Control Groups and Controls Management

Essential knowledge

Author:

Fluent Commerce staff

Changed on:

27 Nov 2023

Overview

Rules or controls that determine what inventory is available in a Virtual Catalog

Controls can be used to:

Exclude SKUs or product categories from a virtual catalog
Manage buffer or safety stock by SKU, Category and/or Location

Key points

Explanation of Control and Control Groups
Control Types

Control Groups represent the collection of controls for a particular Virtual Catalogue. Controls include Buffers and Exclusions; a Buffer is a relative addition or subtraction applied in a Virtual Position calculation, and an Exclusion sets a Virtual Position to 0. Control Groups are created via the Fluent GraphQL API, as standard, a Control Group is created for each Virtual Catalogue with the Control Group reference added to the

`controlGroupRef`

field of the Virtual Catalogue it is associated with (read more about how Controls and Control Groups work here).

A Control represents a specific value to be applied as part of the AVAILABLE TO SELL calculation of a Virtual Position. Controls can be of multiple types, each of which determines how the control is applied and to what Virtual Positions. These can all then be prioritised to be calculated in specific orders or instead of other Controls.

Available to sell is by default calculated using the below formulas:

Formula

`If Exclusion applied: **AVAILABLE TO SELL** = 0`

If Buffer applied: **AVAILABLE TO SELL** = **STOCK ON HAND** + **BUFFER**

Below are the Control Group parameters:

Control Type: Supported control types can be:
```
`QUANTITY_BUFFER`
```
,
```
`EXCLUSION`
```
Control Group Ref: This is the identification parameter of the Control Group a Control is being created in. This means which Virtual Catalogue the Control will apply against.
Priority: A Control can be applied on multiple levels with a defined priority, highest or lowest. Priority specifies the execution order of Controls, including Buffers and Exclusions, and its value can be defined from 1 to 6.

The first eligible Control as defined by the priority will be applied in the available to sell calculation. In the Reference Inventory Module there is no stacking of Controls on a single Virtual Position.

Control	Control Ref	Execution Order	Description
Category Exclusion	`<CONTROL_GROUP_REF>:EXCLUSION:<CAT_REF>`	1	Sets the quantity to 0 for all the Virtual Position(s) associated with the SKU under the specified category.
SKU Exclusion	`<CONTROL_GROUP_REF>:EXCLUSION:<SKU_REF>`	2	Sets the quantity to 0 for all the Virtual Position(s) associated with the specified SKU.
SKU - Location Buffer	`<VIRTUAL_CATALOGUE_REF>:QUANTITY_BUFFER:<SKU_REF>:<LOCATION_REF>`	3	Reduces the onHand by the value specified in the control for all the Virtual Position(s) associated with the SKU and location.
SKU Buffer	`<VIRTUAL_CATALOGUE_REF>:QUANTITY_BUFFER:<SKU_REF>`	4	Reduces the onHand by the value specified in the control for all the Virtual Position(s) associated with the SKU.
Category Buffer	`<VIRTUAL_CATALOGUE_REF>:QUANTITY_BUFFER:<CAT_REF>`	5	Reduces the onHand by the value specified in the control for all the Virtual Position(s) associated with the SKU under the specified category.
Location Buffer	`<VIRTUAL_CATALOGUE_REF>:QUANTITY_BUFFER:<LOC_REF>`	6	Reduces the onHand by the value specified in the control for all the Virtual Position(s) associated with the location.

Fluent Commerce staff

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Control Groups and Controls Management

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