Supplier Stock Ref

Hi,

A vital and missing piece with Ubercart is that SKU is NOT really a stock reference. As Ubercart uses the SKU to identify a unique product/attribute it is used internally how YOU want to use it (numbers, special code etc) not how the supplier uses it. This is ok for small businesses or online only businesses, but when you get over a certain amount of products, it becomes difficult to work with. You might have hundreds of suppliers, thousands of products - different suppliers might use their own codes, might use the manufacturing code, might use the barcode - you don't know. You are very likely in need of your own internal code.

I propose that the option for one (or more) additional fields are supplied by Product Power Tools. Every time you see a SKU you will also see an additional field. Instead of being required, it will simply be an option. I could see that a Barcode field could be used (attributes have different barcodes for most of my products), a stock reference, a different code for legacy, a manufacturing code, a supplier code, even a BIN location code. Combined with Auto-SKU, this would be effectivily make the SKU an unchanging, unique internal number (which it should be anyway), leaving you free to add your suppliers codes etc as well.

If they could be referenced later for use in reports (e.g. so running a shortfall report would show your SKU and the Supplier Reference) it would be a bonus.

I come from a Wholesale & Retail background and when I realised that ubercart couldn't cope with multiple references per item I was tbh a little shocked. I started using CCK for the main item, but of course, attributes have different requirements. This maybe better as a seperate module, but I think it fits the theme of power tools.

Thanks,
Paul.