Products

General Tab

Manufacturer

The dropdown menu lists all the Manufacturers in your Catalog. Click the "New" link to create a new Manufacturer. This is a required field.

Model

This displays the Model number of the Product. This is a required field.

Category

The dropdown menu lists all the Categories in your Catalog. Click the "New" link to create a new Category. This is a required field.

Subcategory

The dropdown menu lists all the Subcategories in your Catalog. Click the "New" link to create a new Subcategory.

Image

Here you can add an image to a Product. You can use the Add, Paste, Clear functions or you can drag and drop images directly into the field.

URL

Here you can set the link to a webpage for the product.

Part Number

Here you can enter in something other than the Model number to identify a Product.

Accounting Item Name

This field will display the QuickBooks Item Number when using our QuickBooks Integration. You can also manually enter an "accounting ID" from your own accounting software.

System

Here you can assign a System to the Product. When adding the Product to a Project, if the assigned System does not exist in the Project the System will be added to the Project. System selections in the Drop Zone within a Project will override this setting.

Status

Here you can mark a product as Discontinued or Approved. Discontinued can be used to keep a Product in your Catalog, but not have it display on forms by default. Approved data automatically synchronizes to your SI Server for use by all User, unchecking this setting keeps your data changes local to your machine.

Bulk Item

Here you can designate a product as a "bulk item". Bulk Items will maintain their quantities when a project is converted from a Quantity-Based Project to a Unit-Based Project.

Show in Product Details Report

Here you can choose whether or not this item will display in the Product Details report. You will likely only want to check "primary" equipment, e.g. check this for Amplifiers or Projectors but don't check this box for wire and cable or for brackets.

Include in Service Plan

When this box is checked you will be prompted to add the Product as a Project Item when creating a Service Plan. Within a Project, this option will be on the Service Plans tab.

Publish to Mobile Install

When this box is checked, the Product will be included in the list of Products and Labor Items that you can Publish to Mobile Install for use with Site Items. Click here for details.

Description Tab

Short Description

Here you can enter a brief description for a Product for use on "internal" vs. client reports. Maximum of 255 characters.

Long Description

Here you can enter a longer description for a Product. When this field is populated, all client reports will use this description. If this field is blank, client reports will use the Short Description field.

You can change the setting on whether or not to use the Long Description field on Client Reports via Report Settings.

You can insert Snippets.

You can Check Spelling:

You can change the case of whatever you have selected in the Long Description field. Your options are: Upper, Lower, Title, and Sentence.

Tags

Here you can add tags to help identify Products while searching.

Price Tab

Here you can choose to use the Standard (see below) or Calculated option for setting your cost and price.

MSRP

Here you can enter the "manufacturers suggested retail price". This does not add any value to the Product. Use this as a reference point for how you set your Unit Cost and/or Unit Price. The MSRP field is commonly used in Price Rules.

Owner Furnished Equipment

Checking this option will zero out the Unit Cost and Unit Price for a Product for all Price Types. If charging for labor using Phase and Labor Hours, the labor will still be charged for the Product. See Labor Considerations.

Price Type

There are 50 Price Types available. In this example there are three displaying and they are named: Retail, Builder, and Custom. Many users just set one Unit Cost and Unit Price per Product.

There are six fields available for each Price Type:

Partner Set Cost

This field will display a checkmark if you are connected to a Vendor Partner and the Unit Cost was set via an update.

Unit Cost

How much the Product costs you

Unit Cost (With Tax)

This displays the Unit Cost with tax if a Use Tax is set for the Product.

Unit Price

How much you sell the Product for

Margin

Margin =(1 - (Unit Cost / Unit Price)) x 100. This field calculates automatically for you based off of the Unit Cost and Unit Price. See "Pricing Settings" below.

Markup

Markup = (Unit Price - Unit Cost) / Unit Cost * 100%. This field calculates automatically for you based off of the Unit Cost and Unit Price. See "Pricing Settings" below.

Phase

Here you can assign a Phase to a Product, generally something like: Rough-In, Trim, or Finish. Phases can determine what labor rate should be applied to the Product multiplied by the Labor Hours (see below). See Labor Considerations for more information regarding charging for labor this way. See Phases for labor rate settings.

Labor Hours

Here can add the number of hours you estimate (or know) that it will take to install a Product. When used in conjunction with the Phase field, labor may be calculated depending on how you have chosen to charge for labor in SI. See Labor Considerations for more information.

Taxable

This determines whether a Product is taxable. This field will be replaced with two dropdown fields, Tax and Labor Tax, depending on your Tax Settings.

Use Tax

This allows you to apply tax to the Unit Cost of a Product. Click here for details.

Price Settings

Here you can choose the behavior of other price fields when you change the Unit Cost field. Click here for details.

Price Rules

Clicking this link will allow you to use Price Rules to set the pricing fields for the Product. See Price Rules.

Manage Product Price Types

Clicking this will allow you to manage your 12 available Price Types.

UOM for Partner Cost

Here you can choose from three options.

Default = Use Partner UOM. If a product has a unit of measure (UOM) from a Vendor Partner, the Unit Cost of the product will be divided by the UOM when you update pricing from the Vendor Partner. If for any reason you prefer to manually set your UOM Units in SI vs. relying on the Vendor Partner data, choose the "Use SI UOM" option. Lastly, if you do not want the Unit Cost from a Vendor Partner to be divided by UOM at all, choose "Ignore UOM".

