Setting stock level by category instead of product

[bobismyuncle73]

I'm wondering if there's a way to set stock levels by category instead of product.

 

In my case, I have an online store that's selling workshop registrations.

 

We charge different fees to members, non-members, and students.  As a result, our three products are: member rate, non-member rate, and student rate.

 

The place where the workshop will be has a room limit of 50. (fire code regulations).

 

So I have a hard limit of 50 registrations available, but I have no idea what the breakdown will be, so I can't set stock levels by each product.

 

I'd like to be able to put in an automatic cut-off, just so i'm not in a position of cancelling on people after they've registered.

 

 

[bsmither]

Welcome bobismyuncle73! Glad to see you made it to the forums.

 

From your description, I would look into just setting prices - not stock levels - for the three customer classes: member, non-member, and student.

 

It will take a bit of work to move your customers to their designated class (if known), and then create the price structure for the inventory.

 

It may be rather easy to create an admin page that will allow you to manage this in a "master list" type of display.

 

But to answer your question, I think a stock CubeCart is not coded to manage "stock levels" associated with categories. Nor am I finding a third-party mod at www.cubecartforums.org that will do this.

[bobismyuncle73]

Welcome bobismyuncle73! Glad to see you made it to the forums.

 

From your description, I would look into just setting prices - not stock levels - for the three customer classes: member, non-member, and student.

 

It will take a bit of work to move your customers to their designated class (if known), and then create the price structure for the inventory.

 

It may be rather easy to create an admin page that will allow you to manage this in a "master list" type of display.

 

But to answer your question, I think a stock CubeCart is not coded to manage "stock levels" associated with categories. Nor am I finding a third-party mod at www.cubecartforums.org that will do this.

Setting prices would not address my issue at all.  

 

My issue is that I have a fixed number of workshop spaces avaiable (which is 50), and a variable number of customers and customer classes who are registering.  I already have the three customer classes created as products, I just can't set stock levels for them.  It doesn't matter to me in the end if I get 40 members and 10 non-members registering...or 40 non-members and 10 members registering, just as long as I don't go over 50 in the end.  

 

If I can't control stock at the category level, I'll probably have to switch to manual registration when I get close to 50.

[bsmither]

"I have the three customer classes created as products."

 

From your description, I understand that a customer purchases a "Student Attendance Ticket", for example. Then somehow identifies what workshop to attend.

 

That may be less than the best solution. I would be curious to know: if the customers are the products, how are the workshops associated with them? Are the workshops considered as product options? I am interested to learn of your approach. Once I fully understand the reasons you took this approach, a mod could be written to check the sum-total of registrations against a workshop (as an option???) spread across several products.

 

However....

 

If one were to consider the workshop, "Under-Water Basket Weaving", as the 'product', then there is an easy solution to limiting the attendance to 50 - a 'stock level' for this workshop. Each workshop could have as a product option, the date that this workshop is given -- assuming the workshop is an ongoing endeavor. CC5 now offers independent stock levels for each product option or combination of options.

[bobismyuncle73]

There is only "one" workshop for participants to attend.  We charge a fee for the workshop for more of a cost recovery activity than a for profit one.

 

Members get a lower rate because they've already paid a membership fee.  Non-members pay more because they haven't paid a membership fee, and this can help to encourage people to become members as well.  Students get a lower rate because they're students.

 

Being able to converse with someone about this has got me looking at this a different way now.  I could have created a single workshop as a product, then assign option sets which would include member, non-member, and student. It'd be the same as having 3 different sizes of a t-shirt available.  That way I can charge three different prices for the same product, when I only have "50" product spaces, and then I should be able to set a single product level amount, and that should solve my issue I think.

 

I haven't done option sets before but I think I'll be able to figure it out easily enough now that I'm on the right track.

 

Thanks.

[bsmither]

"Then assign option sets which would include member, non-member, and student. It'd be the same as having 3 different sizes of a t-shirt available."

 

One is certainly able to look at it that way. You may come to realize that a customer can choose whatever size t-shirt is wanted. There is no mechanism in place to make sure the customer chooses the most appropriate size.

 

Given that, I will assume you have a mechanism in place to enforce that any given customer did, in fact, choose to pay the appropriate price/option.

[bobismyuncle73]

You're right, they could order whatever they want.  But I also have a membership list I can cross reference with, and we have a registration desk to get into the workshop, which is another level of vetting.  It's 50 people max, and more likely 30-35'ish.  When I see the orders come in, I personally know most of these people already.  If I see someone new, it's not much work to vet them.  If there's an error/mistake, i can address that as well.

 

Before we were processing registrations by e-mail/fax, and all the payments were by cash or cheque. This is way, way better.

[bobismyuncle73]

Since I created the option set, the store I created is working really well, with the option set including: member, non-member, and student, as selection choices. Each of these has a different price.

 

To make that work, I had to set the workshop price as "zero", and then assign prices to the three options.  This allowed me to set an inventory level for the workshops, so I can stop registrations when we reach 50. (because we can't have more than 50 for the room because of fire code regulations).

 

On the "dashboard", it's showing all the registrations, but the sales amounts are showing as zero dollars, because the general workshop price is set as zero.  On the "sales report" screen, all the orders show with the correct amount being charged.

 

The store will not let people register unless they select an option (which is great since I don't want people registereding for free). Everything is really working as it should.  I'm just wondering if there is way for me to configure the dashboard to account for the price of the options and not use the "zero" price I have right now.  It's really a minor issue, it'd just be nice to see the sales reflected on the chart on the dashboard.

[Dirty Butter]

I can't help with Options, as I don't use them. But I do know the option feature is improving with every upgrade. It might help to know which version of CC you are currently on.