To create an Inventory file, you must have Banana Accounting Plus installed and follow the steps described below.

Create a new file

For a quick and easy start, we recommend starting with one of our predefined templates and then customising it, rather than starting with a blank file.

Take the following steps:

• Menu File > New
• Select Region and language
• Select the Inventory type.

Set the basic data

Via File > File and accounting properties ... (Base data) set up your inventory data.

Set up the Articles table

In the Items table set the list of all your items.

For each item you must enter:

• The Id to identify the item. You can use numbers, letters or both.
• The description.
• The initial quantity.
• Initial price.
• Unit price.

Once the data has been entered, the program automatically updates the values of all the columns of the Items table.

Set up the Locations table

If your company manages several inventories located in different locations, you can manage the incoming, outgoing and transfers of items for all inventories by setting the locations. You will be able to find out how many items with their relative values are in each inventory and evaluate whether it is necessary to transfer the goods from one inventory to another depending on the stock and sales requests.

In the Locations table you must enter:

• the Id to identify the location
• The description

Enter the movements of the articles

In the Transactions table enter purchases, sales and any transfers from one inventory to another.

• Enter the date
• Enter the date
• The quantity in or out

Everything is done! The columns of the values will be updated automatically, at the same time also in the Articles table.

Item cards and reports

From the Report menu, Item cards you can get the cards of each item individually, by selection or for all items.

You can also get reports by item group and also by inventory location. The options are found in the Inventory cards dialog.

In the menu File → File properties (Basic data) set the data of your inventory.

File base data

Enter the inventory header.

Address

Enter the inventory address.

Other

The Other section contains the following options:

Current language
Is the current language of the inventory file.

Creation language
It is the language in which the inventory file was created.

Extensions
Link to any extensions for custom reports.

Password

Enter any password to make the file more secure.

Texts

To make changes to the texts and keys of the inventory application.

In the Items table, enter all the inventory items which need to be managed, along with their respective quantities and purchase values.

Create the items list 

In the Items table, all the available items in the warehouse are recorded. Each item is entered individually on each row. To total the amounts for a group of items, a totalization group must be entered.

The group is defined in the Group column, at the end of the list of items of the same category. The group number must be reported in the Sum in column for each item.
For further information on the grouping system, please refer to the Grouping System page

You can create further groups of items depending on your requirements.

To complete the registration of the items it is necessary to enter:

• The Id to identify the item.
• The description.
• The initial quantity.
• The initial price.
• The unit price.

Items table columns

The command Data > Columns setup allows you to add additional columns as needed (for example, an additional description or product expiration date).

Default columns:

Columns marked with "*" are protected and calculated by the program.

• Links
  Link to a digital document.
• RowGroup
  Column and row to enter the totaling group of a given set of items.
• RowId
  Enter a value (number, letters or both) to identify the item.
  When it is entered in the Transactions table, the item description and unit price are automatically added.
• Description
  Enter a text for the description of the item.
• Sum in (in the arrange columns it is written RowGroupIn)
  Enter the totaling group for each item in this column.
• Notes
  You can insert texts for annotations on items or for other needs.
• Account
  Enter the account present in the main accounting file that refers to the item.
• ReferenceUnit
  Insert an abbreviation to indicate the unit (eg pcs to indicate the pieces).
• QuantityBegin
  Enter the initial quantities referring to the total.
  If you want to manage separate quantities by locations, leave this column blank, and enter the initial quantities as entry transactions, with the corresponding location.
• UnitPriceBegin
  Initial unit price
  If you want to manage separate quantities for locations, leave this column blank and enter initial quantities as entry transactions, specifying the respective location.
• *Valuebegin
  Initial item value calculated by multiplying the Initial Quantity and Initial Unit Price.
• *QuantityPlus
  Total quantity of items resulting from the sum of the Quantity Plus in the Transactions table. Both the positive and negative values are added. The internal movements between two locations are not added up, when there is TransferId indicated.
• *QuantityMinus
  Total quantity of items resulting from the sum of the QuantityMinus in the Transactions table.Both the positive and negative values are added.The internal movements between two locations are not added up, when there is TransferId indicated.
• *QuantityChange
  Difference between the item's inbound and outbound quantities.
• *QuantityBalance
  Quantity of items currently in stock. Sum of the starting quantity and the Quantity change.
• UnitPrice
  Unit price of the item, must be entered manually:
  • When the purchase value of an item changes compared to the initial price, it must be updated in this column.
  • This value is used in the Transactions table to calculate the value of incoming or outgoing goods
  • Updates the total value of the item based on the quantities in stock.
• *AmountTotal
  Amount calculated by the program based on quantities and unit price. (last purchase price)
• ItemQuantityEffective
  For insertion of actual quantity when inventory has been done.
• ItemPriceEffective
  The actual quantity multiplied by the actual price.
• *ItemValueEffective
  The actual quantity multiplied by the actual price

This is the table where the movements of the items are recorded:

• Purchases
• Sales
• Transfers from one warehouse to another, in case you are running several warehouses.

By inserting the movements, the Items table is also automatically updated, in relation to the quantities and corresponding values of the items.