Estimated Installation Price

Clicking the "View" link in this column will show you the estimated installation price for the Product which will include labor, taxes, and Price Adjustments if applicable.

Order Tab

Do Not Order

This option will filter out the products when creating Purchase Orders.

Preferred Vendor

This field will display the QuickBooks Vendor when using our QuickBooks Integration. You can also manually enter a vendor from your own accounting software.

Purchase Cost

This field is where you can enter the purchase cost for a product if it varies from your Unit Cost. When populated, this value will be used for the Unit Price when products are added to a Purchase Order, overriding the Unit Cost of the Product if added from a Project. This can be for bulk wire to avoid rounding issues or it can be used if you purchase a product in a different currency than your default currency. If you are getting your pricing from Vendor Partners, this field will automatically be set for you for bulk items with the Unit Cost not divided by the unit of measure.

Purchase Currency

If you do purchase a product in a different currency than your default currency, designate the currency here.

Partner Set Purchase Cost

This field will automatically be set if the Purchase Cost was provided by a Vendor Partner.

Order this product in a different unit than you sell

This option allows you to identify products in your catalog that are bought in different units than they are sold. This is useful for creating Purchase Orders so that accurate quantities are calculated. Examples are speakers that you buy in pairs, but sell as singles. This method is recommended in SI if you are utilizing the drawing functionality in Visio/AutoCAD. This way you will get a unique shape (and Component ID) for each speaker. Also bulk wire is another example of something that we recommend you sell by the foot, but you buy the wire on spools of some length.

Order UOM

Here you can enter your Unit of Measure for the product.

Number of units in Order UOM

Here you can enter the number of units in your Unit of Measure.

Specifications Tab

Height

Here you enter the Height of the Product. Enter in any field to calculate inches, millimeters and centimeters.

Width

Here you enter the Width of the Product. Enter in any field to calculate inches, millimeters and centimeters.

Depth

Here you enter the Depth of the Product. Enter in any field to calculate inches, millimeters and centimeters.

Weight

Here you enter the Weight of the Product. Enter in any field to calculate pounds, kilograms and ounces.

Rack Mounted

Checking this box change the look of the Elevation shape/block for the Product.

Rack Units

This must be filled in for racks in your Catalog in order to use the SI Elevation Rack shape in the Visio interface. You can certainly fill this in for any other Products where you want to track the height in rack units in addition to actual height, or use the [Compute] button to calculate it for you based on Height.

Amps

Here you enter the Amperage of the Product.

Volts

Here you enter the Voltage of the Product.

Watts

Here you enter the Wattage of the Product.

BTU

Here you enter the BTU / hour of the Product.

PoE (Power over Ethernet)

These fields are used in the PoE View within the Project Editor to assist with making associations between Power Source Equipment (PSEs) and Powered Devices (PSs).

PoE Type

By default this is set to "None" for all products but here is where you can set a product as a PSE (Power Source Equipment) or a PD (Powered Device).

Power Budget

Set the power budget in Watts for a PSE. This is a required field for products marked as a PSE.

Available Ports

Read-only field that displays how many PoE ports the device has available, i.e. those not assoicated to a PD.

Min. PoE Class

Set the minimum PoE Class for a PD. This is a required field for products marked as a PD.

I/O's Tab

This displays the Inputs and Outputs (I/O's) assigned to a Product. There are buttons for adding/deleting/etc. For details on all of the functions, click here to see the I/O Studio page. I/O's are used to populate the Schematic shape/block in our Visio and AutoCAD interfaces.

Custom Fields Tab

Here you can set Custom Fields for a Product. There are five Short Text fields, three number fields, three date fields, and three long text fields. Clicking the Manage Custom Fields link will allow you to name these fields.

Accessories Tab

Here you can add Products and/or Labor Items to a Product. Click here to learn about Accessories.

Alternates Tab

Here you can add Alternate Products to a Product. Click here for details.

Large Image Tab

Here you can add a larger image than the thumbnail image that displays on the General Tab. This image is what will be used in Visio when creating a Line View Page. You can use the "Find in D-Tools Library" or "Find in Google Images" links to help you find an image. Use the Add, Paste, and Clear links to manage your image.

Generate thumbnail from large image - This will generate a smaller image on the General Tab that will be used in some Proposal Reports. If you want to maintain separate images, uncheck this box. Default is checked.

Shapes and Blocks Tab

Here you can set overrides for the default Visio Shapes and AutoCAD Blocks that drop on pages in our Visio and AutoCAD interfaces. You can override the defaults for all Page Types: Line, Elevation, Plan, Schematic, and the side view that displays on Elevation pages. You can use other SI Visio Shapes/AutoCAD Blocks or your own custom shapes/blocks. You can use the [Assign] and [Clear] buttons to manage your selections.

Another way to manage your shape assignments is directly in the Visio Interface: Assign Shapes to Categories, Assign Categories to Shapes, Assign Product and Category.

Check Partner Price

If the Product is from a Vendor Partner you can click this button to update the Unit Cost to the current value from the Vendor.

Find Usages

Here you can find all usages of the product in your existing Projects, Purchase Orders, and Service Orders.

Web Tab

The Web tab allows you to search online for more information about a product.

URL

This opens a browser to whatever link you have in the URL field on the General tab. 

Library

This opens a browser to this product within the D-Tools Library viewer.

Google

The search is based on the Manufacturer and Model fields. You can choose between Search, Products, or Images.

Amazon

This searches Amazon based on Manufacturer and Model.