Stores

Different stores have different prices for products, and you may not always shop from the same store.  So, MyListMate allows you to create as many stores as you like.  You are able to maintain different prices for the same product at different stores.  For example, you can tell MyListMate that a block of cheese at Store A costs $2.95, while at Store B it costs $2.80.  (See Pricing Products).  

However, Categories and Products do not belong to a particular store - they are available to all stores.  Therefore, you do not need to recreate products for every store you create.
 

Maintain Stores

You can maintain the list of available stores using the Maintain Stores button on the MyListMate Main Window.  When you click on this button, the Maintain Stores dialog will appear :

Use the toolbar attached to the Store List window to Add, Rename or Remove a store from the list.

Each store has an image associated with it.  This can be one of the standard images provided with MyListMate, or one of your own (See Preferences : Images).  You can change the image associated with a store by selecting the store in the list and then using the Bitmap combo box at the bottom of the dialog to select an image to use.

Change Current Store

The prices displayed in the Product Window on the Main Window are specific to the currently selected store.  You can change the current store using the Store Selector on the MyListMate Main Window.

Categories

Most stores display products in categories, with similar products alongside each other.  MyListMate also organizes products in categories and allows you to specify what these categories are and what order to print them on your list.  (See Preferences : Print Order).  By thinking about and creating your categories carefully you will save yourself time at the store by knowing exactly what you need to get and where to get it from.

You may like to name your categories after the aisles in your supermarket.
 

Maintain Categories

You can maintain the list of available categories using the Maintain Categories button on the MyListMate Main Window.  When you click on this button, the Maintain Categories dialog will appear :

 
Use the toolbar attached to the Category List window to Add, Rename or Remove a category from the list.

Each category has an image associated with it.  This can be one of the standard images provided with MyListMate, or one of your own (See Preferences : Images).  You can change the image associated with a category by selecting the category in the list and then using the Bitmap combo box at the bottom of the dialog to select an image to use.

Change Current Category

The products displayed in the Product Window on the Main Window are those that belong to the currently selected category.  You can change the current category using the Category Selector on the MyListMate Main Window.

Products

A Product in MyListMate represents something that you would buy at a store.  Examples of products are cheese, milk, carrots, apples, beer etc.  You need to create in the MyListMate database, all the products that you buy when you do your grocery shopping.  It is up to you whether you create all of the products at one time, or whether you add them 'as you go'.

When creating your products, don't worry about the size (or unit) of the product when trying to think of a description.  Units are handled as a separate property of each product.  For example, you should create the product Eggs and then add a Unit called 1 Doz, rather than creating a product called 1 Doz Eggs.  The reason for this is that MyListMate allows you to have multiple units for each product, and each unit can have its own price (See Units).
 

Maintain Products

Maintenance of products is performed in the Product Window on the Make List page of the Main MyListMate window.

There are six main operations that can take place when maintaining a product :

• Add Product

• Rename Product

• Remove Product

• Maintain Units

• Change Category

• Enter / Override Price

These operations are available in a number of different ways.  Use whichever method is easiest for you.

Application's Product menu	Product Toolbar attached to the Product Window	Context menu, activated by right-clicking on the Product Window

Search ...

This option opens the Product Search window, which you can use to find Products in the MyListMate database.  Use the Product Search window to look for a product whose full name or category you can't remember, or to find the best price for an item from multiple stores.
 

Add Product

This option adds a new product to the database and the Product Window.  The product will be named according to your settings in Preferences : General.  When MyListMate is first installed, the default name for a new product is New Product.  The newly created product will appear in the Product Window in alphanumeric order, and will be placed in edit mode ready for you to change the description.

Edit Product

Before using this option, you must have selected the product you want to change.  This option will put you in edit mode on the current product so that you can change its description, price or units.

Delete

Before using this option, you must have selected the product you want to remove.  This option will remove the product permanently from the database.  MyListMate will ask you to confirm the deletion before it actually removes the product.

Maintain Units

Before using this option, you must have selected the product you want to change.  This option will bring up the Maintain Units dialog and allow you to maintain the available units for the product.  (See Units).

