When sourcing a specialty printed packaging product for a customer - it is common that the supplier will supply a finished printed product and source the materials required

Normally the printing batch is greater than the customer wants to receive immediately - hence

1. The order on the supplier will normally cover a number of orders from the customer
2. Stock is required to be held in the warehouse
3. The item cannot be sold to other customers (or outside a defined customer group)
4. A deposit is required - to avoid having unsalable stock (cannot sell a printed product to another customer normally)
5. Customer may want "Supply until asked to stop" or "Supply one batch worth and check before ordering more"

In Summary

1. Create a new SKU for the printed product (normally copy from an existing SKU using edit copy, clear, edit paste)
   1. Supplier to be the printer
   2. Lead time to be the required lead time including printing
   3. NOT an Assembly unless
      1. Do you purchase Cartons and supply Sleeves (or inners).  If so then the carton is a Pack with the component the sleeve.
      2. eg: Carton of coffee cups / sleeve of coffee cups - are two different SKU's, no default buy price on sleeve, no supplier SKU on sleeve.
   4. Default buy price to be the price per SKU paid to the supplier (ie the amount paid to the printer)
   5. Default Sell Price to be the price per SKU to the customer
   6. Make it a private SKU - linked to a single company or to a group of companies
2. Decide the status of the SKU
   1. If "Supply until asked to stop" = then set status to ACTIVE  (note - production size must be blank)
   2. if "Supply one batch and check before ordering more" = then set status to RUNOUT (production size must have a value)
3. Create the Deposit Request - see Deposits - specific to individual Items
   1. Enter the total value of the deposit expected
   2. Enter a line for each SKU - link to the SKU - enter preGST price and quantity the deposit covers.  ie if 50% deposit for 100 items at $25 exGST each then enter Qty=100, exGST = $25, Value = $1,250
   3. Notes - a deposit is a special type of payment
      1. it does not show on the customers statement - so it does not reduce their outstanding balance
      2. It does show in the deposit list on the customer - by SKU showing remaining value
      3. it does show in the bank req (like any other payment) to be reconciled
      4. it cannot be allocated to invoices 
      5. Each SKU line on the journal links to the Deposit Control Account
      6. The deposit request print appears to be a request for payment of the deposit - and indicates if the deposit has been cleared at the bank
      7. It can be converted to a general credit on the account (by creating a Credit Note journal to move the funds from the deposit control account)
4. The Purchase Order is a normal purchase order for goods to be received by the warehouse - or drop shipped to the customer
5. Selling the SKU - it can be added to any normal sales order
6. Forecasting
   1. if the SKU is status ACTIVE and does not have a Batch Size - then forecasting will recommend purchase orders like any other SKU
   2. if the SKU is status RUNOUT
      1. the forecast does not attempt to repurchase.  
      2. Sales will be alerted by email (Sales rep and general sales email address) when the stock level drops to a level that repurchase will be required to avoid out of stock for the customer using sell rates over the last 3 months and considering supplier lead time.