Audience: Retailers
Atomic History - effective tracking of individual inventory items, orders, and invoices
We are excited to announce that a helpful new feature has been added to the web application - Atomic History. The Atomic History gives easy-to-follow documentation for every single inventory item, order, and invoice in your account. You can easily track the lifecycle of any item/order/invoice to find out important information such as when an order was first created; when order information was exported to a supplier; when shipment or invoice information was uploaded to the web application; when an inventory item received a quantity update and what that quantity was; and what errors, if any, occurred during a specific data transaction. Becoming familiar with the Atomic History will allow you to have excellent visibility into the crucial processes of your day-to-day operations.
How to view item, order, and invoice history
While logged into the web application, use the main menu to navigate to the desired area (INVENTORY, ORDERS, or INVOICE). Find and select the item, order, or invoice for which you wish to view the history. If you have selected an order or an invoice, the history is at the bottom of the screen; simply scroll down to view it. If you have selected an inventory item, select ITEM HISTORY near the top of the screen.
The Atomic History represents the lifecycle of any given inventory item, order, or invoice. A typical history entry may look like this:
Times and dates are given for each entry, with the times being represented in whichever time zone has been selected in your account settings.) A new entry is generated each time the item/order/invoice in question gets a touch, i.e. anytime our system processes any update related to that specific item/order/invoice.
The Source column gives several important details. The word ‘Batch’ is present if the process was automated. ‘Batch’ is followed by ‘Import’ or ‘Export’ to indicate if the information was entering or exiting the account. Remember that a Batch Import is when an automated job pulls data into an account, and a Batch Export is when an automated job sends data out of an account.
The Event / Data column describes what type of update took place, followed by the Status column which describes the result of that update.
With all this information viewable in one user-friendly UI, understanding the lifecycle of the order shown above is simple and quick.
Lines 1 and 2: The order was imported into the supplier’s account on 1/17/17 at 3:31 AM, at which point it had a status of Created. At 4:16 AM this order was exported out of the supplier’s account.
Lines 3 and 4: The shipment information was imported into the supplier’s account on 1/18/17 at 6:06 PM. The history tells us this event resulted in the shipment information being successfully added, and the status of the order being changed to Shipped. The shipment information was then exported out of the platform at 6:16 PM that same day.
Lines 5 and 6: On 1/19/17 at 11:06 AM, the invoice was imported into the account. The status of the order was then changed to Invoiced. The invoice information was then exported out of the platform, to the retailer, at 11:41 AM that same morning.
For any processes that were not automated, meaning that a user logged into the web application and manually updated an item/order/invoice, the word ‘Portal’ will appear (instead of ‘Batch’) in the Source column, followed by the name of the user who made the update:
Inventory Item History
The history of an order and an invoice are essentially the same and look just like the examples given above. A typical history entry for an inventory item may look like this:
The information in the Date, Time, and Source columns are identical to the columns in the order/invoice history. But the Event / Data column indicates whether the event was an inventory update or an order. The word ‘Inventory’ is used if the supplier has imported an update of their inventory to the platform, or if the platform has exported the inventory update to the retailer. The word ‘Import’ or ‘Export’ in the Source column clarifies which of those two events occurred. The word ‘Order’ is used when an order for this item has come into the account, in which case the quantity is decremented by the appropriate amount (if the decrementation feature is active on the account).
Further to the right are the Quantity and Status columns. The Status column has three possible values: in-stock, out-of-stock, and discontinued. When the platform decrements the quantity down to 0, the status is automatically changed to out-of-stock.
The BATCH ID
The history also shows a column entitled BATCH ID.
This column shows a long alphanumeric value, beginning with the letter p, which is an identifier internal to the platform called the batch ID. Every instance of a file being processed by the platform, be it an import, export, or manual/portal process, is assigned a unique batch ID. Here in the history entry, the batch ID shown is associated with the specific event indicated in the Event / Data column. If the batch ID is an active link, selecting it will take you directly to the log to see the details of that process. If the batch ID is not an active link, it means the process does not belong to your account, and therefore you cannot view the logs for that process.
For instance, in the above example, the user is logged into the account and can, therefore, select the batch ID link to view the logs of this specific event. However, there is also a batch ID given which is associated with the SOUND account. Because the user is not logged into the SOUND account, the logs for that process cannot be viewed by the user.
Note that making an update via the web application without the use of files will not create a batch ID, e.g. if a user manually enters the tracking number for a shipped package. When this occurs, the Batch ID column simply reads 'n/a.'
The batch ID is most helpful in instances where the history shows an error.
Selecting the batch ID link here would allow the user to view the logs and see why the invoice failed to import into the account.
Concluding thoughts
The Atomic History feature is something that many users have been anxiously awaiting. And we thank you for your patience! Our developers have been hard at work to create this feature which we know is important to so many of you. We anticipate that many users will benefit greatly from the insight it provides into the lifecycle and details of inventory items, orders, and invoices. On the other hand, we know it is not perfect, ergo we hope you will leave feedback here to let us know how it can be improved to provide you with the best Rithum experience possible.
Comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.