Now that you've completed your Label Audit training you are on your way to start auditing all of the inventory products in your store. Remember the work you do now, as part of the label audit prepares you for both a full-store inventory before your go-live with Ascend and future success with the Ascend program.
The amount of time the task takes is completely up to you. We recommend having at least one employee solely dedicated to this task. Like we said, it's labor-intensive and requires a lot of focus and energy.
Your installer will reach out regularly during this phase, but don't hesitate to reach out to them, if needed!
Scanning Products
A lot of the label audit scanning process will be similar to a full-store inventory process - but remember during the label audit we are not sending data from the ES660 inventory scanner back to Ascend. That will only be done during the inventory.
Be sure to scan every item that will be coming into Inventory. You want to be sure to scan each item to ensure the label can be scanned and recognized by the scanner and found in Ascend. If it is recognized, you'll receive a Good Beep. Doesn't matter if you have five of the same item, be sure to scan all five.
Addressing Bad Beep/Item Not Found items during the Label Audit helps limit the time you have to spend addressing them during inventory.
Good Beeps
When you receive a Good Beep while scanning items, that means the EA660 inventory scanner recognizes in the Ascend database. Do a quick look at the inventory scanner screen to ensure the items prices also matches what you have the item priced at. If not, you can update the price in Ascend or print a new label from Ascend with the current price in Ascend.
'Bad Beeps' or 'Item Not Found' Error During Scanning
During the scanning process, you may run into the error Item Not Found. You can work on those as they come up, or set some aside and work on them in small batches.
Bad Beeps/Item Not Found can happen for a few different reasons:
- You are scanning a Part Number label. This will not be recognized by the inventory scanner.
- Part Numbers are not unique to a supplier/vendor like a UPC is.
- Ascend In-Store SKUs are unique to your database and can be recognized by the inventory scanner.
- The product file in your inventory scanner needs to be updated. The product has been added to Ascend since you’ve last done this.
- On the inventory scanner, in the scan screen, click the yellow icon (three boxes and a barcode) to update the scanner's product file.
- The label is a Serial Number and either the in-store product is missing from Ascend OR you are scanning with an old scanner.
- The product does not exist in your database at all. You may need to add it using the Cloud Catalog or through Importing a full supplier/vendor catalog.
Searching for Products in your Ascend database
Even though a product was not recognized by the EA660 inventory scanner does not mean it is not in the Ascend database. Always be sure to search first!
- From the Ascend desktop click the DB Explorer tile.
- Be sure your cursor is in the Search box and that Inv Only is unchecked (if checked it will appear in blue).
- Remember when Inv Only is checked it is only searching your database for items that have quantity on hand.
When scanning items directly into Ascend using Super Search, the system will search through all SKUs, UPCs, and Part Numbers to find your product.
If you find the item, verify the price is correct or modify the MSRP in the product record. Print a label from Ascend to place on the product to ensure it will be recognized by the EA660 inventory scanner going forward.
If your search in Ascend returns no results, let's review adding items to your Ascend database.
Adding Products to the Ascend Database
You've received a bad beep and searching in Ascend returned no results. It is time to add the item to the Ascend database. We can do that a few different ways.
Cloud Catalog
Using the Cloud Catalog can help save you time. We have a pretty robust catalog of suppliers/vendors that are available through the Cloud Catalog. Data in the Cloud Catalog also goes back quite a few years to help catch those older/obsolete products.
During Label Audit training you and your installer would have mapped a few suppliers/vendors. If you need to map more, check out this article Ascend HQ - Cloud Product Catalog Set up.
We have the perfect article and video to walk through the Cloud Catalog. Check out, Products - Using the Cloud Product Catalog for the steps to walk through the Cloud Catalog. You can click here to go right to a how to video.
Not able to find the product through the Cloud Catalog? Let's walk through manually create a product (individually) in Ascend.
Create a Product/Item Manually in Ascend (Individually)
Check out our article, Products - Add or Edit for the steps on manually creating a product in the Ascend database. Video: How to: Add an In-Store Product (this is a little older, but the process is still the same).
Remember if the product is old/obsolete and you will never reorder it again, you DO NOT need to associated a Vendor Product to it. If you need to associate a Vendor Product, you can jump to this section of the Products - Add or Edit > Vendor Product of the article.
Q: What is the difference between an In-Store Product and a Vendor Product?
A: An In-Store Product is the actual product being sold in your store, and has a unique UPC and SKU.
A Vendor Product is what you are buying from a Vendor and uses the same UPC but has a vendor-specific Part Number assigned to it. So an In-Store Product might have multiple Vendor Products attached to it, with differences in Cost, Case Quantity, etc.
When you import Vendor Products, the UPC is used to attach ti to an In-Store Product, if one already exists. if no In-Store Product exists for that Vendor Product, Ascend will create one.
See the comparison chart: Products - In-Store Products vs. Vendor Products
Import a Full Supplier/Vendor Catalog
If you do or will be carrying a large range of products from a supplier/vendor, you may want to import the full product catalog from that supplier/vendor. During the label audit we do import quite a bit of full product catalogs to cut down on the number of Bad Beeps/Item Not Found that you receive.
Check out our article, Products - Importing Vendor Products into Ascend
Q: When should I import a vendor product spreadsheet versus a in-store product spreadsheet?
A: A vendor products spreadsheet should be used for your first initial import of a vendor into Ascend. The vendor product will either map itself to its corresponding in-store product if it already exists in your system or create a new in-store product if it does not.
Q: Some of my vendors aren't featured on the Ascend website. What should I do?
A: Start by contacting your sales rep for that company and encourage them to work with Ascend! We are always willing to work directly with vendors to acquire, format, and post new product lists.
But until they do connect with us, you can request a product spreadsheet from the vendor that includes Part Number, Description, UPC, Cost, MSRP, etc.
That spreadsheet can be formatted for Ascend by using our Vendor Product Spreadsheet. Otherwise, you could email the spreadsheet to the Ascend team at lists@ascendrms.com and we'll format it for you. This may just take longer since we get a lot of requests!
KB26