Item Type Limits by Household Size

This article shows you how to use PantrySoft's Inventory Rule features to create item type limits and item limits by household size.

Overview Definition

In PantrySoft, Household Rules (sets of household sizes like 1-2 household members) are paired with Item Type Limits (quantity limits like 3 of any Fruit item). This allows you to set up dynamic quantity limits for your item rows/ item categories (for instance, limit households of 1-2 people to 3 of any Fruit item).

(For a more complete example, you have two Household Size rules set for 1-2 and 3-99; you go to the Item Type screen and set up the Fruit Inventory Type to limit 1-2 person households to 5 total fruit, and 3+ households to 10 total fruits. With this setup, a user visiting your pantry with 3 household members would get to choose a total of 10 fruit items.)

Detailed Definitions

Out of the box, every organization using PantrySoft has a single Household Rule: 1-99 household members. By visiting the Household Rules screen, an admin can divide that single rule up into multiple rules: for instance 1-2 members, 3-4 members, and 6+ members. Once these household size groups have been established, admins are ready to set limits based on a combination of Item Type and Household Rule. 

In PantrySoft, Item Type Limits such as the one in the example above include another limit: a Default limit for each item within that Item Type (each item in the row). These, too, are paired with the Household Rules you've set up, and this allows you to forgo specifying distribution rules for every individual item (although you can still do this with Item Limits (see following paragraph).

(For instance, in the example above, you go the Item Type screen for Fruit and set up a Default item limit of 2 for your "1-2  members" set, and set that limit to 4 for your "3+members" set. As before, a household with 3 members can have 10 total fruit, but now they can only grab a max of 4 of any one thing in that row: 4 Apples, 4 Pears, 4 Kiwis, etc... until they hit the row limit you set above of 10 total Fruit)

Finally, if you need to give a single item its own quantity limit (overriding the Default for its Item Type/row), set up an Item Limit. This is a quantity limit for each Household Rule for one particular stand-out item in the row.  
(For instance, you have another fruit item Banana but you don't have very many on hand. So you want to make a special rule for Bananas that's smaller than the Fruit Item Type default.)

Setting Up Item Distribution Rules

The following instructions will guide you through setting up Item Limits for your storefront, based on household size. They assume you're setting up a pantry from scratch, so the setup progression here is: 

1. Set up / Modify Household Rules
2. Set up Item Type Rules
   Within a single Item Type, set up row-total limits and a default per-item limit; do this for every Household Rule (household size grouping) you created.
3. Optionally set up an Item Rule
   
   

(You can revisit any stage of these instructions to tweak your setup once you're done.)

Setting up Household Rules

Perform the following steps to divide the default household rule of 1-99 into multiple ranges of household size (according to your pantry workflow):

1. Go to Inventory->Household Rules
   If you're setting up your rules for the first time, you'll see the following default rule, establishing a single set of households with 1 to 99 members:
   
   
   
2. Add Another Rule
   Click the Plus button to add another rule. This adds another row representing another set of household sizes, this one from 98 to 99:
   
   
   
3. Change Maxes
   Note that you can only adjust the Max on any given row and not the Min, adjust the Max of the first row to the maximum household size for your first rule (i.e., "3" for a bottom tier of "1-3"). Tab or click away, and the second tier will automatically adjust its Min to one above its predecessor's new Max, like so:
   
   
   
4. Craft Remaining Tiers
   Repeat the process until the tiers of Household Sizes are exactly as you like them (Below you'll see three tiers altogether)
   
   
   
5. (optional) Name the Tiers
   The names of each tier will only appear in other setup screens, but if your pantry already has a naming system for these household size brackets (for instance, assigning them colors), name the tiers accordingly to avoid confusion.
   
   
6. No Need to Save and Exit
   This particular screen has no Save button because every change you make is saved automatically.

Setting up Item Type Rules.

Perform the following steps to set up a set of Item Type Rules for the "Fruit" Item Type (storefront row):

1. Perform Basic Setup
   Name the Item Type (i.e. "Fruit"), and give it a background color and Symbol Type if you so choose.
   
   
2. Note the Effect of Your Household Size Setup
   Notice that you have a series of rows matching the Household Sizes you set up earlier, each with a Limit and a Default.
   
   
3. Create a (row) Limit and a (per-item) Default for Each Household Size
   For each household size, choose a Limit (maximum distribution-quantity for the entire row) and a Default (per-item quantity limit for the entire row).
   
   
   Limit Per Visit Detail After Setup
   With this setup for Fruit, a family of 2 (first household size bracket) could get a total of 5 fruit, but only 2 of any one kind.
   
   
4. (optional) Make Another Item Type
   For practice, create one more item; in this example, we created another Item Type called Meat, which we'll reference in the next session. Pantries typically have 4 or more of these categories, but some use simpler schemes.
   
   
5. Save and Exit

Setting Up Item Rules (Optional)

Perform this step only if you want a single item in a storefront row to have different quantity limits than the default imposed upon its fellow row items:

1. Create or Edit an Item
   Go to Inventory->Items and click New Item or Edit on an existing Item.
   
   
2. Assign the Fruit Item Type.
   After setting up the "aesthetic" fields (name, banana icon, background color) and other details, note that the Limit per Visit per Household Size panel changes as you switch Item Types
   (figure below: See item limits change when you switch between Meat Item Type and the Fruit Item Type).
   
   Inventory Item Screen: Item Type and Limit Per Visit Detail:
   Item Type before and after changing from an initial "Meat" Item Type to the "Fruit" item type.
   Note that the Limits for each household size change in the "Fruit" version to reflect the Default values that were set up for "Fruit" in the prior section (Setting up Item Type Rules)
   
   
3. Prepare to override a row Limit.
   Click the plus sign to override the value for this one particular item.
   (The panel shown below in two versions only reflects the default value assigned to this item, a default it inherits from its Item Type Rule's Default. This is why all of the rows seen above are currently grey. Notice how the row you're modifying drops its greyed-out color and becomes white like the other fields after clicking the plus sign. This is because you're about to add a new rule at the Item level, and the Default imposed by the Item Type level has been removed (see below). The field now awaits an overridden Limit.)
   
   
4. Change the Limit and Exit.
   Change the Limit to match this particular item's actual per-item limit. Then Save and Exit.
   (In the example below, we've set the Limit for Bananas for the largest of households from its default 5 to 10 (we got in a lot of bananas).
   (figure below: overriding an item limit on the last row— the last age bracket— for the item)
   
   
   Bananas before and after clicking plus sign and changing overriding the Limit to 10.