Creating a product list with custom options and changing base code

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all good, I'm currently making a product sheet that will interact with our website and I'm having a few difficulties with getting it to work the way I vision it so here goes:

The products to be sold are furniture - specifically customisable office furniture that comes in a variety of different sizes, finishes etc. Every item has a unique 7 digit code of which the first 4 numbers are the same e.g. 1111222 = Desk A 1111333 = Desk B. The last 3 numbers are what makes the item unique! Now let's say that Desk A and Desk B are the same but the last 3 digits identify them as being right handed and left handed, I need to find a way of being able to get the last 3 digits to change if the user chooses certain options. Still with me? Now, as well as there being left handed and right handed options, there are also different options for the dimensions of the desk that, again, only affect the last 3 digits. I need to be able to link these to a 'base' product so that the code and base price will effectively change if the customer selects different options e.g. Standard Desk (Code 1111XXX) + Right handed (Code now becomes 1111222). So essentially I need excel to link with the base code and be able to make additions to it depending on certain options. This is where it gets a bit difficult. Once they have selected the size, left hand right hand etc they also need to select the desired finish for the wood and the metal framework. Will these need to be stored in a seperate sheet? So let's say Maple = Code SA and Silver = code SV, the customer selects a maple top and silver framed leg right handed desk, the code now needs to become 1111222/SA/SV (The reason the code has to stay true is because the order will go direct to supplier so they must recognise what is being ordered!) Finishes won't really affect the price but on the off chance they do is there anything that can be done?

Sorry if it all sounds very confusing, I'm having a bit of trouble working it out so I'm hoping this great community can provide some answers!

If you need to get a better idea of what I'm trying to achieve as an end result then you can see how furniture is sold at www.bucon.co.uk hopefully that should provide a bit of insight as to what I'm hoping it'll turn out like

Thanks for your help!

Matt

I think you need to give more clarity of the system behind how the last 3 digits are calculated.

For instance, is it the case that the first digit reflects left/right handed-ness, the second reflects the specific dimensions, and the third another variable. In which case you'd need a table for each variable with the respective digit.

Or alternatively is it the case that there could be up to 1000 permutations and the system is more random? In that case, you'd need a list of all possible permutations of options and their respective 3 digit code.

Once that is in place, I don't see this being too difficult a thing to do