17 Item Alignment

When your organization does not use an enterprise management module to control data entry, different locations can enter the same item with slight variances. Item alignment allows administrators to configure Reporting and Analytics to recognize same items despite the input variances and force reports to combine their values. Item alignment consists of the following components:

• Item Alignment Rules: set the automatic item alignment baseline.

• Master Stores: set locations as master stores to define the default master items to which items align.

• Master Items: parent item instance under which items post and show in reports.

• Alias Items: aligned items designated as an acceptable name for catching alignment matches.

For example, a menu item sales report for an organization handles and shows the following different Coca-Cola entries as separate items:

Location	Menu Item Name	Number Sold	Revenue
Columbia	Co Cola	100	129.00
Los Angeles	Pop-Cola	125	250.00
Naples	Cola	100	300.00
Chicago	Co-Cola	400	600.00
New York City	Co-Cola	200	400.00

While the information shown in the report is useful for an detailed per-location report, a restaurant manager viewing the organization-wide sales report may expect a single consolidated entry for Coca Cola so comparisons can be made against other beverages. For example, you can configure item alignment to synchronize by the item name (or Name1). Reporting and Analytics automatically links the Columbia, Chicago, and New York City instances together and shows the following entries:

Menu Item Name	Number Sold	Revenue
Co Cola	700	1129.00
Pop-Cola	125	250.00
Cola	100	300.00

You can then use manual alignment to link the other two instances to the Master Item. The item alignment shows the following:

Master Item	Aligned Items
Co-Cola	Co-Cola Pop-Cola Cola

• Alignment Rules
  
• Creating Alignment Rules
  
• Setting a Master Store
  
• Manually Aligning Items
  
• Setting Item Alignment
  
• Changing the Alignment of an Item
  
• Unaligning an Item
  
• Merging Master Items
  
• Designating an Unaligned Item as a New Master Item
  
• Configuring Alignment Rules
  
• Menu Item Alignment with Multiple Master Stores