The EQ Catalog Switcher
The following explains how the Catalog Switcher works, with the most current updates in Jan 2023.
When you need to change products from one Supplier / Catalog to another, you can use the Catalog Switcher to do so. Follow these steps to use this feature most effectively.
View this walkthrough video, or detailed instructions are below it.
Step 1 – Select Items to Switch and Bring up the Catalog Switcher
Select all the common items (that are in the same “from” catalog) that you want to switch to the new catalog. Select them with the checkbox on the left of each item. You can use the top “Select All” checkbox as well.
Then choose the “Edit” menu and “Switch Items”.
When the Catalog Switcher comes up, it will prompt you to pick your “target” catalog you want to switch the line items to. Pick your target catalog. When you do, the Switcher will go through a mapping exercise and come up with the results.
Step 2 – Reconcile Unmatched Products
Once you pick your target catalog, the switcher will show you a few things:
1) Matched Items
These line items are blue in color, and the blue line indicates that it found an exact match in the target catalog you’re switching to. You don’t need to do anything with these items, if the exact match is what you want in the target catalog.
2) RED Line – No Match For Item
If any lines are RED, that means there was no matching code found in the target catalog. To fix red lines, click on the “To Code” magnifying glass and it will bring up the Product Finder to help you find the replacement product in the target catalog.
Notice in the resulting Product Finder, there are no matches for that code:
To find the desired replacement product, just use the Product Finder as usual to change the code that wasn’t found into something that is right for the target catalog. For example, if the B15-L in the example above is not found, you might just delete the “-L” part of the code and hit search. Then it would likely find just the B15 or B15L or whatever it is in the target catalog.
Do this for each red item to make a complete switch to your new catalog.
3) YELLOW Line – Multiple Matches Found
If you have any lines that are highlighted yellow, it means that there was a match found, but there are ALSO more that have the same “root” code match. Like this:
Here’s what we mean by “multiple matches”. If you click on the W4230 (highlighted yellow above) magnifying glass to bring up the Product Finder, it would show you this:
This is why this item is yellow. It DID find a W4230, but it ALSO found a W423015. So it turns it yellow just to let you know there is more than one match, so that you can ensure you have the one you want.
NOTE: On all yellow lines, if you just ignore them, and switch them without changing them, it will bring in the exact match that shows on that line. In this example, it would switch it to the W4230 as it’s showing. So you don’t have to do anything with yellow lines. It’s just telling you that you might want to look and see what the other matches are to make sure you have the one you really want.
4) Modifications
Modifications do NOT switch automatically between catalogs (since there are really no standard codes for mods between manufacturers). Any modifications on your line items will always show RED in the switcher. You can either find the replacement in the Switcher (just like you do for cabinets), or you can replace them after you do your switch. If you leave them red, the modification from the old catalog will be placed on the same item in the new catalog (but be marked as an unrecognized item of course) so that you know where you had them in the previous catalog and can deal with them as you want.
Once you’ve taken care of the red items, and have checked the yellow ones to ensure they’re what you want, and replaced your modifications, then hit the “Switch” button. The lines will be switched over to your new catalog.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1) When you switch items the selections are stripped off the items (since selections aren’t related from one manufacturer / catalog to another). So after switching to another catalog, you’ll need to pick your new selections in the Selections tab.
We continue to make improvements to the Catalog Switcher, and are working on making it much more intelligent and groundbreaking for the industry. Stay tuned.
Send us your feedback at support@breakfront.com
