Units of Measure (UOM) are essential for defining how your products are tracked, stored, and sold in your inventory. This guide will walk you through setting up and managing your units of measure to ensure accurate inventory control.
Every product in your inventory must have a base UOM that defines how individual units are stored, managed, and sold. Think of this as your product's primary counting method - whether it's "each," "kg," "litres," or any other unit that makes sense for your business.
Beyond the base UOM, you can also set up alternative UOMs per product. This powerful feature allows you to purchase stock in one unit, e.g., cases or pallets, while automatically converting it to your base UOM for accurate inventory tracking. For detailed information on this functionality, see our Multiple Units of Measure guide.
Tutorial Video
Working with Multiple Units of Measure
Manage Units of Measure
Add a Unit of Measure
Before you can assign UOMs to your products, you need to create them in your system settings:
From the main menu, go to Settings > System > Units of Measure.
Enter a unique Unit of Measure Name.
Click Add.
Important: The name of a UOM cannot be edited once created, so choose your naming convention carefully before adding units.
Obsolete a Unit of Measure
Sometimes you'll need to phase out a UOM without completely removing it from your system, as it is no longer in use but has previously been. The obsolete function is perfect for this:
From the main menu, go to Settings > System > Unit of Measure.
Locate the UOM you want to obsolete.
Tick the Obsolete checkbox in that UOM's row.
Important Limitations: You cannot obsolete a UOM if it's currently being used as:
A base UOM for any product.
A default purchasing unit for any product or supplier.
If the Obsolete checkbox appears greyed out, this means the UOM is still actively assigned and must be replaced on all products and suppliers before it can be obsoleted.
To restore an obsoleted UOM:
From the main menu, go to Settings > System > Unit of Measure.
Above the UOM's grid, tick the Show Obsolete checkbox.
Locate the obsolete UOM.
Untick its Obsolete checkbox.
Delete a Unit of Measure
For UOMs created in error or never used in your system, complete deletion is possible:
Navigate to Settings > System > Unit of Measure.
Click the bin icon next to the UOM you want to delete
You can only delete UOMs that haven't been used on any products or in any transactions.
Using Units of Measure
Once your UOMs are set up in the system, they become the foundation for accurate inventory management across all your business processes. Each product's base UOM is critical because it determines how records, reports, and transactions display and manage your inventory:
Stock on Hand (SOH) is always shown in the base UOM.
Stock Adjustments are processed in the base UOM.
Assembly operations use the base UOM.
Warehouse Transfers are recorded in the base UOM.
Sales Orders default to the base UOM.
Assign a base UOM
Once a product has been used in any transaction, its base UOM becomes locked and cannot be changed. This ensures data integrity and prevents historical transaction inconsistencies. Plan your base UOM carefully before processing any transactions.
To assign a base Unit of Measure to a product:
Open the product's record.
In the Details tab, scroll down to Units of Measure.
Click "Add New".
In the "Add Base Unit of Measure" window, use the Unit of Measure drop-down menu to select the base UOM.
Enter the following optional details for the base UOM:
Pack Size
Barcode
Weight
Width
Height
Depth
Click Add.
Each product's base UOM's weight, width, height, and depth dimensions will be used to calculate the weight and volume of the Sales Orders and Shipments they're included on. Whilst their base UOM's barcode number will be used to support the barcode scanning functionality available when processing Stock Counts, Warehouse Transfers, and Shipments, and generating barcode images for products in Doc Designer templates.
Advanced Unit of Measure features
For businesses that need to purchase in different units than they sell, alternative UOMs provide powerful automation. For example, you might:
Purchase beverages by the case but sell by the bottle.
Buy fabric by the roll but sell by the metre.
Purchase chemicals by the drum but dispense by the litre.
These scenarios are handled seamlessly through alternative UOMs with automatic conversion. For complete details on setting up and using these advanced features, refer to Multiple Units of Measure.