An In Store Code (also known as ISC or ISC Code, SKU or PLU) is a random assigned number between 1 and 14 digits. The only rule to the allocation of ISC is that each stock item ISC must be unique. The system will enforce this uniqueness without exception and will not under any circumstances allow duplicate ISC's.


ISC's are shown in the system for a foolproof method of locating a particular item, Both POS and HO revolve around it, they tie up multiple tables in the database such as stock, sales, transfers, stock levels, bartags for items with no barcode in fact anything involving stock and they are vital to the running of the system, as such the system guards them to maximum effect.

ISC codes should not be used for any type of business intelligence - they are vital to the system but while generally sequential they will regularly for a multitude of reasons depart from this.


How are ISC codes generated?

System Generated (highly recommended)

By default the system will allocate these for you and generally (but not always) they will be sequential. This is by far the best method of ISC generation and in over 30yrs of use has never failed.

When a stock item is added the system generates the next code. As Ramsys is multi-user this code is reserved. if the user abandons the save that code will be left, the next add will be the next number. This could result in a code of 122516 for an item while the very next one is 122518. 122517 will not be used.


Occasionally the system will audit the block of codes and if it finds a large enough block of unused codes it will reset the next ISC value, this could result in a scenario like:

An ISC of 185323 is generated, the very next one will be 115989.


Manually Generated (not recommended)

Ramsys may be set to allow you to generate your own numbers, in this case you will be asked for the ISC code, note Ramsys will still enforce uniqueness without exception. It requires you track the code manually, no-one does this for long.


In Summary

There have been many attempts to apply business logic to ISC codes, some of these may appear to work for a while but then fail. They are vital to the running of both the POS and HO and they work exceptionally well because they only obey the logic required by the system. This will never change and is the only field in the stock file you as a user cannot/should not control. If you really need a user defined code we suggest the ALTREF, this field has no bearing on the running of the system and may be searched/sorted on as easily as ISC code.