Before a part can be placed into a TSM Job Card it needs to exist in the products database. The Products Maintenance module is located in the Action menu → Product → Product as well as in the Task Bar.

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1. Press “New” at the top of the Product maintenance screen<
2. Enter the Product ID and Description<
3. Enter the Tax Code<
4. On the Pricing tab enter the cost of the product (if available)<
5. Enter the sell Price of the product in the Price 1 category<
6. Press “Save”<

This is the bare minimum of information required for a useful Product record in TSM.

The product module contains several other useful features which can be useful in various circumstances.

There are several fields available for recording additional product information that will help you categorise and search for parts in TSM as well as manage stock orders.

These options can be extremely useful in reporting where the business needs to see the costs or returns associated with particular types of items used in their operations. For instance, to retrieve information about wiring used on jobs, the user is potentially confronted with dozens if nor more individual product codes for various types of cable. If all these products were somehow labelled as “WIRE”, the reporting and searching task is reduced to simply look for that tag greatly reducing the time it would take.

Tip: A simple way of categorising products is through Product ID prefixing. The Quick-search function can then be employed to quickly browse to a list of products tagged for a certain category. The brand-name is often used for this purpose for instance a prefix of “CLP” for Clipsal-brand products, when typed into the Product ID field of the Product Maintenance module will take the user to the first item in a list of Clipsal Products. The arrow buttons can then be used to quickly browse to the desired item.

The simplest way to categorise parts in TSM will be the Category List found on the lower left of the Products tab. It is predefined so no further configuration is required. The following options can be selected:

• Equipment<
• Spare Part<
• Consumable<
• Accessories<
• Service<
• Expense<

The Category option is used to filter product lists. You will find it in two locations on the Products Module:

1. At the top of the Products Maintenance module, just below the Description – the dropdown labelled “Show”. Setting this option to something will limit the products viewable to those of the selected Category. Quick-searching by typing the beginning of the desired Product ID into the Product ID field will also limit results to only products of the selected Category.<
2. In the Search screen for the Products Maintenance module. The principle is the same: search results based on whatever criteria specified will be limited to parts for the selected Category.<

Setting the Show dropdown back to “All Products” will return the module to normal operation.

These 4 fields can be used to set up a product categorisation hierarchy up to 4 levels deep with Product Type, Subtype and Manufacturer being customisable drop-down lists and Model (found in the top right of the screen) being a free-text field. All four fields are searchable and can be used in filtering reports.

Remember that you can view the Code Setup screen for dropdown lists by right-clicking on them. This allows you to quickly add Types and Manufacturers.

In a case where a newer model of a product needs to supersede an older model in TSM the following procedure can be followed to ensure that old products are not mistakenly added to any new jobs:

1. Bring up the Product Maintenance Module and browse to the product you need to expire<
2. Tick the “expired” box in the bottom right<
3. Enter the replacement Product ID in the Replacement Part Number field. You can search for it by pressing on the looking glass button<
4. Press Save<

You will notice that if you attempt to add this part to a job in the future, a warning message will appear offering to use the replacement Product ID.

There are 3 ways a product can be priced in TSM: simple, price-code driven and promotional.

1. Bring up the necessary product using the Product Maintenance module.<
2. Click on the Pricing Tab.<
3. Enter the product’s cost – you can see that there are 2 fields for it – one for inc one for ex GST. Whichever field you use – the other will display the corresponding value.<
4. Enter the Price – use the fields labelled “Price 1”. Once again you can use the inc or ex tax field. Additionally there is a percentage markup field which will automatically populate the Price inc and ex fields with the marked-up values.<
5. Press Save.<

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This feature automates Price markups for customers grouped by Price Code. You will need to set the price code for each individual customer in the database. The setting for this is located on the Customer Info tab in Contact Maintenance. There are 5 customer price groups available. This feature works when adding parts to a job for a billing customer set to a particular price code 1-5. If a markup price is located for it in the Pricing tab of Product Maintenance, it is used instead of Price 1. If the customer’s price code is set to something other than 0 or 1 but the price code line for that particular product’s corresponding price code is blank, the default Price 1 is used. Likewise if the customer’s Price Code is set to 0 or 1, TSM will use Price 1 for any products added to that customer’s jobs.

The simple pricing steps 1-3 still apply. Steps 4 & 5 will have to be repeated for each desired price level.

Note: You will notice that to be able to enter the price inc or ex again, you first have to zero out the markup percentage and press TAB.

Additionally, there is an option for a Promotional price code and its expiry date, which can be used in conjunction with some sort of a promotional drive for a product that ensures that all groups of customers get the product at a particular price code. This price code will be used every time this product is added to a job for any customer.

This tab allows the linking of an image file and description. Use the Add Image and Clear image button to assign & unassign an image file to this product record.

For a full description of this tab’s functionality, see the TSM Manual.

There is an option at the bottom of the screen to prevent the product’s document from being automatically linked to jobs. Unticking this option will ensure that the selected document will automatically be attached to any jobs this product is added to. This feature can be used for automatically attaching mandatory warranty or similar documents to jobs where they may be needed for reference.