the clerk types 3150 and presses Enter. The first match is on SKU, and the second match is found on Mfg Part Number 3150 for manufacturer 25 ; that item’s sku is 3150 CR.

  

  Example 2: This is a typematic search. The clerk enters 303 and presses Page Down. The result includes all items whose SKU begins with 303, all items whose Mfg Part # begins with 303 (assuming option 2509 is set to Yes), and all items that have a Vendor Alt Part # that begins with 303 (assuming option 2511 is set to Yes).

  

  If the clerk continues to enter more characters after pressing Page Down, the list narrows with each subsequent character entered. For example, if the clerk adds an 0X to the search, the search value becomes 3030X. Thus, now the grid shows all items whose SKU, or Mfg Part #, or Alternate Part # begins with 3030X.

This lookup method is more sophisticated than the "Smart Lookup" method available in Mode 1 in several ways: 1) Smart Lookup matches on SKU first, and if not found, then and only then does it attempt to do a match on manufacture part, 2) Smart Lookup doesn’t have the option of including vendor alternate part numbers in SKU lookups, and 3)Smart Lookup is limited to POS, MPO, Inventory Maintenance, and the Inventory Viewer. In contrast, SKU lookup in Mode 2 is available not only in these functions, but anywhere the SKU field is used in a lookup, such as ITR, Item Sales History (ISH), Item Price Changes (IPC) when adding price changes, Modify Item Promotions (MIP) when adding a promotion, QuickRecall, Physical Inventory Posting (PIP), Inventory Change Log, etc.

Additional benefits of Mode 2 include:

• Searches can ignore special characters. If a SKU (or manufacture part # or vendor alternate part #) you're searching for has special characters such as dashes and spaces, or uses both lower and upper case letters, you can set up the system to disregard special characters, spaces, and case when performing an item lookup in the SKU field (you can still enter the special characters, dashes, spaces, etc., when doing a lookup, but you don't have to). The relevant options are 2503 "Long SKU/Part lookup "can ignore" character list," 2505 "Long SKU/Part lookup "can ignore" spaces,"  and 2507 "Long SKU/Part lookup can ignore case."

• Longer Vendor Alternate Part Number. The Alternate Part Number on the Vendor tab of Inventory Maintenance can be up to 30 characters, as can the Customer SKU Number. However, note that the Manufacture Part Number has NOT been increased beyond the 14-character limit of Mode 1.