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Introduction

A common question our trainers and support experts get is “How can I delete inventory items that we don’t need?”

First of all, you can’t delete any item (regardless of type) that has history. (in other words, any item that has been used somewhere in Total Office Manager). These must be inactivated. You can, however, delete any item that does not have history.

If an item has been used in a Group Item (like a motor that is part of a motor replacement Group Item), the Group Item must be deleted first. Here’s how:

Open the Invoice Item list. From the main menu click Customers > Invoice Item List.

Use Total Office Manager’s Advanced Filter Bar at the top of the Invoice Item List form to filter Invoice Items by their type – in this case “Group”. Select one item or select multiple items (see Tips below), click the Items button and select Delete.

Item Cleanup Utilities

Total Office Manager includes a great utility called Item Cleanup Unused and another one called Item Cleanup Used. These utilities are used to delete items that have no history or inactivate items that have been used (have history). From the main menu, click Tools | Utilities. Select the utility called Item Cleanup Unused to delete items that have no history. Select Item Cleanup Used to inactivate items that do have history.

Tips

  • We recommend that you ask everyone to log out of Total Office Manager when you are deleting a large number of items. This will improve speed and prevent possible errors.
  • Deleting items can be a slow process. If Total Office Manager is installed on your server and you have a lot of items to delete, you may wish to delete these from your server (rather from a workstation). This will result in a huge speed improvement.
  • You can rename an item; even if it has history. In other words, you can change a part number from TUE060C100A to TUE060C100A_OLD. The TUE060C100A_OLD item number maintains all of its history. This is handy if you wish to reuse a part number but start the history over again.
  • You can select multiple items by pressing and holding down the Ctrl key while click a line item. You can select a range of items by highlighting a row, pressing and holding down the Shift key, and clicking another row. All of the rows (items) in between will be selected.
  • If you try to delete an item that has history, Total Office Manager will notify you that the item can’t be deleted and that you should inactivate it instead. Click the Ok to All button to have Total Office Manager skip warning you about every single item.
  • Use the Advanced Filter Bar (at the top of the Invoice Item list) to filter your items by Vendor, Manufacturer, etc. Don’t forget about the Form Preferences feature under the Actions button. This feature allows you to add or remove columns to the form. Columns can then be sorted or rearranged to meet your needs.

Related Content

Items – Invoice Item List
Tips – Delete (How To)