Manage Product Variants

A variant is the record Qoblex actually sells, buys, counts and ships: one size, one colour, one SKU. The variant editor is where everything about that record lives, spread over seven tabs covering identity, stock levels per location, images, price list prices, suppliers, batch or serial records, and the purchase orders already on their way.

This article walks through each tab, the fields that change how the variant behaves elsewhere in Qoblex, and the rules Qoblex enforces when you save. After reading it you will know where to set a variant’s tracking and costing policy, how to give it a supplier with a lead time and a purchase price so it can be reordered and purchased, where the Forecast method lives, and which settings stop being changeable once the variant holds stock.

Before you start

• Create the product and its options first. Variants are added from the product page, covered in Create and Edit Products.
• Bundles and bills of material open their own editors instead of this one, so the tabs below do not apply to them.
• Editing In stock needs a user with access to adjustments, and the Forecast method field only appears for a user with access to forecasting.
• Batch and serial tracking has to be included in your subscription before you can switch a variant onto it.

Open the variant editor

Open the product from the product list, then open the variant from the variants table at the bottom of the product page. Where you click decides which tab you land on:

• The variant’s option values, the row menu’s Edit action, or the Edit details button opens the Settings tab.
• A stock figure in the variants table (In stock, Buffer, Incoming, or the edit icon in the Min inventory column) opens the Inventory tab.
• The variant’s thumbnail image opens the Images tab.
• The Price Lists button on the product’s Pricing panel opens the Price Lists tab.

Every tab stays reachable once the dialog is open, so the starting tab is only a shortcut. Batches / Serials is the exception in the tab strip: it appears only while the variant’s Inventory Tracking Option is something other than Standard.

If stock is already on its way, a banner across the top of the dialog reads “Incoming stock from following purchase orders” and links each purchase order.

Settings tab

Settings holds what identifies and classifies the variant.

1. If the product has options, fill in a value for each one. The boxes suggest values already used on the product, and you can type a new value instead.
2. Enter or look up the HS Code. Typing searches the harmonised system code list, but the box also accepts free text, so anything you type is kept.
3. Choose the Country Code, the variant’s country of origin, from the list.
4. Complete any custom fields your company has defined.

Option values are trimmed of surrounding spaces when they save. Changing them later renames the variant from that point on. Orders and other documents already raised keep the name they were created with, because the name is copied onto the line when the document is made, so a rename does not rewrite your history.

A Custom Fields section appears below when your company has defined product custom fields. Each one renders according to how it was defined: a dropdown when the definition lists options, a date picker with a clear button, a checkbox for a yes or no field, or a plain text box. Fields defined as read-only are shown but cannot be edited. The trash icon beside a field removes that field’s value from this variant after a confirmation, which is not the same as deleting the definition.

Inventory tab

Inventory decides how stock for this variant is tracked and valued, and shows the stock itself per location.

The settings above the table are:

• Inventory tracking policy — Track product inventory or Don’t track inventory. Turning tracking off replaces every stock figure on this variant with N/A.
• Continue selling when out of stock — Yes, continue selling when sold out or No, disallow selling when sold out.
• Inventory Tracking Option — Standard, Batch Tracked or Serial Tracked. This is what adds the Batches / Serials tab and what forces batch or serial numbers to be entered on receipts and shipments.
• Forecast method — Historical Average, Seasonal or Trend. Every variant starts on Historical Average.
• Default unit of measure — shown only when units of measure are enabled for the company.
• Cost tracking policy — Average Cost or First In First Out, the basis Qoblex uses for this variant’s cost of goods sold.
• Dropship — Do Not Dropship, Always Dropship or Optional Dropship.

The Forecast method is set on the variant, here and in the bill-of-material editor. It chooses how the forecasting reports project demand for this variant: Historical Average spreads the sales in the reporting window evenly across its weeks, Seasonal reads the matching weeks of the previous year, and Trend fits the direction recent weekly sales are moving and projects it forward. See Forecasting and Replenishment Planning for how those projections are read and turned into purchase orders.

The location table

One row per location that is set up to hold stock, with these columns:

In stock cannot be edited on a batch-tracked or serial-tracked variant, because the quantity has to be attributed to specific batch or serial numbers. Editing In stock and Buffer both require a user with access to adjustments. Buffer cannot be negative.

Images tab

Images shows every image uploaded to the product. Click one to make it the image for this variant, and click the selected image again to clear the assignment so the variant falls back to the product image. Images are uploaded on the product itself, not here.

