Item alternates (substitute and superseded items)

An item alternate records that one item can stand in for another, either as an interchangeable substitute or as the item's successor (a Superseded alternate), so that people entering document lines are offered or given the right item.

Alternates belong to the item master. You set them up after both items exist, on the original item's Related tab. They are used when document lines are entered. Superseded alternates replace the original item on new sales order, invoice, purchase order, quote, opportunity and service order lines. Every alternate is listed in the Item 360 panel of the quick-add line forms, where users can swap a line onto it.

Overview

Each item alternate record says:

• which Item it is for (the original);
• which Alternate Item can replace it;
• what kind of alternate it is (Alternate Type): Superseded or Optional/Interchangeable;
• optionally, the dates it applies between (Effective From Date and Effective Till Date).

An alternate works in one direction. If Item A has Item B as an alternate, B is offered in place of A, but A is not offered in place of B. Create a second record if the swap should work both ways.

When to use it

Use item alternates when:

• a product is replaced by a newer one. Add the new product as a Superseded alternate of the old one. New lines for the old item move to the new item, and the old item is kept in the line's Original Item.
• another product can be sold or bought instead. Add it as an Optional/Interchangeable alternate. People see it in the Item 360 panel and can swap to it when the original is short. Nothing is swapped for them.
• a replacement starts on a known date. Set Effective From Date on the Superseded alternate, so the change starts that day and not before.

Do not use alternates for:

• another name or code for the same item. Use item aliases.
• the parts and labour that go with an item. Use item relations or item components.
• another unit of the same item (a case instead of a bottle). Use the item's units of measure (see Items).

How xMatix handles it

When a new line is saved (sales order, invoice, purchase order, quote, opportunity and service order lines). Before the line is priced and taxed, xMatix looks at the alternates of the line's item. If one is of type Superseded and is in force today, the line's Item is changed to the alternate item and the requested item is kept in Original Item. The new item is then priced, taxed and discounted as usual. "In force" means Effective From Date is empty or not after today, and Effective Till Date is empty or not before today.

This happens only when a line is added, whether by hand, by import, from the field app or by a conversion. Changing the item on a saved line, or adding an alternate later, doesn't change lines that already exist. Optional/Interchangeable alternates are never swapped in automatically.

The Alternate Items popup (web). On sales order, purchase order, invoice and requisition lines, picking an item that has a Superseded alternate opens an Alternate Items dialog. It lists the item's alternates with their Item Name, Type, Available and In Hand stock, and the superseding item is already selected. Select Save to switch the line to the selected item, or Cancel to keep the item you picked. Picking an item that has only Optional/Interchangeable alternates opens nothing.

Choosing Cancel keeps your item only on requisition lines. On sales order, purchase order and invoice lines, saving still moves a new line to the superseding item while it is in force, as described above.

The Item 360 panel. The shipped quick-add forms for sales order, invoice, purchase order, requisition, quote, service order and delivery order lines show an Item 360 panel beside the form. Its Alternate Items card names the alternates of the chosen item and says how many substitute items are available. Select the card to open the Alternate Items list. Tick one alternate and select Save: the line's Item changes to the alternate item, and its SKU and Unit Price are cleared so they are filled in again for the new item. The Available and In Hand columns show live stock for the line's company and branch.

In the field app. The line forms for sales orders, invoices, purchase orders, requisitions, opportunities, service orders, bills and shipments carry the same panel with an Alternate Items card. When you pick an item that has a Superseded alternate, the Alternate Items sheet opens by itself with the superseding item ticked. Select Save to swap, or Cancel to close the sheet. On sales order, invoice, purchase order, opportunity and service order lines, the line is still switched when it is saved, as on the web.

Sense suggestions. Sense has a suggestion for sales orders and service orders, Alternate / refurbished item availability, which proposes an alternate when a line's item is short of stock. It only considers alternates whose Available figure on the alternate record is above zero. xMatix doesn't fill that figure from stock, so in the shipped setup this suggestion doesn't appear. See Sense nudges.

What alternates don't do. Alternates don't move or reserve stock, and they don't change prices. The swapped-in item is priced from your price lists like any other item. Delivery orders, goods receipts, transfers and adjustments never swap items automatically.

Prerequisites

• Both items exist and are active. See Items.
• Your security profile lets you edit items and create item alternates (see Permissions).

