Working with Inventory

Before starting, insure that your Systems Administrator has CONFIGURED your privileges to allow you all of the features you will need from the INVENTORY Module.

On this page you will find the following items:

An explanation of the inventory system

Getting Started with INVENTORY

RECEIVE INVENTORY

RECONCILE INVENTORY

TRANSFER INVENTORY

The ability to attach inventory from the inventory system to channel records and eWorkRequests is now available.  As with other features, this one must be enabled in the channel configuration to be available to records in the channel.  When enabled, each record in the channel displays an INVENTORY link, next to the MEMBERS link (if used) and the record number/name in the green bar.  Clicking on the inventory link takes you to the record's inventory screen, from which all inventory for the record is managed.

Use of this screen begins by searching for an inventory item.  This is done by filling in a partial item number or name in the search box and clicking the search button.  The search results are displayed in a pick-list from which an item may be selected. If the desired item isn't found, the search may be repeated.  Once the desired item is displayed, the user chooses the appropriate item, specifies a quantity (which must be less than or equal to the total quantity available in the system) and clicks the RESERVE button.

This creates an inventory record in the channel record, and reserves the appropriate quantity of that item both in the channel record and in the inventory system.  The available quantity is reduced by the reserved quantity. It is not possible to reserve more items than are actually on hand in the system.

Each inventory item in the channel record is displayed in the next section of the screen, showing the total reserved, total issued to the channel record, and providing some controls to allow for the update of the inventory in the record.

By entering a quantity and clicking RELEASE, the user can cancel all or part of the inventory reserved.  The revised reservation is applied to the channel record and the system-wide inventory record.  If the user releases ALL the inventory, the item is deleted from the channel record.  It is not possible to increase a reservation - the reservation must be cancelled first (by releasing the entire quantity) and then a new reservation placed with a higher quantity if desired.

When the worker goes to the warehouse to pickup the item, the item is physically transferred to the channel record.  This is done by entering a quantity and a warehouse, and clicking ISSUE (The user must have inventory adjust privileges to do this, or to return inventory - see below.)   Issuing inventory removes it from the amount on hand in the warehouse and system-wide, and also removes the reserved amount, adjusting all the records appropriately.  For example, if you have 100 items on hand, 50 of which are reserved, leaving 50 available, and you issue 25 of those from a warehouse to the channel record, the channel record will now show 25 reserved and 25 issued, and the inventory item record will now show 75 on hand, 25 reserved, and (still) 50 available.

It is possible to issue MORE items than were reserved.  In this case, the items are issued, the reserved amount is reduced to zero, and all records are updated appropriately.  However, it is not possible to issue more items from a warehouse than the warehouse has on hand.

In the event that more items are needed later, more items can be issued from the same or a different warehouse. Again, all numbers are adjusted appropriately.

In the event that a technician does not use all the items he or she was issued, the technician can return the items to a warehouse.   At that point, the user would enter the number returned, indicate which warehouse was receiving the returned goods, and click RETURN.   As with everything else, the numbers will be adjusted appropriately.   The act of returning items does NOT affect items reserved.  If 50 items were initially reserved, and 25 were issued, leaving 25 reserved, and the user returns the 25 items, the record will now show 25 reserved, and zero issued.  If the user no longer wishes to hold the 25 remaining reserved items, they should release the 25 reserved items.

If the user returns ALL the inventory items that were issued, and no more are reserved, the inventory item record is deleted from the channel record.

The Inventory section of the program  is where all of your  work is accomplished for creating, modifying, and tracking of your inventory.  We start by creating items to be inventoried.  Next we create a location for the inventoried items to be stored.  Then we create inventory location; and track, or transfer items from one inventory location to another.

A new Receive system allows for inventory to be received at a warehouse en masse.   The user specifies which warehouse they are receiving at, and they are then presented with a screen on which they may indicate quantities of items received. Optionally, the user may display only the inventory items from a specific vendor (when the vendor module is licensed), to more easily enable the receipt of vendor orders.

A new Reconcile system allows for easy warehouse inventory reconciliation.   The user is presented with a form, which may be printed and used to reconcile warehouse inventory.   Once the paper form is completed, any corrected quantities can be entered on screen and updated all at once.

This screen allows for the transfer of inventory items from one warehouse to another.   The transfer is initiated as the user specifies the quantities of items to be transferred.   Once the quantities are entered and verified, a transfer ticket is displayed, and may be printed and sent with the transferred inventory.   When the inventory arrives at the destination warehouse, the operator may display an electronic copy of the ticket, and receive all the items on the ticket with one click.

These three systems are all very simple and similar, being based on the same program code.   They use a step-by-step method to walk the operator through a four-phase system to perform the desired operations.