Challenges in Managing Templates and Product Bundles in ERPNext

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1

Hello everyone,

We are facing some challenges in using ERPNext for our business, which operates in both wholesale and retail. We have a large number of SKUs, and the current process of customizing templates, creating variants, and setting up product bundles has become very time-consuming and has not yielded the desired results.

The main challenges we are facing are:

  1. Template creation: The process is very time-consuming, and we need a faster and more efficient way to customize templates to fit our business needs.

  2. Variant creation: Defining variants for each product (such as size, color, model) becomes overwhelming when dealing with a large number of SKUs.

  3. Product bundles: Despite the need for product bundles, creating these bundles for each product manually is not practical, especially when dealing with large quantities of SKUs.

We are looking for alternative ideas or solutions, aside from the template and variant creation process, that could help simplify our operations further, particularly in terms of product configuration and SKU management.

Attached is our workflow diagram for better understanding.

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Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

2

to better understand your point, would you mind to provide some sample data and explain in detail the challenges you faced.

3

Thank you for your response.

In our company, we deal with a very large number of shoe SKUs, which include multiple sizes, colors, and models. Initially, we tried using templates and variants to manage our inventory, but the process became extremely time-consuming and impractical for our operations.

Here are the main challenges we faced:
1. Template & Variant Complexity: Creating templates for each shoe model and then defining variants for size and color resulted in an overwhelming number of SKUs. Managing and updating these variants became difficult, especially when introducing new styles or modifications.
2. Product Bundles: We attempted to use product bundles to streamline sales for wholesale clients, but manually creating and maintaining these bundles was inefficient, particularly with the constant changes in our inventory.
3. Operational Inefficiency: The existing approach slowed down our workflow rather than optimizing it. We need a more flexible and scalable method to manage our products without relying heavily on variants and bundles.

We are looking for alternative solutions or best practices to handle our SKU management more efficiently. If you have any suggestions, we would appreciate your insights!

4

We have tried using templates and variants in ERPNext, but the process has become too complex due to the large number of SKUs and variations. Therefore, we need to customize the system to work more efficiently based on the following requirements:

  1. Adding a Subtable Inside the Item Definition:

When creating a new item, it should include a subtable with the following columns:

• Size: Shoe size (e.g., 40, 41, 42,…).

• Color: Shoe color (e.g., Black, Brown, White,…).

• Quantity per Carton: The number of pieces of each size and color in one carton.

• Barcode: A unique barcode for each size and color within the same item.

  1. Sales & Purchase Mechanism:

Retail Sales:

• Sales should be based on the sub-barcode registered in the table (linked to size and color).

• When scanning the barcode, the system should fetch the item and deduct the quantity from the corresponding size and color according to the scanned sub-barcode.

Wholesale Sales & Purchases:

•Sales and purchases should be based on cartons, where the quantity is entered in cartons during purchase or sale.

  1. Stock Balance Should Be Displayed in Both Cartons and Pieces

Stock Entry and Distribution Based on Carton Composition:

When purchasing cartons, the system should automatically distribute the quantity according to the predefined carton composition in the item’s subtable.

Practical Example:

Let’s say we have an item “Sports Shoe Model X” with the following carton composition:

Size Color Quantity per Carton

40 Black 2

41 Black 2

42 Black 2

40 White 2

41 White 2

42 White 2

• When purchasing 5 cartons of this item, the stock should be distributed as follows:

Total Cartons in Stock: 5 cartons.

Total Pieces Recorded in Stock:

Size 40 Black = 5 x 2 = 10 pieces.

Size 41 Black = 5 x 2 = 10 pieces.

Size 42 Black = 5 x 2 = 10 pieces.

Size 40 White = 5 x 2 = 10 pieces.

Size 41 White = 5 x 2 = 10 pieces.

Size 42 White = 5 x 2 = 10 pieces.

Total Pieces in Stock = 60 pieces.

Stock Deduction During Sales Based on Unit Selection:

• Retail Sales: Sales should be based on the sub-barcode linked to size and color, and the quantity should be deducted in pieces.

• Wholesale Sales: Sales should be based on cartons, and the stock should be deducted in cartons.

  1. Customizing Stock Reports to Show Balance in Cartons and Pieces:

The Stock Balance Report should support two views:

  1. Stock in Cartons per item.

  2. Stock in Pieces per size and color.

5

my draft idea is as following

  1. create child table with following fields for Item DocType
    Size, Color, Quantity per Carton, barcode
  2. create stock item Sports Shoe Model X with default UOM as carton, manually input or copy from excel to the above mentioned child table, add custom menu button for auto creating all items in the child table(simulate standard function template->variant), each new item’s default UOM change to piece.
  3. for whole sale business do transactions using item in Carton
  4. for retail, for outward movement e.g delivery note, add one menu button to repack from carton to individual item when actual stock is not enough, click the repack button will jump to Stock Entry form with Purpose Repack, details will be fetched from the item master child table, issue item in Carton and receive item in Piece into stock(this can be fully automated without manual intervention).
  5. for stock balance, for individual item in piece, need to add the quantity in carton and individual stock qty.