Unit of measure conversion
Unit of measure conversion is the translation of a quantity from the unit a customer orders in, such as a case or a box, into the unit your ERP stocks, prices and ships the item in, using a conversion factor that belongs to that item.
Why units disagree
The same item is bought, stocked and sold in different units. A supplier ships it by the pallet, the warehouse stocks it by the case, and a customer orders it by the each. Each party writes orders in the unit its own system uses.
The conversion factor is specific to the item. A case is 12 for one product and 144 for another, and a roll of wire may be sold by the foot from a 500-foot reel. There is no general rule that turns a case into eaches.
What goes wrong
- The unit is missing. An emailed order says “10” and nothing else.
- The unit is implied by the price. The customer orders 2 at a price that is clearly a case price, while your system sells the item by the each.
- The same abbreviation means different things. “BX” is a box of 10 to one customer and a box of 100 to another.
- The code is valid but wrong for the item. An EDI 850 line asks for cases of an item you sell only by the each.
A unit error multiplies. Entering 2 cases as 2 eaches ships a twelfth of the order; the reverse ships twelve times too much. The price is usually wrong by the same factor, which is often the clue that something is off: when the extended line total makes sense in only one unit, that is the unit the customer meant.
Where it is defined
ERPs hold the units on the item record: a base or stocking unit, alternative selling and purchasing units, and the factor between them. Some also hold customer-specific units alongside the customer part number cross-reference.
How Runtara handles it
In a Runtara order workflow, the units on a customer order are matched to your catalogue as part of checking items, quantities and prices against your ERP. Anything unclear is flagged for review, and the order waits for a person with the order and ERP data side by side. Nothing is written to the ERP until the question is settled.