Manufacturer, Brand and Supplier: how to keep directories without duplicates

For efficient accounting in Torgsoft, it is important to clearly distinguish between a Supplier and a Manufacturer (Brand). These are different directories that perform different functions in the program.

Below is a detailed explanation of how to tell them apart and maintain them to avoid duplicates.

1. How to distinguish a Supplier, Manufacturer, and Brand?

In Torgsoft, these entities are separated by their purpose:

Supplier (Who sold the product to us?)

• Essence. This is a counterparty (an individual or a legal entity) from whom you purchase goods. It is the party you pay money to and the party to whom a payable (debt) arises.

• Where to find it. Menu Settings — Counterparty (with the “Supplier” flag) or Settings — Supplier.

• What it affects. Settlements (debts), purchase receipts, returns to the supplier.

• Example. You buy Adidas sneakers from the company "Sport-Opt LLC".

• Supplier: "Sport-Opt LLC".

• Manufacturer: Adidas.

Manufacturer (Who made the product?)

• Essence. This is the factory, plant, or trademark that produced the item. This characteristic is constant for the product, regardless of who you bought it from.

• Where to find it. Menu Merchandise Management — Manufacturer.

• What it affects. Product name creation, SKU, label printing, warehouse filtering, and brand popularity analysis.

• Example. Adidas sneakers manufactured in China.

• The directory can have the structure: China (Country) -> Adidas (Brand).

Brand (Trademark)

• Essence. In Torgsoft, the concept of a “Brand” is usually implemented within the Manufacturer directory. The program allows you to build a tree structure where the top level can be a Country and the subordinate level can be a Brand (Trademark).

• How to maintain it. If a brand belongs to a large corporation (for example, P&G produces Ariel and Tide), you can create P&G as the main branch and the brands as sub-branches.

2. How to maintain directories to find products quickly and without duplicates?

The main mistake is mixing suppliers and brands or creating identical entries (for example, "Adidas", "adidas", "Адідас").

Rules for maintaining the “Manufacturer” directory

1.Use hierarchy (Tree). It is recommended to build the structure: Country -> Brand (Manufacturer) -> Collection.

•   This helps avoid duplicates. If you do not know the country, the top level can be the Brand itself.

•   You can move brands between countries using the branch transfer buttons in settings.

2.Manufacturer codes for SKU. In the manufacturer card, you can set a Code (prefix). If automatic SKU generation is enabled in settings, the program will add this code to the product SKU. This helps quickly distinguish products of different brands by SKU.

3.Consistent naming. Agree on a standard input format (for example, Latin only: "Nike" instead of "Найк"). This simplifies searching through filters.

Rules for maintaining the “Supplier” directory

1.One supplier — many brands. Do not create a supplier for each brand (for example, there is no need to create "Adidas Supplier"). Create the real counterparty (for example, "Sole Proprietorship Ivanov"), and when receiving goods, specify this counterparty.

2.Different suppliers — one product. The same product (for example, an iPhone) can be supplied by different suppliers. In the program, it is the same product (one card in the "Full product list"), but in different delivery batches different suppliers will be specified. This allows you to analyze whose goods sell better or where the purchase price is more favorable.

3. How to fix duplicates and bring order?

If you already have duplicates (for example, two manufacturers "Gucci" and "GUCCI"), use the Error Diagnostics tool:

1.Go to Merchandise Management — Error Diagnostics — Directory standardization (or "Product standardization").

2.In the filters, select the “incorrect” manufacturer (for example, "GUCCI").

3.Select all the products that appear.

4.Click Edit and in the "Manufacturer" field select the “correct” one (for example, "Gucci").

5.Click Save. All products will be moved to the correct brand.

6.After that, the empty “incorrect” manufacturer entry can be deleted via the directory.

4. Product search

To quickly find products by these criteria, use the Warehouse — Stock status form:

• Click Filters (F12).

• There are separate fields to select a Supplier (to see what you bought from a specific partner) and a Manufacturer (to see all products of a specific brand, regardless of who delivered them).

Summary:

• Supplier = who you pay money to (financial accounting).

• Manufacturer/Brand = what is on the label (merchandise accounting).

• Never enter a brand name in the "Supplier" field unless it is a direct contract with the factory.