Another newbie quandary - stock / pricing by attribute?

[txbabyshwag]

Hello all, thanks for taking a glance at my dilemma. I am VERY new to Zen Cart! I posted yesterday but realized my question was very confusing - if I can add or clarify any other helpful info, please advise accordingly. I am grateful for your time!!!
I am using Zen version 1.3.0.1, PHP version 4.3.11. Here is a simplified example my situation - I have multiple Products, all have several attributes. Product A is a shirt, and here are examples of my drop-down attribute menus:

Option 1: Sleeve Length
Option values: Short sleeve / Long sleeve
Option 2: Color
Option values: Red / Blue / Green
Option 3: Size
Option values: Sm / Med / Lg

Problem 1: I would like to associate, for inventory tracking purposes, unique model numbers with each combination of options above. For example, product A in Short sleeve, Red, Medium is known as ASRM. Product A in Long sleeve, Red, Large is known as ALRL. Obviously, those are different products and must have unique model numbers to track them effectively. So the question is, how can I create those unique product IDs associated with the customer's attribute selection?

Problem 2: In the above example, the product changed from short to long sleeve. In my store, a long sleeve shirt is more expensive than a short sleeve. Question is, is there a way for the store to automatically change the price when the sleeve option is changed from short to long, or vice-versa?

Problem 3: My Zen Cart has a QuickBooks option installed (QBI Version 3.01), which I believe allows me to synch up my inventory between the two programs. Given that I want to use this feature, and in light of my previous 2 questions, is there a "best" way to use Zen Cart with respect to facilitating easy transfers of info back and forth?

Many thanks for your assistance - please let me know if I can provide more info!
Nathan in Texas ~ GO MAVS!!

[gjh42]

1) Unfortunately, there is currently no way to associate attributes with unique stock/model #s (only one model # per product). This is being worked on by the dev team and is supposed to be in the next release (no published timetable).

2) Pricing by attribute is quite flexible. You can specify a base price for a product, and the amount added or subtracted for each selected attribute. The only thing you can't do is make one attribute's value dependent on whether another attribute is selected. Alternatively, you can make base prices zero and show each option or combination of options with the total applicable price.

3) Sorry, I can't tell you anything about using QBI. Someone else will have to answer this one.