If you use part numbers, Do you have a unique part number assigned

to each of your products/services?

 

 

The MasterQ program can accept up to 20 numbers or letters  as item numbers.  You are not required to print these item numbers on your quotes, but MasterQ needs a way to uniquely identify each item... therefore, you will still need to assign numbers.     If you don't use part numbers... Service companies typically don't think of the items they offer as something that conforms to a part number scenario.  You will still need to assign "numbers" to each service you define, but you do have the option to omit these numbers from the generated quotes if you wish.   Consider the following advice regarding part numbers:

 

 

Assign your own part numbers

.  In most circumstances, you should never use your vendor's part numbers as yours.  Why?  If you use your  vendor's part numbers as your own, you are inviting customers to shop the Internet for other prices & sources.  And what happens if you change suppliers on equivalent commodity type parts? 

 

Use a consistent part number format

.  As an example, your number format could be ##-###, or ###-##-####, or even ####.  But if you keep it consistent, errors will become more obvious.  Cartons in your warehouse may have multiple part numbers on them.  If your part number always follows a particular format, everyone will easily recognize your number.

 

Shorter numbers are better

.  They take less time to write, are easier to remember, and it is less likely digits will be transposed.

 

Each unique part needs it's own unique part number

.  This is a problem that many company's struggle with. You cannot have two items that are not the same using the same part number. 

 

Avoid using certain confusing digits

.  Lower case L's can be mistaken for 1's or upper case I's.  Upper case O's might be the digit 0.  If possible, avoid using lower case letters, and the letter O.  Don't use spaces or punctuation in your part numbers unless it is part of your standard part number format.

 

Don't use punctuation in part numbers

.  No periods or commas and never a space.  Never use quotation marks.  The only exception would be if periods were part of your part-number format.  For example 01.01.2010, but even then we would warn you against this.  Trust us, in the long run, you will regret using special characters.