In Inventory Management, data and plan lines pass through various phases. To understand the module's logic, it is essential to distinguish between the four Item types:

The 4 Phases of Inventory Usage

The elements are directly related to each other and show the transition from buying planning to selling planning:

Inventory Item
  • What it is: The generally available inventory.
  • Purpose: Basis for buying planning and tracking. Contains buying-relevant information (e.g., purchase prices, discounts) but is usually unspecific – without briefing-relevant details such as target groups or flight dates.
  • Creation: Is created manually in the Inventory menu or provided there as an "Inter-Company" Proposal.
Proposal Template
  • What it is: A template that can be used to create Proposals quickly and easily.
  • Purpose: Facilitates the recurring creation of specific Proposals. The content of the underlying Item can be adjusted here.
  • Creation: Is created either directly in the Proposal Template menu or generated from an Inventory Item.
Proposal
  • What it is: The final, sales-ready Proposal – for a Campaign (end customer), a Pool (Company), or a Category (multiple end customers/campaigns).
  • Purpose: Contains customer-oriented information for booking and reporting (Selling Side). In Mercury, it is provided as a Plan Line in Campaigns or as an Inventory Item in other Pools. A Proposal always corresponds to exactly one line.
  • Creation: Is created from a Proposal Template.
  • Special Features: Proposals can be created with or without a Buy Item. Transparent Proposals adopt content from the Buy Line (except prices/discounts). Non-transparent Proposals may contain completely different information. Additionally, multiple Buy Lines can be added to a Proposal – allowing for the creation of non-transparent packages, for example.
Buy Item
  • What it is: A copy of the Inventory Item, which is manually added or automatically created in the Proposal.
  • Purpose: Maps the Buying Side in the Proposal and represents the internal media plan. There is a separate Buy Items view in Inventory Management that functions similarly to a Mercury Campaign – including imported data and technical components.
  • Creation: Can be manually added (even multiple times) to the Proposal or is automatically created as a copy of the underlying Inventory Item when the Proposal was generated from a Proposal Template.