Stock levels for components

[jxm28788]

I have a product which can be sold individually or in boxes of 10.

Lets say I have 5 boxes of 10 in stock. So I can sell 5 boxes or 50 individuals or some combination.

How do I set up the products so that both the indiciduals and boxes go out of stock appropriately (ie. if I have 9 items left then the boxes are out of stock, but the individual items are still ok) and so that they both take the appropriate number from stock when they are ordered?

The way I have it set up now allows the right number to be deducted but the boxes don't recognise I'm out of stock... doh!

[cdicken]

Fairly straight foreward.

Within your 'Box of ten' product, create a component called 'Amount of items' (or something).

Associate this component with the individual item product, and then set the 'Quantity' field to '10'. This means that 10 of the component will be sold with each 'Box of 10' product.

[jxm28788]

one the 'box of 10' product should stock monitoring be switched on or off?

And if there are 40 individual items do I list the stock level as 40 or 4?

[jxm28788]

If I switch stock monitoring off for the 'box of 10' product then it decreases the individual item by the correct amount but doesn't give any out of stock warnings - which is no good.

If I switch stock monitoring ON for the 'box of 10' product then it still decreases the individual item by the correct amount (10) AND decreases it's own stock level by the right amount (1), but if I order the individual items it doesn't decrease the box amount -

Example

Chocolate bar - 50 in stock
Chocolate bar 'saver' pack (box of 10) - 5 in stock
(obviously these are the same items, when I need to sell them individually I open a box - So I have 50 items OR 5 boxes OR some valid combination)

If I order 2 boxes, the stock levels change to 30 bars and 3 boxes - CORRECT

If I then order 12 bars, the stock levels change to 18 bars and 3 boxes - INCORRECT - I am only able to sell 1 box of 10 but it thinks I have 3...

Is there any way around this? Is this a limitation, bug or a config error?

[Pneumatus]

Why complicate it with bars and boxes? If you were only dealing in bars, the box product deletes 10 bars, the bar product deletes one - The only thing is that you will need to use your discresion when packing as to whether to open a box for single items...

[jxm28788]

My point is that I want to stop people ordering boxes if there are less than 10 items (but obviously let people keep ordering bars)

although I suppose I could list the qty of individual bars on the box stock and tell it to go out of stock on less than 10...?

[jxm28788]

Having re-read your post I think I misunderstood what you said. What you are suggesting sounds like what I was doing - but that method doesn't work - how do you configure the boxes to go 'out of stock'?

[jxm28788]

even worse.

If the bars run out (stock = 0) they are marked 'out of stock', however the customer can still select the box of bars (the box doesnt say 'out of stock'). But when they try to add it to the basket it says -

"We are sorry, the combination you selected is unavailable at present due to chocolate bar being out of stock."

But if there are still bars in stock, but not enough for a box it lets you add it...

so it won't let you order a box if there's no bars (even though it indicates they are in stock), but it does let you buy a box if there are some bars but not enough for a box...

it completely inconsistent.

[cdicken]

As discussed in one of your threads elsewhere, stock monitoring is done on the desktop and not on the web site.

so it won't let you order a box if there's no bars (even though it indicates they are in stock),

Technically, it is the component that is out of stock, rather than the product. This is why the 'Add to Cart' button is not removed.

but it does let you buy a box if there are some bars but not enough for a box...

I agree this is strange, but not inconsistent. The 'chocolate bar' product is not marked as being out of stock, therefore the component does not have the 'out of stock' flag assigned, which means that no error message is given. The stock level is not debited online as the order is being placed, so the box of chocolate bars never alerts the customer to the stock situation.

At the moment, this is working as it was designed to work - but I understand this does not meet your specifications.