Most procurement errors don't happen at the warehouse. They happen before the buyer leaves — when the order quantity doesn't account for box pack size, or when a taxable item slips through untagged.
Quantity vs. Pack Size
The gap between QTY NEEDED and BOX QTY is where procurement math gets expensive. If you need 45 units and the product ships in boxes of 12, you're buying 4 boxes — 48 units. Ordering 4 boxes expecting 45 is fine; ordering 3 because "that's close enough" leaves you short. The two fields side by side make that calculation immediate rather than mental.
UNIT WT enters the picture for freight-sensitive categories. Heavy candy and beef jerky don't move at the same cost-per-unit as slim pack gum. Weight per unit, combined with quantity, gives a rough freight estimate before the order is placed.
The Cost Stack
Three financial fields capture the full price picture: COST / BOX for the wholesale purchase price, UNIT COST derived from the box, and RETAIL / UNIT — the selling price. That last field isn't just a data point; it's the margin check. If unit cost creeps up while retail stays flat, the catalog item needs attention.
The TAXABLE flag is the field that matters at the register and at the end of the quarter. Candy, gum, and snack categories have uneven taxability depending on jurisdiction and product type. Tracking it per item prevents misapplied tax rates from accumulating into a reconciliation problem.
Stock Status and Identification
IN STOCK? is the fastest filter during a pickup run. Sort by in-stock status and the out-of-stock items surface immediately — no walking the aisle looking for what isn't there.
The barcode field on UPC CODE: UNIT supports scanning rather than manual entry. For high-SKU environments where beef jerky alone spans a dozen varieties by brand and flavor, scan-to-record is the difference between accurate inventory and guesswork. BRAND adds the layer needed to distinguish between products that share a category but not a vendor relationship.