Warehouses, bins and pick lists

Stock sits in a bin, in a location, in a location group, at one of the business's locations. A salon's back room and a brand's warehouse are set up the same way; a place without bins works as it always has.

Where stock is kept

1. Open Inventory, Setup, Where stock is kept.
2. Add a New location group for each building or room: Back room, Main warehouse. With more than one business location, say which it is at. A third party's warehouse (a 3PL) or a maker's is at none of yours.
3. Add the locations in each group: shelves, a receiving dock, a quarantine shelf.
4. For each location, say three things: Receive here (stock arriving goes into it), Pick from here (orders are picked from it), and Counts as available (its stock can be sold). Each location has a number of its own, shown beside it and carried by the barcode on its label, so a scan of the label finds it.

Location groups can also be added, renamed and moved between business locations from Admin, Location Groups, across every business you run (see Admin). With advanced inventory on, the places are set up in the Warehouse section instead, as Location Groups and Locations with a type and four functions, and stock moves between them on transfers.

A quarantine shelf keeps its stock on hand and out of all three. Overstock up high is available but not picked from until it is moved down. A receiving dock takes deliveries, and nothing is picked from it until it is put away.

Bins

1. Open Setup, Bins, and pick the place (with advanced inventory on, the Zone module of the Warehouse section).
2. Add a bin with its code, letters and digits with dashes (A-01-1 for aisle A, bay 1, level 1), and its zone.
3. Or make A Run of Bins at once: the aisles, bays and levels as runs (A-C, 1-12) or lists (A, C, D), leaving out any your place does not have. They are walked aisle by aisle, back down every other aisle, numbered in tens so one can go between two later.
4. Print Bin labels: the code large and as a barcode, at the tag label size or 4 by 6 inches for the end of a rack.

A bin turned off takes nothing new; what it holds can still be picked and moved out.

Putting stock away

Stock received into a place laid out in bins waits to be put away. Open Receive, Put away: each tag is listed with a suggested bin (the item's pick bin while it has room, else the bin holding the most of it, else the first empty one). Scan the tag, then the bin, or choose the bin, and it moves, keeping its lot, dates and cost.

Pick bins and refilling them

An item's pick bin is the shelf it is picked from at a place: its stock there goes first. Set one on the bin, with how low it may run (refill at) and how full it is filled (fill to). When it holds its refill level or less, it is listed under Receive, Refill pick bins, with what to move into it from the place's other bins, the soonest to expire first. Nothing moves until you choose Moved it. The list prints for the floor.

Pick lists

A Pick list for orders going out from a place says where to find what the orders need, in the order the bins are walked, from the stock that goes first when they are sent: the soonest to expire, then the oldest. Nothing leaves stock until an order is sent, so the list can be made again at any time. Make one in Shipping, under To Ship, with Pick list, and print it for the floor.

Counting by bin

1. In Counts, choose Start a count and Bins at a place.
2. Choose Which bins: every bin, one zone, the ones counted longest ago (so many at a time), or the ones named.
3. Count bin by bin; scan a bin's label to go to its lines. What is found where nothing was expected is added where it was found.
4. Switch on Count blind to hide what is expected until you choose Show what was expected.
5. Post the count. Each bin counted is marked with the day.

Best practices

• Make the receiving dock a location of its own, set not to be picked from. Nothing ships before it is put away.
• Give fast movers a pick bin at waist height, and keep the rest of their stock above as overstock.
• Count a few bins every day, the ones counted longest ago first. Every shelf is checked without closing.
• Count blind. The number on the screen should never become the number on the sheet.
• Print bin labels before you put anything away; a bin nobody can scan gets skipped.