Bulk oil inventory control

[VCAC239]

Good morning. I've been wondering how different shops deal with inventory, when it comes to bulk oil. I use the bayboxes from NAPA, which are a 24 qt unit. Is there a way for me too be able to have the inventory know that when I order a part number say, 869933 " The 5w-30 part number from NAPA", that this unit contains 24 qts. I actually use another part number "5W-30" on my R.O."s for ease of use. Thanks in advance.

[ricmorin]

What I have been doing is including the quantity in the description. That way it's easy to see how it comes or how it's dispensed, for example: You purchase the oil in 24 quart boxes and sell by the quart. In the description you add '1 qt. = .04' and each quart is billed a quantity of .04. In this case, you reorder 1 to get another 24 quarts. I like to do it this way when the division works out evenly. Another example is OEM antifreeze. I buy that by the gallon so in the description I have added 'gallon' . If I sell a quart then it's .25. Where it gets tricky is when you buy the oil in 24 quart packages but sell by the quart and '1' = a quart. You need to remember that you need to order 24. Another twist comes when ordering electronically. I usually put a note on the part record for these cases but try to avoid that scenario. My first choice is always to work from how I buy it.

With bulk oil, I have 55 gallon drums. I sell by the quart and '1' = a quart, therefor I buy drums at 220 items and order it that way. No electronic ordering with them so it works ok. There would be no way you could sell quarts by the fraction because it doesn't divide evenly; 1 = .0045 and the program only goes 2 places.

In your case, you could choose either way, but including the choice in the description field puts everyone on notice and hopefully it's applied correctly.

There was some talk about beefing up the program in this area a while ago. I don't know how much traction it got.

[VCAC239]

Thanks for getting back to me. I'll look into that.