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the item's alternates

Item alternates are not in any shipped app; you reach them from the item. Open the Items list (on the Warehouse app's navigation bar, or under Settings in the Sales, Inventory, Procurement and Service apps), open the original item, go to its Related tab and find the item alternates list. It shows Name, Item, Alternate Item, Alternate Type, Effective From Date, Effective Till Date, Available and In Hand.

Step 2 — Add an alternate

1. In the item alternates list on the Related tab, select New.
2. Type a Name for the record, for example OIL-500-OLD → OIL-500-NEW. It is required and must be unique.
3. Check that Item is the original item. It is filled in from the item you started from.
4. Choose the Alternate Item, which is the item that can replace it.
5. Choose the Alternate Type: Superseded to have new lines switched to the alternate, or Optional/Interchangeable to only offer it.
6. Optionally, under Validity, set Effective From Date and Effective Till Date.
7. Save.

The alternate's record page shows the Item, Alternate Item, Available and In Hand figures in its header, a Key Informations panel (Item, Alternate Item, Alternate Type, In Hand, Available) and a Validity panel (Effective From Date, Effective Till Date).

Step 3 — Check it on a line

1. Start a new sales order and choose Quick Add on its lines.
2. Pick the original item.
3. For a Superseded alternate, the Alternate Items dialog opens with the new item selected. Select Save. For an Optional/Interchangeable alternate, the Item 360 panel shows an Alternate Items card that names it.
4. Save the line. A line that was switched to a Superseded alternate shows the original item in Original Item.

Step 4 — Change or end an alternate

• Change. On the alternate's record page, select Edit to change it in a dialog, or use the pencil next to a field. In the related list, select Edit on the row.
• End it on a date. Set Effective Till Date. From the next day, new lines are no longer switched to the alternate (see Common problems for what the web dialog still shows).
• Delete. Select Delete on the record page or on the list row. Lines already saved keep the item they have.

Fields

Business rules

• *Only Superseded is automatic. A new line is switched to the alternate item only for Superseded* alternates in force on today's date. The check runs once, when the line is added, before pricing, tax and discounts.
• Original Item records the switch. When a line is switched, the requested item is stored in Original Item.
• One step at a time. If the alternate item has its own Superseded alternate, a line can move two steps when you accept the popup's choice. When you don't, it moves only one step. Point old items directly at the newest item rather than building chains.
• *Keep one Superseded alternate in force per item.* If an item has several, which one a new line ends up on is not defined.
• Two end dates. The forms set Effective Till Date. The record also has a second end date that is not on any form. The automatic switch reads that one first and falls back to Effective Till Date. The web popup, the Item 360 panel and the Sense suggestion read only the second end date. So after the Effective Till Date has passed, the popup and the panel still list the alternate even though lines are no longer switched automatically.
• Unique name. A second alternate with the same Name is refused with Name '…' already exists.
• No numbering. Item alternates have no document numbering setting in the shipped setup, so every record needs a typed Name.

Example

A parts distributor replaces its Brake Pad Set BP-100 with an improved Brake Pad Set BP-110 from 1 November.

1. On 25 October the inventory administrator opens Brake Pad Set BP-100, goes to the Related tab and selects New in the item alternates list. They name the record BP-100 to BP-110, choose Alternate Item Brake Pad Set BP-110, set Alternate Type to Superseded and Effective From Date to 1 November, and save.
2. On 28 October a sales coordinator adds BP-100 to an order. Nothing opens and the line keeps BP-100, because the alternate is not yet in force.
3. On 2 November the coordinator adds BP-100 to a new order through Quick Add. The Alternate Items dialog opens with BP-110 selected. They select Save. The line is saved with Item BP-110 and Original Item BP-100, priced from BP-110's price.
4. The same day, a sales rep adds BP-100 on the field app. The Alternate Items sheet opens with BP-110 ticked. The rep selects Save.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox:

1. Pick two active items, Practice Old and Practice New.
2. On Practice Old's Related tab, add an alternate named PRACTICE-ALT-1 with Alternate Item Practice New and Alternate Type Optional/Interchangeable.
3. Add a sales order line for Practice Old through Quick Add and look at the Item 360 panel.
4. Change the alternate's type to Superseded, then add another sales order line for Practice Old. Select Cancel in the dialog and save the line.

Expected result: in step 3 no dialog opens, and the Alternate Items card names Practice New. In step 4 the Alternate Items dialog opens with Practice New selected, and the saved line shows Item Practice New and Original Item Practice Old, even though you chose Cancel.

