Article Contents
Introduction
If you have separate items in your venue that are interchangeable, you can group them together as item variations.
These items can be used in all the same menu items, however there may be small differences between them (different supplier, case size, measurement size).
For more detailed information on item variations, please see:
When items are grouped:
each item becomes an item variation, and you’ll designate which is the default (typically the most common format in your venue)
It will appear as one item in your venue’s item list (using the default’s details), but you’ll be able to inventory and order/receive each item variation
For reporting in consumption and variance, you'll see the default variation. This will only apply to unlocked inventory periods. Data from locked inventories will not be modified.
Note: This is different from the “merge” feature, where you are combining items that are exact duplicates to clean up your account. To learn more, see:
Select Items to be Grouped
In this example we'll be grouping together an item that comes in 3 different formats: 750ml, 1L, and 1.75L. Each version of this item is used interchangeably in all the same menu items.
To group items on the WISK Web Portal you can either:
Select all items to group together in the table by clicking the checkboxes beside them
Go into the details for an item and search for items to group it with
Note: You can only group items together that have the same measurement type (volume, weight, or units).
Select from Table
Click the checkboxes beside each item that you want to group together (if you don’t see the checkboxes, you will need to toggle on the “Selection” column)
Click the ‘Group items” button
Search from Item
Place your cursor over an item and click the "Edit" button
Click the "Actions" menu and select "Merge or group "
Type the name of the item you want to group and click the matching search result
Click the checkmark button to add the item
After adding all of the items to be grouped, click "Group Items".
Item Details and Default Item Variation
After you’ve selected the items to be grouped, you can edit the details of the resulting item, and determine which variation will be the default for inventory / par purposes.
To learn more about the default item variation, see:
On the left, you’ll see the resulting item after you group the items. On the right, you’ll see the items that are being grouped
You can copy any details from the items being grouped to the resulting item by clicking on the “Paste” icons, or you can make changes directly in the resulting item. Click the tabs that show the item name to toggle between them
Scroll down to the “Item Variations” section of the resulting item. You’ll see that each item being grouped appears as an item variation. You can click the item variation toggle to switch between them
The variation on the left is assigned as the default, but you can click the tab of another variation and click the “Set as default for inventory / par level” checkbox to change it
If you click the checkbox to set a new default, click OK on the confirmation window. That variation becomes the default item variation when the grouping is completed. Moving forward, whenever you take stock counts or want to use par levels for ordering, it will be in the measurement of the default item variation. You should select the variation that is most common in your venue to be the default
The selected variation is now the default
Complete the Grouping
After you have made any necessary changes to the resulting item’s details, and set the default item variation, you are ready to complete the item grouping.
Grouping Warning
Grouping is an advanced operation and should only be used with extra care. Before you finalize your grouping, please make sure that the items being grouped are 100% interchangeable and can be used in all the same menu items in your venue.
For more information and examples of item variations, please see:
Furthermore, after the items have been grouped, you will notice the following in your venue:
The item you selected as the default item will remain, and the others will be archived and added as variations of that item
Your "Stock" count for the resulting item is the sum of the stock of each grouped item, converted into the default variation. For example, if you set the default to be a 750ml bottle and you had 2 750ml bottles, and 3 1L bottles, it would convert the 3 1L to 4 750ml, for a total stock count of 6. You can check your most recent inventory for the actual breakdown per variation.
The grouping applies to all data in unlocked inventory periods at the time of grouping. All of your past invoices and inventory counts in unlocked inventory periods will replace the item with the new grouped version. Data in locked inventory periods is unchanged. It can take several minutes for this to update after completing the grouping
Note: You can undo an item grouping using the "Ungroup" function.
Saving
To complete the item grouping:
Make sure you have updated the title to reflect the new item and click “Save”
As outlined in the Grouping Warning section above, you'll need to confirm that you want to group these items. Click "OK"
Click “Close”
The grouping process begins. It prioritizes updating the data from your most recent inventory, but it can take a few minutes to update all other historical data from unlocked inventory periods.
