Troubleshooting Error Messages When Changing Product Groups in Sage 200
If you’re trying to change the product group for a stock item in Sage 200 and it’s not working, there are a few reasons why this might be happening.
In this tip of the week, we’ll go through some of the reasons why you may not be able to change the product group set against a stock item.
Product groups: Used to group stock items together and control what unit of measure is assigned to the stock items in the group, along with if the stock item is traceable, stocked or service and labour, amongst other things.
Why You Can’t Change The Product Group
There could be times when a stock item is created and you realise it should’ve been set against a different product group, so you want to correct it. Usually you’re able to change the product group on the stock item if the new group used is the same product type.
To change the product group, navigate to: Stock Control > Stock Maintenance > Amend Stock Item Product Group. We’ll be using this throughout the article.
Here are 4 reasons why you might not be able to change the product group on a stock item:
1. Negative Stock
You can’t change the assigned group if the stock item has a negative stock level and the replacement product group doesn’t allow negative stock.
2. Different Product Type
The new product group has a different product type.
E.g. the stock item belongs to a product group with a miscellaneous product type and you want to change it to a product group with a product type of stock.
3. Traceable Batch or Serial Numbers
Next, the new product group uses batch or serial numbers, but the old product group doesn’t.
4. Costing Method
The new product group uses the actual costing method, but the item currently uses a different costing method and you’ve already recorded some stock for the item.
Example Scenarios
Now we’ll look at an example scenario for each to help you identify the problem you’re experiencing:
Scenario 1: Negative Stock
In the stock list, we have an item called ‘ACS/Pizza Shelf‘. By accident, I added it to the product group called ‘Accessories’. I want to change it to be in the ‘Shelves’ product group.
Note: the item has a quantity of -2 but the ‘Shelves’ product group doesn’t allow negative stock.
Now we’ll attempt to change the product group to show you what happens.
Navigate to: Stock Control > Stock Maintenance > Amend Stock Item Product Group.
Select the item from the ‘Stock Item Code’ dropdown, change the ‘Product Group Code’ dropdown and then click ‘Save’.
The error message reads: ‘The item has negative stock levels. The product group cannot be changed to a product group that does not allow negative stock.’
To get around this, we’d need to adjust the stock to 0 or a positive before it’ll accept the change.
Scenario 2: Different Product Type
In the stock list we have an item called ‘misc’ which is assigned to a product group called ‘Misc’.
To look at the product group settings, navigate to:
Stock Control > Stock Maintenance > Product Groups
Select the product group from the list and click ‘Edit’.
As you can see, the product type for this product group is ‘Miscellaneous’.
We want to set this up as a stocked item product type instead.
From the navigation menu, click ‘Amend Stock Item Product Group’.
Again, select the item from the ‘Stock Item Code’ dropdown, change the ‘Product Group Code’ dropdown and then click ‘Save’.
An error message pops up which reads ‘Unable to change the product group to the selected product group. The item type on the new group is not consistent with the item type on the old group.’
If I need to change the product group to a stocked item, I’ll need to make the stock item inactive or delete it (if it’s not already been used) and create a brand new item.
Scenario 3: Batch or Serial Numbers
We’ve got an item called ‘DEC/PAPER/TEAL’ which we need to be a traceable item, but it’s part of the ‘Accessories’ group that isn’t traceable. We need to change the product group to ‘Decorating’ because this is set to batch traceable with actual costing.
Navigate to ‘Amend Stock Item Product Group’ and then select the stock item from the ‘Stock Item Code’ dropdown, change the ‘Product Group Code’ dropdown and then click ‘Save’.
The error message that pops up reads: ‘The stock item is not configured to use batch/serial numbers and the new product group is configured to use batch/serial numbers. The selected product group cannot be used for this item.’
The only way around this is to make the item inactive or delete it if you haven’t used it and create a new one.
Scenario 4: Costing Method
For the final scenario, we’ve got a stock item called ‘DEC/PAPER/BEIGE’ which is traceable but it’s part of the ‘Decorating’ product group which has the ‘FIFO’ costing method.
We need to change the item to the ‘Actual’ product group which has an ‘Actual’ costing method.
Navigate to ‘Amend Stock Item Product Group‘, select the item from the ‘Stock Item Code’ dropdown, change the ‘Product Group Code’ dropdown and then click ‘Save’.
The error message reads: ‘The stock item is not configured to use actual costing and the new product group is configured to use actual costing. The selected product group cannot be used for this item.’
Due to the way the costing method works in the back end of the program, it’s unable to change over the process so we can’t do this.
So you’d either have to leave it or adjust any stock out and redo it if you’ve used the item.
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