Price Lists tab

Price Lists lists this variant’s row on every price list the company has, with a Name and a Price column showing the price list’s own currency symbol. Qoblex creates a row for every price list automatically when a variant is created or updated, so a new variant appears on all of them.

Edit a price in place. The delete icon on a row marks it for removal; nothing is sent to the server until you choose Save & Close, so cancelling the dialog puts the row back. If no price lists are set up, the tab shows “This item is not on any price list”.

Suppliers tab

Suppliers is what makes a variant orderable. Each row names a supplier for this variant and carries the terms you buy it on. Three flows read these rows, and they read different parts of them:

• Reorder and forecasting suggestions take the supplier, the lead time and the purchase price from the row.
• Purchase orders raised from a sales order take the supplier and its currency. If the variant has no row, Qoblex falls back to the product’s own default supplier.
• Dropshipping a sales order line takes the supplier, its currency and its tax class, and the line price from the variant’s own purchase price. There is no fallback here: a variant with no supplier row cannot be dropshipped, and Qoblex stops with Cannot drop ship product {name} because it does not have a supplier.

The columns are Supplier Name, SKU (the supplier’s own code for the item), Purchase Price in the supplier’s currency, Min. Order Qty, Lead Time in days, and Is Default?.

To add a supplier:

1. Choose Add Supplier. A new row appears with the rest of the table switched into edit mode.
2. Pick the supplier from the Select a supplier list. It offers the contacts already saved as suppliers.
3. Fill in the supplier’s SKU, Purchase Price, Min. Order Qty and Lead Time.
4. Tick Is Default? on the row you buy from first.
5. Choose Update Suppliers. While the table is in edit mode this button replaces Save & Close, and it saves the supplier rows on their own without closing the dialog.

The edit icon on a row puts the table into the same edit mode so you can change an existing row. The delete icon removes a saved row from the server straight away, with no confirmation step; a row you have only just added is simply dropped.

Two details are worth knowing when you edit an existing row. Clearing the SKU or setting Purchase Price back to zero leaves the previously saved value in place, so enter the value you want rather than a blank. And the currency shown beside the price, along with the minimum order value Qoblex applies, comes from the supplier contact record, not from this row.

Give every variant you reorder a supplier with a lead time and a purchase price. A variant without them is still planned — the suggestion is produced and flagged with a missing-supplier or missing-lead-time warning, and the dates on it are calculated as though the goods arrived the day you ordered. A missing purchase price is only flagged when the plan is set to pick the cheapest supplier, since that is the only mode that reads cost.

Batches / Serials tab

This tab appears when the variant’s Inventory Tracking Option is Batch Tracked or Serial Tracked, and lists the variant’s batch or serial records with Number, Location, Quantity, Reserved Qty and Expires At.

• Narrow the list with the location list (All locations by default) and the Batch Number box, which matches on any part of a number.
• Sort by Quantity or Expires At using the arrows in those headings. The list opens sorted by Expires At, latest expiry first.
• Page through longer lists with the arrows below the table.
• The edit icon on a row makes Number and Quantity editable across the listed rows. Choosing Save & Close while the table is in edit mode saves the batch rows only and leaves the dialog open, so choose it a second time to save the rest of the variant.
• The close icon on a row deletes that batch.

Editing a batch Quantity writes and authorises a stock adjustment, exactly as editing In stock does. A batch whose location does not match any of your company’s locations is listed as Unknown.

Purchase Orders tab

Purchase Orders lists the open purchase orders that still have stock to come in for this variant, matched on the variant’s SKU and sorted by expected arrival. Each row shows the Purchase Order number as a link, the Supplier, the Ordered Quantity, the Incoming Quantity still to arrive, and the ETA. The tab is read-only, and shows “No incoming purchase orders” when nothing is on order.

View the variant’s history

View History at the bottom left of the dialog opens the Transactions page for this variant, where every movement of its stock is listed.

Save or cancel

Save & Close validates the variant, saves it, saves any custom field values, and closes the dialog. Cancel closes the dialog and discards the changes made in it. Validation messages appear in a red panel just above the buttons.

Qoblex stops the save when:

• an option value is blank;
• the combination of option values already exists on another variant;
• a location’s buffer quantity is negative;
• the tracking option or the cost tracking policy is being changed while the variant still holds stock, buffer or batches;
• batch or serial tracking is not included in your subscription;
• a batch, supplier or custom field save returns its own error.

Before you save, it is worth checking that the option values still identify the variant correctly, that the tracking option and cost tracking policy match how the warehouse actually handles the item, that buffer and minimum and maximum levels are sensible for each location, that price list prices are current, and that the supplier rows reflect what you actually pay and how long delivery takes.

Troubleshooting