Often during transaction entry, users need specific information that might typically require a dedicated report. For instance, when creating a Sales Order, a user needs to know the remaining stock of an item in that specific warehouse location. Alternatively, a sales representative might be contacted by a customer inquiring about product pricing and availability at the store.
This often leaves users wondering which report can provide such comprehensive information within iDempiere. Fortunately, iDempiere provides a solution to view this data quickly through a built-in Info Window feature called Product Info.
What is Product Info, and how do you use it?
How to Access Product Info?
Since Product Info is an Info Window, it is not included in the standard Menu list. Instead, it can be accessed by navigating to Home > Views > Product Info.
Finally, Product Info can always be accessed directly from any Product input field—such as in a Sales Order Line or Purchase Order Line—by clicking the cart icon (or a blue box, depending on your iDempiere configuration and version).
What is Product Info?
Product Info is a dedicated information view for products, designed differently from the standard transaction entry menus. The data is presented in a table format with rows and columns to make information easier to read, featuring several columns that can be used to filter and select the exact details you want to display.
If you wonder how it differs from the standard Product menu, the answer lies in its flexibility: Product Info allows you to search much more freely using the built-in filters directly on the screen.
At the very top of the Product Info view, there are numerous fields that can be used as filters. Unlike the standard Product menu, it includes unique filters such as Warehouse, Vendor, and Price List Version.
What are the functions of these three filters?
If the Warehouse filter is populated with a specific warehouse, the system will display columns containing stock information for the listed products, such as Available Quantity, On Hand Quantity, and more.
If the Price List Version filter is populated, it will also display columns containing the pricing for that specific product. A Price List Version represents the specific version of the price list being used, which holds the pricing for each individual product. These versions can be maintained based on their effective dates, allowing them to be continuously updated without losing the historical price list records.
The Vendor column here refers to the Purchasing tab in the Product menu, which contains information regarding where the product is sourced from. In the Purchasing tab, you can populate purchasing details such as price, minimum order quantity, order increments, and the vendor’s name. When you filter by Vendor, the system will look up products purchased from that specific vendor based on the data in the Purchasing tab.
With Product Info, a wealth of information can be retrieved quickly, greatly supporting the sales process. For example, in a real-world scenario we frequently encounter, a store’s sales staff is often contacted by customers who want to check stock availability and compare prices with competitors. Because sales reps receive these inquiries constantly, they need to access the data rapidly, or even provide screenshots to send directly to the customer.
Through Product Info, users can filter by Product Category and select the specific item code to display only the goods the customer is interested in. Then, the Price List Version can be adjusted according to the customer’s tier or type. If a customer is entitled to special pricing, simply select the corresponding Price List Version to display the correct rates. Since these interactions happen quickly, users usually just take a screenshot and send it right away. However, if needed, the Product Info data can also be exported into an Excel file using the export button located at the bottom of the screen.
That covers the utility of Product Info. We will dive deeper into the functions and meanings of each column displayed in Product Info in our next article. Until then, good luck and happy exploring!