Item ID vs SKU vs Stock ID

Are you a little confused about the difference between ID types? You are in the right place. They each have a purpose!

Item ID

An Item ID is like a serial number for each individual item you order. An item ID is auto generated for each item created.

If you ordered a chair a week ago, and then you order another identical chair today, they will each have a different item ID because they each need to be tracked separately. Item ID's are how OrderTrac keeps track of the status of each item you order. The item you ordered a week ago may have a status of On Order, and the estimated arrival date is June 1st. However the item you ordered today may need to be ordered yet, and will have a different estimated arrival date.

Stock ID

A stock ID is similar to an item ID, but it can be the same for each identical item you order.

In the example above, even though the 2 items will have a different item ID, they will have the same Stock ID since they are identical. If you do not specify a stock ID when creating an item, a new stock ID will automatically be generated.

Each item added to the catalog must have a unique Stock ID as well.

SKU

The SKU is an optional field you can supply when creating an item and is used to track the model number. Unlike the stock ID and item ID, the SKU can have both letters and numbers.

You can enter whatever you want into this field. Most users opt to create a formula for their skus, such as putting the vendors code first, followed by a dash, follow by the vendor model number of the item. If the vendor code is "RHY" and the model number is "AC-2992", the SKU would be "RHY-AC-2992".

Entering a SKU allows you to track sales by model number. For example, if you wanted to know how many of that specific chair you sold, you can run the Sales by SKU report to see you sold 36 items with that SKU last year.

If you want the SKU to be required for all items created in OrderTrac, you can go to Settings > Account Settings > General and check the Require Item SKU box. This will ensure no users forget to enter the SKU.

Watch an explanation of the differences: