Historically Projects in SI were Unit-Based, meaning that all products were displayed as line items with a Quantity of 1. As of SI v18, we introduced Quantity-Based Projects, providing you the choice of creating Quantity-Based Projects, and thus allowing you to display items of the same type as one line item with the total "Quantity" displayed next to them.
Quantity-based projects allow you to have fewer line items in your Project Editor and will improve your experience during the quoting phase of a Project allowing you to easily adjust quantities for similar items in a Project.
Any Projects created before v18 will remain Unit-Based even after upgrading SI to newer versions.
Creating Quantity-Based Projects
To make Quantity-Based Project creation easy, you can enable the Project Rules setting under the Control Panel to auto-set new Projects as Quantity-Based.
If you do not set the Project Rule setting, you can always select the Quantity-Based checkbox in the New Project Wizard.
Working on Quantity-Based Projects
In a Quantity-Based Project, SI will automatically display items with a quantity greater than one as one line item and list the quantity. For items, there are two columns, Quantity and Total Quantity, in the Project grid.
Example: Product A has two of Product B as Accessories and a quantity of 4 of Product A is added to a Project. This will display as shown below.
A maximum quantity of 10,000 can be added per line item for Products/Labor Items, 100 is the limit for Packages.
A quantity can also be 0 if you want to add items to a Project Template that the user can then adjust quantities of as needed. Zero quantity line items in the Project Editor are not displayed on reports and are not counted towards anything.
The quantity can be edited directly in the project grid or you can modify the Quantity field when in the Edit Product interface.
When an Accessory or an item in a Package is open for edit, the Quantity and Total Quantity fields will display.
Quantity can also be changed via Mass Update.
There are some areas in the Quantity-Based Project where you may need to consider displaying all or selected items in the Unit-Based style.
#1 Drawings
Only one shape/block will drop on a drawing page when an item with a quantity > 1 is dragged and dropped.
There is a Project Setting on whether you want to be prompted when you attempt to add an item with quantity > 1 to a drawing.
If you want separate shapes/blocks for each item you must convert them to a quantity of one.
See the Converting Items section below.
#2 Purchase Orders
You must choose to allow for Purchase Orders to be created for Quantity-Based Projects via the Project Rules setting.
The reason for this is that since there is only one line item for items with quantity > 1, there is only one instance of the following fields: Order Status, Order Number, Ordered Date, Expected Delivery Date Received Date, Tracking Number.
If you need to track these fields for each individual item you must convert the items to a quantity of 1 before creating the Purchase Order.
See the Converting Items section below.
In addition, if you enter Serial Number, MAC Address 1, or MAC Address 2 when creating Item Receipts, there is only one instance of these fields for items with a quantity > 1.
If none of the above matters to you, then you can certainly create a Purchase Order for items with quantity > 1.
#3 Tasks
You must choose to allow for Tasks to be created for Quantity-Based Projects via the Project Rules setting.
The reason for this is that since there is only one line item for items with quantity > 1, there is only one instance of the following fields: Task Number, Picked, Picked Date, Installed, Installed Date, and Install Notes.
If you need to track these fields for each individual item you must convert the items to a quantity of 1 before creating the Task.
See the Converting Items section below.
Converting Quantity-Based Items to Line Items
You may want to convert a line item with quantity > 1 to all single line items or just some of the items to single line items if you need separate line items to create a Visio or AutoCAD drawing, or if you need to order only a select number of an item.
Select the items you want to convert and from the Tools tab click the Quantity button and make your choice.
Convert to a Quantity of 1
This one is straightforward. All items will be converted to individual line items in the Project and will maintain the Location and/or System assigned to the line item(s) you are converting.
You will need to click Yes on the following prompt to proceed.
Custom Convert
Here you can choose to convert the items into any quantity and assign those quantities a Location and/or System within the Project.
Converting to a Unit-Based Project
At any point in time, you convert a Quantity-Based Project to a Unit-Based Project. You may want to do this when the Project is Approved and you want to order products or add them to Tasks as it will open up additional racking fields specific to each item, e.g. Serial Number, IP Address, etc. This will convert all items in the Project with a quantity > 1 to their own individual line items in the Project.
Once converted to a Unit-Based Project, the Project cannot be converted back to a Quantity-Based Project.
To do this, select the Project in the Project Explorer and click the Convert to Unit-Based Project button on the ribbon.
There is also a Project Rules setting to automatically convert Quantity-Based Projects to Unit-Based Projects when you Approve the Project.
Marking Exceptions During Conversion
If you do not want an item to be converted into individual line items in the Project when it is converted from a Quantity-Based Project to a Unit-Based Project, tick the "Bulk Item" checkbox for the item.
This can be set at the Catalog level or the Project level. This can be used for items that you don't need to convert out into individual line items in the Project, e.g. 2000 J-Hooks, and 9,921 RJ-45 connectors.
If you change your mind after the Project has been converted to a Unit-Based Project you can still convert Bulk Items into individual line items in the Project using the convert function as described above in the Converting Items section above.