If several warehouses (headquarters and branches) are run simultaneously, the ID codes, set in the Locations, can be recorded, which will refer to the places where the warehouses are located, in order to keep track of the internal movements of the articles.

The ID abbreviations must be entered in the Locations and Transfer columns of the Transactions table. If they are not visible, they can be displayed via the Data → Columns setup menu.

Transactions table columns

• Links
  Link to a digital document.
• Date
  The date of the operation.
• Doc.
  Document number (e.g. delivery note number).
• ItemsId
  Numeric or alphanumeric value to identify the item.
• ItemsDescription
  Text taken automatically from the Id column of the Items table for the description.
• Description
  Text to be entered for the description of the items.
• Notes
  In the column you can enter notes about the items or for any other requirement.
• QuantityPlus
  Value to indicate the quantities of incoming items, purchased or transferred from other inventories.
• QuantityMinus
  Value to indicate the quantities of items that are outbound, sold or transferred to other inventories.
• ReferenceUnit
  Abbreviation to indicate the type of unit.
• UnitPrice
  The price of the item with which the total value of the items is calculated, based on quantities.
• AmountTotal
  Total value of the items purchased, sold or transferred.
• LocationsId
  Identification of the place where the Inventory is located and from which the items enter or leave.
• LocationsDescription
  Name of the place where the inventory is located, from which the items come in or out.
• LocationsTransferId
  Code of the place where the inventory is located for which the items are intended.
  It works the opposite way to the LocationsId.
  • If there is an entry to LocationsId, there will be an exit to LocationTransferld.
  • If there is an exit from the LocationsTransferId there will be an entry.
  • If LocationsTransferId is indicated, but the LocationsId is left empty, the program will still consider it as an internal movement without a specific LocationsId.
• LocationsTransferDescription
  Name of the place where the inventory is located, from which the items arrive or leave, to or from another inventory.

The Locations table is used when the company has goods in different places or to keep track of incoming goods, goods to be shipped, etc. (see virtual warehouses below). You can also use locations to know if you have given goods on consignment, loan, or for other purposes.

In order to take into account the total number of items in and out of all inventories, by entering the ID for the locations in the Transactions table, in the columns Location and Transfer all the values of the items are known, also for a single warehouse and the relative movements.

Refer to the Transactions table for further information.

Places table columns

• RowId
  Identification of the location where the inventory is located.
• Description
  Name of the location where the inventory is located.
• Notes
  You can insert text for notes.

Locations and Virtual Warehouses

The Locations table is used to indicate where the warehouses are located, including virtual ones.

You can also set up virtual warehouses to keep track of orders or other purposes. For example:

• To Ship
  For ordered products waiting to be shipped.
• To Pick Up
  Products the customer needs to collect.
• To Reserve
  Waiting for the customer to decide whether to place the order.
• Incoming
  Products that have been ordered from the supplier and are awaiting arrival.
• Returns
  Products the customer has indicated they want to return.
• Trial
  Products provided to customers for testing, which have not yet been sold.

By using virtual locations, you can also manage more complex workflows, for example simulating that goods are in production, quality control, etc. See Advanced features.

Everything you see on video can be printed as a report, since, after each transaction, all values are updated.

You can print the table data from the File menu → Print command. Data can also be exported in PDF, Excel, XML, HTML, TXT and JsonCsv formats.

Reports are run from the Reports menu → Item cards command. You can obtain:

• Journal of a selected item or items.
• Complete journal of all items.
• Journal of items of a particular inventory location, in case there are multiple locations.

Inventory report

Note

To obtain the total of the articles for each location and the final balance of the articles, you need to group by article and by location.
If you want to manage separate quantities by locations, enter the initial quantities as entry transactions, with the corresponding location and don't use the column Quantity Begin in the Items table.

The warehouse application can also be used for very advanced purposes.

Customer / project management

To find out to which customers a product has been sold or given, you can proceed as follows:

• Add a column in the Transactions table, where you enter the name of the customer / project.
• Add a table where you list the customers and assign a code.
  • Add a column in the Transactions table that is linked to the customer.

You can add as many columns / tables as you wish to keep track of projects, suppliers or other.

To filter the transactions carried out by a customer, go to the Transactions table and in the column Customers or Projects, use one of the following commands: Extract and sort rows; right-click on the customer cell and choose Extract rows; use the filter function.

 Online Shop / Virtual Stores

If you operate an online shop, you can use the Locations table to define virtual warehouses, where you can indicate the goods to be shipped, incoming, reserved, etc.

Here some cases:

• Online purchase of goods by a customer.
  • As soon as the order is received, you record a movement between the physical warehouse and the virtual warehouse called "Dispatch".
  • When the goods are then physically dispatched, you record the outward movement from the warehouse called "Dispatch".
•  Ordering goods from a supplier.
  • When you order goods, you record an incoming movement to the virtual warehouse called "Arrivals".
  • When the goods arrive, record the movement from Arrivals to the main warehouse.

By creating other virtual locations, you can also manage more complex workflows.

Importing data

With the import command you can take data from other programmes, in any of the following ways:

• Open the file in Excel and arrange the columns as you have them in Banana and then use copy and paste.
  You can also create a view, setting the columns in which to report movements.
• Prepare extensions that import and convert data from existing formats.