Product Units of Measure

Units of measure are sets of multiples of a product, such as 2-packs, cases, or dozens. Units of measure are used to simplify the process of purchasing, selling, and shipping products in larger quantities.

Every product comes by default with a measure of each, and you may add additional measures as needed. For each measure you add, specify the quantity (e.g. 12), its abbreviation (e.g. dz), and its longer description (e.g. dozen).

Transaction lines include both, the transacted quantity and the total inventory units. Hover with your mouse over the quantity to see the total units, or export transaction lines to get the various quantity fields. To illustrate, suppose an order has a product for two dozen. The following terminology is used:

Quantity: 2
Units: 24
Unit of Measure: DZ
Unit of Measure Quantity: 12

Units of Measure Defaults

The default unit of measure determines which of the available measures on the product is used by default for the different transactions. There are three types of transactions, and each can have a different measure as its default:

The Sales default determines the measure used when entering orders. When manually adding a line to an order with a quantity of 1, will it be one each, or one case. Similarly, the sales default determines which measure is picked when mapping channel listings, as this mapping will ultimately determine the measure on imported channel orders.
The Shipping default determines the measure used for creating shipment boxes. When manually packing a box with multiple units, be it for an order, transfer, or routing request, which measure configuration should Goflow use to prepopulate the units per box. Similarly, the shipping default determines which measure is picked when boxes are created behind-the-scenes in bulk ship and in shop rates.
The Purchasing default determines the measure used when entering purchase orders. When adding a line to a purchase order with a quantity of 1, will it be one each, or one case. Similarly, Predictive-purchasing uses the default purchasing unit of measure to calculate the suggested quantity to purchase.

By default, products use the measure of each for all three transactions types, and you can change it to use another measure. You can use the same measure for all three transaction types or select different measures for each type according to your business needs.

Note that the defaults are only that: defaults. You can always change the unit of measure on a transaction, and you are free to pack boxes using any unit of measure available, even it it's not the default for shipping. Of course, for behind-the-scenes processes of bulk ship and shop rates, you do not get a chance to change the default.

When uploading transaction lines using a file, the measure will always be in eaches regardless of the measure defaults. To prevent any potential confusion about the intended quantity, calculate the total units before uploading the products. If you want the transaction to be for a dozen, then enter 12 in the upload file.

Unit of measure also extends to group products, and unit of measure defaults extends to group products as well. For group products that are multipacks of a single child, the measures of the group parent will always take precedence over the measures of the child product. Only when packing a number of units for which the parent does not have a unit of measure will the child's units of measure be considered.

There is no default measure for transfers, because transfers are always made in units and do not take a unit of measure.

Managing Units of Measure

To update units of measure on a product, follow these steps:

From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products, and click into a product.
On the Units of Measure tab, click on the pencil located in the upper right hand corner to edit.
Click on the plus sign to add a new unit of measure.
Enter the quantity, e.g. 12.
Enter a short abbreviation up to 4 characters, e.g. DZ.
Enter a longer description up to 20 characters, e.g. Dozen.
On the right side, set unit of measure defaults.
Click Save to update the units of measure.

Goflow is the process of updating how existing transactions and listing mappings are handled when units of measure are deleted or their quantity changed. When these updates are final, this page will be updated.

Managing Units of Measure In Bulk

Efficiently handle product units of measure in bulk by using a file upload. Using the upload, you can perform various actions such as creating new measures, updating quantities for existing measures, setting unit of measure defaults, updating shipping details, and even deleting units of measure.

To be best equipped with an upload file for updating units of measure, it is advisable to first download the existing measures. Follow these steps to export units of measure:

From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products.
At the top of the page, click on Export › Export Units of Measure.

To update units of measure with an upload file, follow these steps:

From the left sidebar, go to Catalog › Products.
At the top of the page, click on Import › Import Units of Measure, and download a Sample CSV file.
Review the Columns tab to understand the required and optional file headers.
Fill in your CSV file, upload it, and click Import.

During the file upload process, you have the option to choose how to handle existing units of measure that were not included in the upload file:

Keep as is: This option is suitable when you want to import new measures only, or when you want to merely update unit of measure defaults or shipping details. By selecting this option, any existing measures that are not included in the upload file will remain as they are, without any changes. This is the default option.
Delete from Products on this file: This option is suitable when you want to redo the units of measure only for products in the upload file. You do not want to change the units of measure for other products. Selecting this option will delete the existing units of measure for the products in the upload file, and replace them with the new units of measure specified in the file.
Delete them all: This option is suitable when you want to start fresh and delete all existing units of measure from the system. You want to upload a completely new set of units of measure for all products. Selecting this option will clear all existing units of measure from the system, and replace them with the new units of measure specified in the upload file.

These actions are irreversible. If you selected to delete units measure, you will not be able to recover them.