Product Catalogue

Goal #

Hold your own articles in Trackberry, with the part numbers each supplier uses for them, so every invoice and packing line shows your article code instead of the supplier’s. A 300-line invoice then arrives ready to enter, without retyping each code.

Before you start #

• The catalogue switched on. An admin turns it on under Organization settings, General, Product catalogue. The choices are Use the default for your goods profile, On and Off. The default is on for general goods and off for produce, and a choice you make stays whatever the profile becomes. When it is on, Products appears in the user menu under your avatar. When it is off, the page is not there, and an old link sends you to the dashboard with a note.
• An export of your articles from your ERP, as CSV or XLSX. See What to ask your ERP for.
• Any member except a Viewer can add and edit products, upload a catalogue, and map invoice lines. Deleting a product needs an admin. Viewers can read.
• Companies for your suppliers. Supplier references belong to a supplier, which is a company in Trackberry. They are created as your documents arrive. See Companies.

What to ask your ERP for #

An export of your article list, one row per article, as a CSV (up to 20 MB) or an XLSX file (up to 5 MB). Old .xls workbooks are not supported: save them as .xlsx or .csv.

You do not need a special layout. Trackberry finds the sheet, skips title rows, reads headers in seven languages, and looks at what each column holds, so even a meaningless header can be recognized. Hidden columns and extra sheets are fine. Ask for the whole list rather than only what changed.

Upload your catalogue #

1. Open Products and choose Upload catalogue, or Upload your catalogue if it is still empty.
2. Choose the file and Upload and read. Trackberry reads it in the background.
3. If it is not sure of a column, Check the columns shows what it found and highlights the ones to check. Pick the column that holds the SKU and any others you want, tick Other columns to keep as attributes, and choose Preview changes. A file with the same layout as an earlier import is read with the columns you confirmed then.
4. Look at What will change. Nothing has been saved yet. It shows:
   • New products and Changed products, and how many are Unchanged.
   • References added and References updated.
   • Conflicts: a supplier reference can point to only one product, so these are left as they are.
   • Rows it skips, with the reason: no usable SKU, a repeated SKU (the first is kept), a reference with no letters or digits, a conversion factor that is not a positive number, or a supplier it could not match to a single company.
5. Choose Confirm and import. You can leave the page. The import runs in batches and carries on.

Result: your articles and their supplier references are in Products, and open shipments are matched again.

What an import changes and never changes #

• It never deletes a product or a supplier reference.
• Products missing from the file are only flagged Discontinued, and only if Flag products missing from this file as discontinued is ticked. When the file looks like an extract rather than the whole catalogue, the box is off, so the rest of your catalogue is left alone. A flagged product that is in a later file is reinstated.
• An empty cell never erases what a product already has.
• A correction is never overwritten. A reference you added or changed stays as you set it. One you only confirmed can be repointed by a later import. The preview lists any conflict with the file.
• A failed import can be retried. Choose Retry the import. What was saved is left as it is and nothing is duplicated.

Add and edit products by hand #

Add product creates one article with a SKU, a Description and a Unit. Edit on a row opens the product page, where you can also see its Attributes and its Supplier references. The next import overwrites the description and unit with the file’s. A product your latest export no longer carries shows a Discontinued badge with the date.

Delete product is for admins. It removes the product and its supplier references, and a re-import would bring the product back. This cannot be undone.

Supplier references #

A supplier reference says “this supplier’s part number OR-2-369 is my article 1004”. The Supplier references tab lists every one, with its supplier (or Any supplier), its Conversion factor, its Source and its Status.

• Confirmed references are used to match lines on their own.
• Suggested references are waiting for a person. They never match a line by themselves. When there are any, the header shows how many, and you can tick them and choose Confirm selected, or choose Confirm all N suggestions for the current filter.
• Source says where one came from: Import or From ERP, From documents, From purchase order, or Correction when a person made or changed it.

Add one on a product page with Add reference: choose the Supplier, type the Supplier reference and set the Conversion factor if the units differ. Saving makes it your correction, confirmed and kept through every later import. Filter the tab by supplier or status, and search by reference, SKU or description.