Post Item Grouping
After you have grouped the items, you’ll see they have been combined into one item on the Items page. It displays the information from the item that was selected as the default.
Note: While the items have been combined, there are still processes running in the background to update the item in inventories and all other movements (invoices, depletions, etc). This can take several minutes to complete. We don't recommend making any changes to the item immediately after grouping.
Viewing Item Variations
To view the item variations, place your cursor over the item and click the “Edit” button.
You’ll now see the item and its variations:
You can also view the variations on the Items (By Variation) tab.
Note: The stock count that displays here is after being converted to the default variation. The 1L item shows as 8 units, but this is when converted to the default variation of 750ml. Otherwise it is 6 units - see the Stock section below. You can verify this on the inventory count. The "Current cost per unit" column is based on the last invoice received for that variation.
Stock Count
As noted earlier, the "Stock" count becomes the total of all variations, converted to the default variation.
In this example, we grouped a 750ml, 1L, and 1.75L item, putting the 750ml as the default.
When the items were grouped we had:
1.75L - 0.35 units
1L - 6 units
750ml - 4 units
Each item in the grouping has its stock converted to the default variation.
0.35 units of 1.75L = ~613ml = 0.82 units of 750ml
6 units of 1L = 6000ml = 8 units of 750ml
4 units of 750ml remains the same
Total = 12.82 units of 750ml
Inventory & Invoices
After grouping the items, all inventories and invoices within the unlocked inventory period are updated with the resulting item.
Inventory
When viewing inventory counts on the WISK Web Portal, if you scroll over the item you'll see info icons that display the breakdown of how the unit cost and total count is calculated.
For the total count, it shows the count for each item variation and converts it into the default variation.
For example, in the Stock room it shows 2 units of the 750ml, and 4 units of the 1L.
4 units of 1L = 4000ml = 5.33 units of 750ml.
When you add the 2 other 750ml, that totals to 7.33 units.
Invoices
All invoices in the unlocked inventory period containing the grouped items are updated.
Before
Each line item is the individual item before they were grouped.
After
Each line item is the resulting item "Grouping Example". The details of the variation are shown in brackets beside the name, and in the item measurement column.
POS Items / Batches
When items are grouped together, if any of them were mapped to POS Items or Batches, the mapping is updated to include the resulting item.
In this example, the 750ml, 1L, and 1.75L items were all mapped to different POS Items prior to grouping:
After grouping, it's just the resulting item:
Variance
After all the items are grouped, only the resulting item displays on the Variance page. Since the mapping is now all for the same item, the sales and consumption are combined to give a more accurate result.
Before
Each item appears as a separate line item. It's hard to get an accurate variance because each item can be sold interchangeably in the same POS Items. Only one can be mapped to a POS Item, otherwise it would over report the sales.
After
After grouping the items, they appear as a single line item and it's much easier to see the variance for the item overall.
Ungrouping Items
In the event you group together items by mistake, you can undo this action.
Note: If you have immediately grouped the items beforehand, wait 10 minutes for the background processes to update before ungrouping. Otherwise you may see some conflicts in the data that will need to be fixed.
Important: You can only ungroup the most recent grouping. If you group 2 separate items together (For example, Item A & Item B), and then group that resulting item with Item C, you can only undo that grouping. Item A & Item B will still be grouped.
Click the "Edit" button beside the item
Click "Actions" > "Ungroup"
Click "OK" on the confirmation screen
The item variations are restored as separate items
Ungrouped Item Stock Counts
If you group and then ungroup items before you take an inventory count, all items are restored to as they were, including the stock count of each item.
If you ungroup items after an inventory count was taken when the items were grouped, the converted stock count displays under the former default item variation.
Ungrouping - POS Item Mapping
At this time, when you ungroup items, the POS Mapping is not restored to what it was before. For example, if you had a 750ml item mapped to one POS Item, and a 1L item mapped to another, when grouped the resulting item would be mapped to both.
When you ungroup, the former default item will be mapped to those POS Items. You may need to update the mapping.