Original publication date: February, 2006

How the Product Code and Product Description Fields Affect Profiles

This month, I'd like to discuss the roles that the product code and description fields play in the creating and editing of profiles. These fields are found in the client record.

But before I discuss the roles these fields play in the creating and editing of profiles, I'd like to discuss the roles they don't play in this process. Adding product codes or a product description to a client record is not the same as creating a profile for that client. Profiles must be created from the client record by clicking the New Profile button.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's discuss how the product code fields affect your search profiles. When you create a profile for a client, Softshare 'CATS, by default, transfers any previously assigned product codes, with the exception of Harmonized codes, as search terms into the new search profile. These transferred product codes are only meant to be part of the search profile. Your profiles should always consist of more than just product codes so be sure that you also include as many descriptive keywords as possible when initially creating a client's search profile.

When you create a profile for a client, only the product codes are transferred into the search profile, as I described in the previous paragraph. The text, if any, that is contained in the Product Description field, is never sent to Softshare and is not included in the profile. The Product Description field is simply there for your center's internal purposes.

If you add or edit a client's product codes after a profile has been created for that client, Softshare 'CATS will automatically prompt you to e-mail the new or edited product codes to Softshare so that we can incorporate those changes into the search profile. However, edits to the Product Description will not trigger a profile update e-mail message. If you need to make edits to a profile's keywords or other logic criteria, you should open the client record and click the Edit Profile button.

Most of you are probably already aware of the interplay between product codes and search profiles, but I thought it would be nice to reiterate the roles of the product code fields in Softshare 'CATS.

© 2012 Softshare, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is part of an archive of Softshare newsletter articles dating back several years. Some of the screenshots, procedures, or information contained within this article may no longer be 100% accurate or relevant, as Softshare's software and services are very fluid. Thank you for your understanding.