Process Flow: Importing Standard Part Numbers in EPU
Use these fields to create a map for standard part number.
1. Enter the Service Code.
Service codes are unique identifiers for the pricing services or vendors that provide you with electronic updates. You can create and maintain service codes in Service Code F/M (Inventory Control>EPU>Service Code F/M).
Press F2 to search for an existing service code.
Press F3 to bring up the first map on file.
2. Enter the source code.
Source codes are used in the system to indicate which industry standard various part numbers are associated with. Examples of source codes are UPC, IDW and EAN. Standard part numbers are "filed" under their source codes.
Press F2 to search for an existing source code.
Press F3 to bring up the first map on file.
Use these fields to map standard part numbers and their descriptions. The tab order first takes you through the part number fields and then lets you set up the map characteristics for the part number description.
3. Enter the record number.
Use this field to tell the program which record the standard part number (or description) falls on.
When you get a file in from the pricing service or vendor, the standard part number or description may occur at every other record or every fourth record. If the vendor does not include descriptions with the standard part number, the number may be every record.
Examples:
If the part number appears in every record of the flat file, enter 1.
If it appears in every other record, enter 2
If it appears in every fourth record, enter 4.
4. Enter the start position.
Enter a whole number to indicate the position of the field at which the part number (or description) starts.
5. Enter the field length.
Enter the length of the part number or description up to 99. FACTS supports 50-character standard part numbers and 75-character descriptions. If the vendor or pricing service’s field lengths are longer, some truncation may occur in FACTS.
Use the Pending Standard Part Number F/M to cleanup the truncated fields prior to updating them into FACTS.
Skipping unwanted characters during import
Most pricing service files contain information on multiple vendors, so vendor ID codes are often incorporated into the standard part numbers.
For instance, the Trade Services pricing service may provide a file in which the standard part numbers appear as
PI-123456, where PI stands for the vendor code and the actual standard part number is 123456.
You can use the skip fields to tell the import procedure to skip the vendor ID characters.
To skip fields:
1. Enter the number of skips.
Indicate how may characters you want the import procedure to skip in the pricing service’s standard part number field. The default is zero, which disables the Skip character and Stop Skip Character fields.
In our example, you would enter 3 to tell the system to skip the vendor id in addition to the dash.
If you simply told the program that the field length was 6the import procedure would not find the standard part number field since the field is 9 characters long in the file. In other words, the map would misidentify the standard part number field.
2. Enter the skip character.
Type the first character with which the skip function should start. In our example, you would type P. Press F1 if you do not want to indicate a skip character. The import procedure assumes you want to start skipping at the beginning of the field.
F1 may be useful if you want to skip a certain number of characters in the field, but the characters are different in each field. This feature also can be used if the characters you want to skip fall in the middle or end of the standard part number field.
3. Enter the stop skip character.
Type the character on which you want the skip to end. In our example, you would type -. Press F1 if you do not want to indicate a skip character. The import procedure assumes you want to start skipping at the beginning of the field.
F1 may be useful if you want to skip a certain number of characters in the field, but the characters are different in each field. This feature also can be used if the characters you want to skip fall in the middle or end of the standard part number field.
Saving and exiting
After you save a map, choose New to create another map. Choose Exit to leave the program and return to the Electronic Price Update Menu.