Materials: Concepts
Materials are items that you use in activities, such as business cards or brochures. Materials always have an associated cost. Aprimo calculates material costs in an activity based on unit costs you enter in the Materials master list and the quantity of materials you add to the activity. You can access a material record from the Materials master list, or from any activity with which it is associated.
Using the information in the Materials master list, you should be able to answer these questions:
- What materials are available to me?
- What is the cost of the material?
- When do I need to order more of a particular material?
You can associate a master record for a material with an active supplier record to identify the supplier contact information for the material.
Material Cost or Invoice Cost
Keep in mind the difference between invoiced items and materials, because both track the cost of tangible items you use for activities. You can track some items, such as custom printed holiday party favors, more effectively using an invoice, because you use them only once. You do not reorder items like these from stock.
No matter how you decide to differentiate between material items and invoiced items, you should count them only once for the activity.
You count company sweatshirts as a material and add it to an activity. Do not create an invoice for the sweatshirts. The cost is already tracked to your activity through the material information.
Stock Materials
Stock materials are materials that you use outside of a specific activity or with multiple activities. One way to manage stock materials is to create a separate long-runnning activity that you only use to track the use of these materials. The purpose of this activity is to monitor your use of stock materials, not to manage an event or campaign. Each time stock materials are used outside of a specific activity, you add it them to the stock materials activity. Aprimo automatically updates the quantity for each material in the Materials master list.
Key Fields
Details
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Item Number |
Enter the inventory or tracking number that your organization uses for the material. |
|
Material Type |
Select the type of material. This field also determines which extended attributes you can track for the material. |
|
Quantity |
Enter the quantity of the material you have on hand. This number adjusts automatically as you use the material in activities. When you receive more of the material, or if the inventory changes without using an activity, be sure to update the quantity. |
|
Threshold Quantity |
Enter the quantity at which you want to order more of the material. If the quantity number falls below this number, the designated contact person receives an email notification to place an order for the material. Example:
You use letterhead when sending letters to prospects. You use this letterhead frequently, and to make sure you never run out, you set the threshold quantity to 500. Whenever an activity uses the letterhead and the activity's quantity is subtracted from the Threshold Quantity field, the application checks to make sure that at least 500 letterhead sheets are still available. |
|
Currency Code |
Select from currencies you have set to Active in the Currency Setup module. Your base currency, set in the System Parameters module of System Tools, is also displayed. |
|
Cost/Unit |
Enter the cost per material unit to calculate the total cost of activities. You can change the cost per unit of the material after you add that material to an activity. In this case, the activity's actual material cost reflects the original cost per unit, because the application assumes the original cost per unit was accurate when you added it to the activity. If you increase the quantity of the material for the activity, the actual material cost reflect the combination of the original cost per unit and the new cost per unit. Also, the Unit Cost column on the View Activity - Materials page reflects the average of the cost. Example:
You create a material called Marketing Brochure. The cost of the material is 10 euros. You add this material to the Product Launch activity. The quantity you specify for the activity is 100. Therefore, the total cost of this material for the Product Launch activity is 1000 euros. Your supplier informs you that his production cost has risen. Therefore, the new cost of the Marketing Brochure is 20 euros. In the Materials master list, you update the Marketing Brochure's cost per unit. This change does not affect the current Marketing Brochures you have already added to the Product Launch activity. The total cost of the Marketing Brochure for the Product Launch activity remains 1000 euros. Later, you discover you need an additional 100 Marketing Brochures for the Product Launch Activity. In the Product Launch activity's Materials module, you edit the Marketing Brochure material and change the quantity to 200. The total cost of this material for the activity is now 3000 euros. The Unit Cost column on the View Activity - Materials page displays 15 euros. |
|
Contact Name |
Enter the name of the person to notify when the material's threshold quantity is reached. |
|
Contact Phone |
Enter the phone number to call when the material's threshold quantity is reached. |
|
Contact Email |
Enter the email address to which notifications are sent when the material's threshold quantity is reached. |
|
Supplier Name |
Select the supplier that provides the material to your organization. You can choose from any supplier in the Suppliers master list. Note:
If you add a material to an activity, and the supplier for that material is not already associated with the activity, the application automatically associates the supplier with the activity. |
|
Supplier Phone |
Enter the supplier's phone number. |
|
Supplier URL |
Enter the URL of the supplier's website. |
Additional Fields, Sections, and Tabs
Your system administrator can create additional fields for some objects and make them available for certain system types. Additional fields appear on the Details tab in the Additional Details section or in other sections or on other tabs that the system administrator creates.
For more information about an additional field, section, or tab, contact your system administrator. For more information about additional fields in general, see Additional Fields.