In Non-Inventory Items, the order seems to be alphabetical based on Item Name, whereas in Inventory Items, the order seems to be alphabetical based on Item Code for most of them, bar about 5 which are at the top and I have no idea why.
Could you make Inventory Items base their order on alphabetic for Item Name. This would make both consistent and make the ordering of Inventory Items more logical.
Inventory items are sorted alpha-numerically, with any numbers coming before any letters. This sort considers both the item code and the item name, as though they were one field. Here is a little sample from the Northwinds test business that illustrates the concept:
Can you illustrate if the explanation above does not resolve this for you?
That would disrupt things for the large fraction of users who employ SKU or UPC numbers. Remember, you can always find an item quickly in a dropdown field by starting to type its name (if you know it) or any number in its item code or name.
Non-inventory items, on the other hand, are indeed sorted only by item name. These are much less likely to have meaningful, numerical item codes. They are more likely to have item codes (if at all) that are memory aids, such as DCS for Deluxe Coffee Service or SS06 for 6-month scheduled service. They can also be located swiftly by starting to type either code or name.
With either inventory or non-inventory items, if you are concerned about the order of appearance in lists, knowing the logic helps you design a coding and naming scheme that gives you what you want.
I find items based on product type (a custom field). So finding things is not a problem. I just feel that inventory and non-inventory should use the same sort format. With inventory, I use the product code of the manufacturer so the order of the product code is irrelevant.
I have worked out what the problem was. The first five items had a space in front of the product code. Deleting the space moves the item to the correct alphanumeric location. So that mystery is explained.