When a supplier invoices in boxes of 10 and you count single pieces, set the factor to 10. Each line then carries its quantity in your units.

Lines on a shipment #

On the shipment page, the invoice lines and the packing table gain an Article column. Above them, a summary reads, for example, 48 of 52 lines matched · 3 suggestions · 1 to map. Show only lines to review hides everything that is already settled.

For each line, the cell is one of three things:

• A matched article. Its SKU, linked to the product. Hover it for the product’s description. The pencil changes it.
• A suggestion, in italics. Choose the tick to Confirm this article, or the cross for Not this article, which stops that article being offered for the line again.
• Choose… for a line with nothing. It opens Choose the article.

How a line is matched #

After an invoice or packing list is read, each line is matched for the supplier named on its own document, in this order. A confirmed supplier reference (steps 2 to 4) beats the order number if they disagree. Otherwise the first confirmed answer wins, and suggestions appear only when nothing confirmed the line.

1. By your order number, when the invoice prints your purchase order number on the line. See Purchase Orders. The cell shows By order AA/35.264.
2. The supplier’s exact reference.
3. The same reference ignoring case, spaces and punctuation.
4. A reference that fits any supplier.
5. A description matched before. A line with no part number, worded exactly like one a person or a purchase order settled for the supplier, with the same numbers. It is confirmed when a purchase order settled that wording, or a person settled it on two shipments, and a suggestion otherwise.
6. Type and size. Some invoices name the item as UN 135.0 X 150.0 X 12.0 with no code. If exactly one article says the same, the line has no part number, and the supplier already has a reference to that article, it is matched and marked matched by size. Otherwise it is suggested.
7. A similar description to one a person once mapped. This is always a suggestion.

Steps 2 to 4 only read confirmed references. A packing row takes the article of the invoice line with the same part number from the same supplier, never another supplier’s.

Choose the article yourself #

1. Choose Choose… on a line, or the pencil on a matched one.
2. Type in the search box: your article code, the supplier’s reference, a size or a word from the description. The search finds an article by any supplier’s reference to it too, ignoring case, spaces and punctuation.
3. Pick the article.

If nothing matches, the box says what it searched for and offers one-click searches from the line itself: its part number, then its first sizes as catalogues write them. A new article? reminds you that the line stays to map until you add the article to your ERP and import the catalogue again, and links to Import your catalogue.

Picking or confirming an article teaches Trackberry. The supplier’s reference for that line is mapped to the article, as a correction, so the same part matches by itself on the next shipment. A line with no usable part number is remembered by its description instead. A line whose document names no supplier is set, but teaches nothing, because a reference for “any supplier” would match that part on every other supplier’s lines.

If the supplier’s reference is already mapped to a different article, Trackberry asks first: Progum’s OR-2-369 is mapped to 1004; change it to 1007? Choose Change the mapping or Keep it.

When lines are matched again #

Lines are matched again after a catalogue import, after a reference is added, changed, confirmed or deleted, and after a supplier changes. This covers open shipments only: archived shipments and those already in the warehouse keep their lines. A pick you made is never overwritten, not by a later run and not by reading the document again.

FAQ #

Why is there no Products entry in my menu? #

The catalogue is off for your organization. An admin can turn it on under Organization settings, General, Product catalogue. It is on by default for general goods and off for produce.

The import skipped a supplier reference. Why? #

The preview gives the reason. The usual ones are a supplier it could not match to a single company, a reference naming your own company as the supplier, or a conversion factor that is not a positive number. Fix the file, or add the reference on the product by hand.

A line says “Choose…” but the article is in my ERP. #

It is probably not in Trackberry yet. Import the catalogue again, or search the catalogue by the supplier’s reference. Lines still to map are matched again after an import.

Two articles have the same supplier reference. #

A reference can point to only one product. The import keeps the first, or the one you set yourself, and lists the conflict in the preview.

Will a re-import undo my corrections? #

No. A reference you added or changed is a correction and is never overwritten by an import. One you only confirmed can be repointed by a later import.

Can I match lines to an order as well? #

Yes. Load your open purchase-order lines and invoices that print your order number are matched through them, and checked against the order. See Purchase Orders. To receive the files that start it all, see Receiving Shipments.