Help System

A Tutorial On Retail Item and Food Service Assemblies

The Trak Pro Point Of Sale module uses the concepts of an "Assembly" to sell retail items and food service items.  Retail Item Assemblies and Food Service Assemblies are built and managed a little differently, but the over-all concept of just what an "Assembly" is applies to both.

An "Assembly" is a pre-defined collection of Inventory Items that is sold as a UNIT at the Point Of Sale.

First, a simple rule to understand:  EVERYTHING you sell as RETAIL or FOOD SERVICE is treated as an "Assembly".  Everything.  There are no exceptions.  Let's look at some examples, and we will begin with FOOD SERVICE items, because everyone is familiar with eating!

Food Service Background:

We run a concession stand at our establishment, and on the menu we serve 3 kinds of Hamburgers.  We offer plain hamburgers, cheeseburgers and double cheeseburgers.

In order to make and serve these items, we have to keep some stuff in inventory, stuff that we would never sell individually at the Point of Sale.  We would create and enter the inventory that our kitchen has to keep, something like this:

Notice how we just enter one record for each item, which should make sense.  Now, since no one is every going to walk up to your counter and ask to purchase a single paper wrapper, and nothing else, let's see how we are going to put these inventory items together in different combinations to sell them:

Pictured on the left is a "Hamburger Assembly" Not too surprisingly, it takes 1 bun, 1 patty and 1 wrapper to create and serve a burger. When we SELL ONE burger, we want the system to be smart enough to pull the THREE items out of inventory it took to build the burger.

Pictured on the left is a "Cheeseburger Assembly" Not too surprisingly, it takes 1 bun, 1 patty, 1 slice of cheese and 1 wrapper to create and serve a cheese burger. When we SELL ONE cheeseburger, we want the system to be smart enough to pull the FOUR items out of inventory it took to build the cheese burger.

Pictured on the left is a "Double Cheeseburger Assembly" Not too surprisingly, it takes 1 bun, 2 patties, 1 slice of cheese and 1 wrapper to create and serve a double cheese burger. When we SELL ONE double cheeseburger, we want the system to be smart enough to pull the FIVE items out of inventory it took to build the double cheese burger.

So, when the POS Module displays a button labeled CHEESE BURGER - $4.50, what we REALLY mean for the button to do is to charge the customer $4.50 for the collection of 1 bun, 1 patty, 1 cheese slice and 1 paper wrapper.  Take a look below at this FOOD SERVICE MENU ITEM RECORD:

Notice how the four inventory items that go into the construction of this burger are detailed.  Notice too that the program shows that there are only enough items in stock to serve 950 cheeseburgers, if all your stock was devoted strictly to cheeseburgers.  This is how Trak Pro represents your food service items as an "Assembly".   This is still the case, EVEN IF YOUR FOOD SERVICE ITEM CONSISTS OF ONLY ONE THING!

Retail Sales Background:

We run a special combo promotion for those rabid Chicken Hawks fans.  We offer a "Fan Pack" that consists of a Chicken Hawks Tee Shirt, a Chicken Hawks Ball cap and a souvenir bat.  We DO sell these things individually, but if they buy the combo of all three, they get a better price.

In order to offer these items, we have to keep some stuff in inventory.  We would create and enter the inventory that our gift shop has to keep, something like this:

Notice how we just enter one record for each item, which should make sense.  Now, since no one is every going to walk up to your counter and ask to purchase a single paper wrapper, and nothing else, let's see how we are going to put these inventory items together in different combinations to sell them:

Pictured on the left is our "Fan Pack" Assembly Not too surprisingly, it takes 1 shirt, 1 cap and 1 baseball bat to create a Fan Pack. When we SELL ONE Fan Pack, we want the system to be smart enough to pull the THREE items out of inventory it took to make it.

So, when the POS Module displays a button labeled FAN PACK - $34.99, what we REALLY mean for the button to do is to charge the customer $34.99 for the collection of 1 shirt, 1 cap and 1 baseball bat.  Take a look below at this RETAIL SALES ASSEMBLY:

Notice how the three inventory items that go into the construction of this Fan Pack are detailed.  Notice too that the program shows that there are only enough items in stock to sell 10 Fan Packs, if all your stock was devoted strictly to them.  This is how Trak Pro represents your retail sales items as an "Assembly".   This is still the case, EVEN IF YOUR RETAIL SALES ITEM CONSISTS OF ONLY ONE THING!

See Also:

Assembly Records
Inventory Records
Food Service Menu Item