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How “Units Per Carton” and “Units Per Pallet” Work (and Why You Don’t Need to Set Up Conversion Rules Manually)

When you’re setting up new products in Luminous, you might see fields like “# of units per carton” and “# of units per pallet.”

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Written by Brendon Beebe
Updated over a month ago

When you’re setting up new products in Luminous, you might see fields like “# of units per carton” and “# of units per pallet.” If you’re wondering what these do or if you need to set up special rules for converting between different units—good news! Luminous does the heavy lifting for you.

What Happens When You Set Units Per Carton or Pallet?

Whenever you enter values for “# of units per carton” or “# of units per pallet,” Luminous will automatically create the correct Units of Measure (UOM) and conversion rules in the background.

You do NOT need to import or set up UOM or conversion rules separately. Just use the master SKU import file and fill in those values—Luminous takes care of the rest.


Why Do We Do This?

Most businesses deal with three main units for each product:

  • Eaches (individual units): How you sell or count individual products

  • Cartons (cases): How products are packed/stored/shipped in groups

  • Pallets: Bulk grouping for large shipments or storage

For example, a snack company might:

  • Sell chips by the bag (eaches)

  • Store them in cartons of 20 bags

  • Ship or receive pallets of 40 cartons (800 bags)

Almost every company has this same pattern—so Luminous makes it automatic.


Example: How It Works in Luminous

Let’s say you’re setting up a new SKU: “Crunchy Chips”

  • # of units per carton: 20
    (Each carton contains 20 bags of chips)

  • # of cartons per pallet: 40
    (Each pallet contains 40 cartons)

What Luminous does automatically:

  • Creates a UOM for “eaches,” “cartons,” and “pallets”

  • Sets up the conversion rules:

    • 1 carton = 20 eaches

    • 1 pallet = 40 cartons = 800 eaches

  • Any time you buy, sell, or move product, Luminous will handle conversions for you (e.g., if you sell 3 cartons, the system knows that’s 60 eaches)

You don’t have to:

  • Import separate UOM files

  • Manually set up conversion rates

  • Do extra math when moving between eaches, cartons, and pallets


What If You Need Custom Conversions?

For more unusual units (like “inner pack” or “display case”), you can still set up custom conversions—but for most products, just fill out the basic carton and pallet fields.


Summary Table: What to Enter and What Happens

Field

What You Enter

What Luminous Does

# of units per carton

20

Makes 1 carton = 20 eaches

# of cartons per pallet

40

Makes 1 pallet = 40 cartons = 800 eaches

# of units per pallet

(auto-calculated)

Based on values above

“Palletized” checkbox

(check if applicable)

Triggers pallet conversion logic


Key Takeaway

Don’t overthink UOM during onboarding—just enter your carton and pallet quantities!
Luminous will set up all the standard unit conversions for you, saving you time and keeping things simple.

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