Master Data · Getting started · 7 min read

Get started with Master Data

The order in which to set up units, categories, geography, roles and switches before you enter customers, suppliers and products.

Before you begin

You need to be an administrator of the company to set up the shared lists. Day-to-day users need the permissions listed under step 7.

Set up in this order

Records refer to each other, so create the lists first and the contacts and products last.

1. Check the geography. Open Contacts > Configuration > Countries, States & regions and Cities & areas. The United Arab Emirates, its emirates and the main cities are normally present. Add only what is missing. A country has a Division name (for the UAE, Emirate) that becomes the label of the region picker on every address. These three lists are shared by every company. See Set up units, categories and other masters.
2. Create units of measure. Open Catalogue > Configuration > Units of measure. Give every unit a Dimension (count, weight, length, volume, area or time) and a Reference ratio: the quantity of the reference unit it equals (kg = 1, g = 0.001). Do this before products exist, because a unit used by a product can no longer be redefined.
3. Create product categories. Open Catalogue > Configuration > Product categories. Choose the costing method (Average cost, FIFO or Standard cost), valuation (Automated or Periodic) and the stock accounts. The category decides how its goods are valued.
4. Create brands, product groups, manufacturers and variant attributes under the same Configuration menu. A new company starts with the variant attributes Color, Size, Material, Capacity, Pack size and Flavor.
5. Define custom fields if you need them. Open Contacts > Configuration > Custom fields (or Catalogue > Configuration > Custom fields) to add company-specific fields to contacts or products.
6. Check payment terms and fiscal positions in Finance. Customer records pick from them, and a customer cannot use another company's term.
7. Give people their permissions.

The Master Data roles are Master data steward, Finance approver, Board and Auditor. Give approval permissions to someone other than the people who prepare the changes.

1. Decide the feature switches. Open Applications > Master Data > Features. Governed parties and sensitive changes and Field security are always on. You may turn off Duplicates and merges, Channel catalogues and assortments, Customer and supplier item codes, Substitutes and Governed imports. Also set the party field settings (Legal name in Arabic, Trading name, Legal form, Party website) to Hidden, Optional or Required.
2. Adopt existing partners. If the company already has customers and suppliers, open Master Data > Master Data > Dashboard and press Adopt N partners as parties. See Create and release a party.

Create your first records

• A customer or supplier: Create a customer or supplier.
• A product: Create and maintain a product.

Numbering

Contacts without a code are numbered CUST-00001, CUST-00002 and so on, including suppliers. You may type your own code of 2 to 30 letters, digits, underscores or hyphens; it is stored in capitals. Parties are numbered PTY-000001, bank and tax requests MCR-000001, merges MRG-000001, imports IMP-000001 and account mappings MAP-000001.