When working as a NAV end user, I lost count of how many times our company wanted to add attributes to items, but did not have the available field or space to add it to the description field. One of the great new features in Dynamics Nav 2017 is unlimited Item Attributes that can be defined by the customer or user.
The main benefits of using Item Attributes are:
- Unlimited number of attributes per item
- You can set own item attributes, examples could be length, width, diameter, colour, manufactured by, etc.
- Filter the item list using the item attributes.
Setting up new item attributes is relatively quick and easy too.
- Setup item attributes
- Allocate the attributes to an item category code
- Set the item category against individual SKU’s / items.
1. Setting up item attributes
Type Item Attributes into the search box:
Click New to create your new attribute:
Give your new item attribute a name. I have used Length in the example shown below:
When creating a new item attribute, you can choose from one of the following types:
- Option - predefined list of values. Continuing to use Length as an example, we could set the values as Long and Short.
- Text – You can type free text when selecting this attribute type.
- Integer – This is a whole number
- Decimal – We can use this for non-integer numbers.
If we select the type decimal another field will appear where we can populate the unit of measure. For this example I have used millimetres (mm):
You can also block Item Attributes if required.
2. Allocate item attributes to item categories
Type Item Categories into the search box.
Click New to create a new Item Category. I have created a parent called STEEL BAR and two children called HOLLOW and SOLID.
Let’s look at the parent first and how to allocate the attributes.
You can see I have created an item category code and description. Then in the item category lines I have selected Length, Outer Diameter, Steel Type and Thread Type:
Now let’s look at one of the item category children.
I have created an item category code and description. But in the parent category field I have selected the category STEEL BAR. This has then auto populated the item category card line with the attributes from the parent. These are shown in bold and you can see where the attributes are inherited from.
We can add further attributes such as the Internal Diameter. This would not be required on the solid bar item category.
3. Set the item category against individual SKU’s / items
Type Item in the search box. Create a new item and select the Item Category as shown below:
Then click on the attributes button and populate the values:
These attributes will also be displayed in the fact box as shown below:
Setting up item attributes is quick and easy, and display the specifications that make up your products.
Good luck!
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