Reordering a plush otter should not require a scavenger hunt. But in plenty of museum and zoo gift shops, the buyer pulls a low-stock list out of Altru, then opens a vendor catalog, a three-year-old invoice, or a sticky note on the stockroom shelf to figure out what the supplier actually calls that otter. The item name in Altru says “Otter Plush 12in.” The vendor’s order form wants “SK-40917.”
The fix is to keep the vendor’s part number somewhere tied to the Altru item, so whoever builds the purchase order can see both at once. How you do that depends on what your Altru merchandise setup exposes, so this guide starts with how to check, then covers the workarounds that hold up over time.
First, find out what your Altru setup already has
Altru’s merchandise area tracks items, departments, categories, vendors, and inventory, and each item has its own identifier and can carry a barcode. What is less clear-cut is whether there is a dedicated place for a vendor’s own item number that prints on a purchase order or shows up in a reorder list. We would rather not guess on that, because it can vary with how your database was configured and which features your organization uses.
Before building anything, spend twenty minutes confirming:
- Open an existing merchandise item and its vendor information. Look for any field that stores a supplier-specific number, not just the vendor name or cost.
- Check what a purchase order shows. If you create purchase orders in Altru, look at what prints for each line. If the vendor’s number is not there, your staff will keep translating by hand.
- Check whether merchandise items support attributes in your database. Attributes are the usual way to add a custom field in Altru. If merchandise items do not offer them, that rules out the cleanest workaround.
- Ask Blackbaud support or test in a sandbox. If you are unsure, a quick support case asking “where do we store a supplier’s part number on a merchandise item?” will get you a definitive answer for your version.
If you find a native field, use it and stop reading. If not, pick one of the options below.
Workarounds that hold up
Use the manufacturer’s barcode when it exists
A lot of packaged retail goods arrive with a UPC already printed on them. If you scan that UPC into the item’s barcode in Altru instead of printing your own label, the manufacturer’s identifier is now attached to the item. This works well for books, packaged snacks, and branded toys. It does not help for items where the vendor’s catalog number is different from the UPC, or for custom goods with no barcode at all.
Add an attribute, if available
If your Altru database lets you add attributes to merchandise items, create one called something plain like “Vendor item number.” Keep it a text field, since many supplier codes mix letters, numbers, and dashes. Once it exists, you can pull it into a merchandise query alongside quantity on hand, so your reorder list shows the vendor’s number in the same row. This is the closest thing to a real field without leaving Altru.
Put it in the item description, consistently
This is the low-tech version, and it works if you are disciplined about it. Append the vendor code in a fixed format, for example Otter Plush 12in [SK-40917]. The brackets make it easy to spot and easy to strip out later. The downsides: it can show up on receipts or online listings depending on where that description is used, and long names get cut off on some screens. Check where the description appears before you commit to this.
Keep a crosswalk spreadsheet keyed to the Altru item
Many shops end up here. One spreadsheet, one row per item, with the Altru item identifier, the item name, the vendor, the vendor’s item number, case pack size, and the minimum order. The key is the Altru identifier, not the item name, because names drift. When you run your reorder query, export it and match on that identifier to pull in the vendor numbers.
The weak spot is upkeep. New items get added in Altru and nobody updates the sheet. Assign one person to own it, and add “update the vendor sheet” to whatever checklist you use for setting up a new item.
Picking the right option
- Mostly branded, pre-barcoded goods: the manufacturer’s UPC as the Altru barcode covers most of your catalog.
- Many vendors with their own catalog codes: an attribute if you have one, otherwise the crosswalk sheet.
- Small shop, one buyer, a few dozen items: the bracketed description is fine, as long as you have confirmed it will not look odd on receipts.
Whichever you choose, mixing methods is where it falls apart. If half the items carry the code in the name and the other half live in a spreadsheet, the buyer is back to hunting. Pick one rule and apply it to every item, including the ones you set up next month.
Cleaning up the existing catalog
Backfilling vendor numbers for an established shop is tedious but finite. Start with the items you reorder most often, since those are where the time savings show up. Pull them from recent purchase orders or vendor invoices, which usually list the supplier’s code right next to the description. Leave discontinued and one-off items for last, or skip them entirely.
Once the numbers are in place, build or adjust your reorder query to include them. The goal is a single list a buyer can read top to bottom and type straight into a vendor’s order form.
Quick answers
Can the vendor number print on an Altru purchase order?
That depends on whether the number lives in a field Altru uses on purchase orders. A description-based workaround would likely appear; an attribute or spreadsheet would not. Test with one item before relying on it.
What if one item comes from two vendors?
A single attribute or description tag only holds one code. The crosswalk spreadsheet handles this best, with one row per vendor for the same Altru item.
