ANTE User ManualSimilar Items and Possible Duplicates
Ante helps keep one item per real product. While a new item is typed it shows items that already look the same, and Items → Possible Duplicates lists look-alike pairs so a manager can merge them into one.
What Counts as Alike
- Spaces, dashes, dots and capital letters are ignored:
CDQ2B-20andcdq2b 20are the same. - Close spellings (SMC / SNC) are offered too, below exact ones.
- The name and the model # are compared both ways (a model # typed in the name still matches).
- The same model # with the same maker is a strong match: a stronger warning. It never stops you saving — sometimes two items really are different.
While Creating an Item
- On Add Item, type the name or model #. When look-alikes exist, a box "Similar items already exist" appears under the fields, each with its SKU, model # and maker.
- Click Open item to go to the existing item instead of creating a twin.
The quick Create new item form on order lines (quotation, Sales Order, PO…) shows the same box; there, Use this item puts the existing item on the line and closes the form.
Possible Duplicates Report
Open Assets → Items → Possible Duplicates (managers with the Merge items permission). Each row is a pair: both items with SKU, model #, maker and stock, and how alike they are.
Merging Two Items
- Click Merge… on the pair.
- Choose the item to keep (by default the one with stock, else the older one).
- Type the SKU of the item being merged away to confirm, and add a reason if useful.
- Click Merge.
| What | What happens |
|---|---|
| Stock | Moves to the kept item; in the same warehouse the quantities add up. |
| Supplier prices | Move; when both had a price from the same supplier, the more recently updated one stays. Price history moves. |
| Customer names (aliases) | Move; the kept item's own name for a customer stays. |
| Receipts, reservations, BOMs, packing standards | Move to the kept item. |
| Document lines (quotations, orders, POs, deliveries, invoices…) | Point to the kept item. |
| The merged item | Deleted. Its SKU becomes the kept item's old code, so searching the old SKU still finds it. Blank fields on the kept item (model #, maker, lead time, MOQ / SPQ, main supplier) are filled from it. |
Two items with different units, a product and a service, item groups and variations cannot be merged. A merge cannot be undone.
Merge History
Below the pairs, every merge is listed: when, which item, what moved and who did it (with the reason). If the documents could not be updated at that moment, Update documents finishes it.
Give managers the Merge items permission under Settings → Roles → Assets → Items.
How It Connects
Gets its data from
- Item Master — the items compared.
Feeds into
- Item Prices — supplier prices of a merged item move to the kept one.
- Inventory — stock of a merged item is added to the kept one.