Change Category

Before using this option, you must have selected the product you want to change.  This option will display allow you to select a new category for the product.  Having chosen the new category, the product will disappear from the current Product Window and will be displayed when you select the new category.

Units

Each product in the database has its own set of units allocated to it.  It is up to you to define the set of units available for any product.  These units can be selected from the included set of standard units or you can decide on your own set of units to allocate to a product.

One of the biggest advantages of having multiple units for each product is the ability to assign a price to each unit.  This means that you can add one product called Milk (for example), add all the unit sizes that you buy and then set a price for each unit.
  

Add Units Automatically

You can define up to 4 units which will be added automatically to each New Product created.  This can save you time when maintaining new products if a lot of your products have common units (eg Each, kg etc)

See Preferences : General
 

Maintain Units

You can maintain the list of available units for a product by :

• Right-clicking on the product and choosing Maintain Units from the context menu that appears.

• Clicking on the Maintain Units button on the Product Toolbar.

• Choosing maintain Units from the application's Product menu.

 Having chosen this option, the Maintain Units dialog will appear :

A set of standard units are included in the Standard Units list on the left.  Any of these can be added to the Product Units list (right), by selecting a unit and clicking on the Add Standard Unit button.  If you would like some more units added to the list of Standard Units, please send us the suggestion via our Contact form. 

 
Use the toolbar attached to the Product Unit list window to Add, Rename or Remove a unit from the list.

The checkbox on the left side of the Product Unit box shows you which of the units is the Default unit for the product.  The default unit is the one that is displayed whenever the current category changes and the products for that category are listed in the Product Window.

There can be only one default unit for a product.

Pricing Products

The correct pricing of products is important, as it will affect the total on lists that you create.

The prices that you maintain on your products through the Product Window are estimated prices.  There are a number of different approaches that you can take towards pricing the products in MyListMate.

1) You could set the price once when you create the product and leave it unchanged from then on.  This may lead to large variations between your estimated total and your actual total.

Pricing Suggestions

When you first run MyListMate and start setting up products, we suggest that you have the receipt from your last grocery shopping at hand.  As you create your products, enter the price that the product cost last time.

2) You could update the price manually every time you shop after entering Actual prices against your list.  This can be time consuming and may not be as accurate as it seems it could be.  For example, the price for a product may take a dive one week when it is on special and then skyrocket the next week when it comes off special.

3) You could use the Average Pricing feature of MyListMate to automatically calculate average prices for all products in the MyListMate database, using the Actual price history you have entered for the product.  Over a period of time, this method will probably give you the best results.

Updating Actual Prices

When you Update Actual details on a list for a product, the Actual price is stored against that list.  The price in the database for the product remains unchanged.  Storing the Actual price against the list allows you to run the Calculate Average pricing tool to change your product prices, if you want to.

To update a price for a product manually see below left.

 
Manually Entering a Price

Of course there are times (such as when you first add a new product) when you will want to enter a price for a product manually.  This is easy to do and can be accomplished relatively quickly.

If you only want to change the price of the product simply select the product in question and then click in the Price column for that product.  An in-place edit box will appear for you to enter a new price.  When finished, press ENTER.

If you need to change more than just the price for a product, then highlight the product you want to change and then choose Edit Product from the Product context menu.  You could also use the Edit Product button on the Product Toolbar or choose Edit Product from the Product menu.

After selecting the Edit Product option using one of the methods described above, the Edit Product dialog will appear.  Simply enter the new price for the product and click on OK.

To apply the new price to the Product in all stores, check the Apply price to all stores checkbox before clicking OK.
 

If you find that the prices of products at your store fluctuate a lot and are up some weeks and down the next, then you might like to try using the Average Pricing feature of MyListMate.

The Average Pricing tool works its way through all of the products in the MyListMate database, looking for Actual prices that you have entered for existing lists.  Prices that are found are used to calculate an average price for the Product which is then updated in the database.

You can access the Average Pricing tool by choosing Calculate Average Prices from the Tools menu.

To ensure that your list has the most up to date prices for the products it contains, you can choose the Reload Prices option from the List menu.  
This will reload the estimated prices for all of the products in the list from the product information in the database.