Quick reference

• Alternates are on the original item's Related tab and are in no app.
• Name, Item and Alternate Item are required; Name must be unique.
• Superseded switches new lines automatically; Optional/Interchangeable only offers.
• The switch happens when a line is added, never on later edits.
• Original Item keeps what was requested.
• Use Effective From Date to schedule a replacement.
• An alternate works one way; add a second record for the reverse.
• The record's Available and In Hand are not live stock; use the Item 360 panel.

Permissions

Item alternates are governed by the ordinary entity access on the security profile (see Security profiles). In the shipped profiles, Standard User, System Admin, Sales, Sales Executive, Sales Manager and Service have full access (read, create, edit and delete) to Item Alternate. A user without read access sees no alternates list on the item, and the popup and Item 360 card find no alternates. A user without create access doesn't see New.

Item alternates have no server actions to grant. Clone exists on the entity but is not on the shipped record page.

Configuration

• Put the list in an app. To manage all alternates in one place instead of item by item, add Item Alternate to an app such as Inventory through Setup → Design Studio → Apps and the app's Manage Items (see Create an entity). Its shipped views are All Alternate Items, All Superseded Items and All Interchangeable Items.
• Show or hide the Item 360 alternates card. The Item 360 panel is a widget on each line's quick-add layout. In the layout designer, its Alternates settings turn the card on or off, hide it when an item has no alternates, and choose the list view the drawer uses (see Design a form layout). In the shipped layouts the card is off on opportunity, goods receipt, shipment, transfer and adjustment lines on the web.
• Add the Alternate Type values you need. Superseded is the only value with automatic behaviour. Other values you add to the picklist behave like Optional/Interchangeable.
• Number alternates automatically. To let records be saved without a typed name, add a document numbering setting for Item Alternate that writes the Name, under Setup → Design Studio → Entities → Item Alternate → Logic → Document Settings.

Common problems

I chose Cancel in the Alternate Items dialog, but the line still changed to the new item

On sales order, purchase order and invoice lines, a Superseded alternate in force today is applied when the line is saved, whatever you chose in the dialog. To sell or buy the old item, end the alternate (set Effective Till Date to yesterday) or change its type to Optional/Interchangeable, then add the line again.

The dialog still offers an alternate after its Effective Till Date

The web dialog and the Item 360 panel don't read Effective Till Date (see Business rules). Lines are no longer switched automatically, but the alternate is still listed and the dialog still preselects it. Select Cancel to keep your item. To stop it being listed, delete the alternate.

My existing lines didn't change when I added a Superseded alternate

The switch runs only when a line is added. Change the item on open lines by hand, or delete and add them again.

The alternate's Available and In Hand show zero or an old figure

These figures on the alternate record are not refreshed from stock. Use the Item 360 panel on the line form, which shows live stock for the line's company and branch, or the stock balances.

"Name '…' already exists" when saving an alternate

Another alternate already has that Name. Names are unique across your organization, so include both item codes in the name.

Sense never suggests an alternate for short stock

That suggestion uses the Available figure stored on the alternate record, which xMatix doesn't fill in. It doesn't appear in the shipped setup.

Common questions

Does an alternate work in both directions?

No. An alternate is recorded on the original item and points to the item that can replace it. If Item A lists Item B, people entering A are offered B, but people entering B are not offered A. When two products are fully interchangeable, create two records: one on A pointing to B, and one on B pointing to A, both as Optional/Interchangeable. Don't create the reverse record for a Superseded pair, or lines could be switched back to the old item.

How do I see which lines were switched to a new item?

Look at the line's Original Item. When a line was switched to a Superseded alternate, Original Item holds the item that was requested and Item holds the one that was used. On sales order, invoice and purchase order lines, picking an alternate in the web dialog also fills Original Item. You can add Original Item as a column to a line view or report to find switched lines.

Can I schedule a product replacement in advance?

Yes. Create the Superseded alternate now and set its Effective From Date to the changeover day. Until then, new lines keep the old item and the web dialog doesn't open. From that day, new lines are switched automatically. Lines added before the date keep the old item, so review open orders on the changeover day if they should move too.

Related topics

• Items (the item master)
• Item aliases
• Item relations (related items)
• Order lines
• Stock balances
• Sense nudges
• Item Alternate entity reference
• Item — entity reference