The basis of working with inventory items and keeping track of their movements is entering their barcode into the system. This can be done when receiving goods into the inventory. Of course, the goods go to the warehouse via a goods received notes, but only those items that are already entered in the system can be stored. This is done in the inventory items agenda, which you can find in the Settings category.
The procedure for accepting goods into the inventory is as follows:
- 1. Create a category for the inventory items if they don't already exist.
- 2. Create an inventory item with a stock card.
- 3. Receive the goods received notes and process it (see section Receipt of items in stock).
Even before entering the item into the list of inventory items, it is necessary to select the appropriate category to which the item will belong. If you do not yet have a defined category to which you want to assign the item, click on the Categories view page in the INVENTORY module and press the New category button. You will get to the Inventory item category form, in which you must first fill in the name of the new category and, if necessary, add a description. If you use the e-shop, you can upload an image for this category, in small and large versions; the corresponding buttons become visible after checking the field E-shop.
After saving the category, you will be returned to the Inventory item categories view page with a list of currently defined items. In it, you can add additional categories and edit existing ones (by clicking on the icon with a pencil).
If you click on the item Inventory items, a window will open with all the inventory items in the inventory (or you will see just as many of them as you have listed in the dial in the lower left corner). If you want to enter the type of goods into the system, press the New inventory item button. The edit form Inventory item will open, in which you enter the characteristics of the new inventory item. These are mainly the following:
- Item... write a descriptive name for the item so that it is easy to find in the list of inventory items.
- Unit... from the drop-down menu, select the unit in which the individual pieces of the goods will appear.
- Category... assign a previously defined category to the item.
These items are required, others can be added:
- Active... check this box if you want the minimum and maximum quantities in stock to be tracked for the given item and to be available for stock receipt and stock release.
Furthermore, the goods can be characterized in more detail by specifying the material parameters (Weight, Volume, Width, Height, Depth).
For the needs of the e-shop, an image of the given product can be uploaded to the system, in two versions (small and large image).
If you need to specify the species more closely, you can do so by entering a note in the Description text field.
If you now press the Save button (or Save and new), you will have the item entered in the system, but before taking it over via goods received note, you need to create a stock card for it. Therefore, select one of the warehouses where the item will be stored (physically present) from the Warehouse drop-down menu, and press the Create stock card button. The item will be systemically stocked, which you can see on the attached table Stock Cards, which contains all stock cards with this type of goods. In addition to the warehouses listed, there are other characteristics as can be seen from the attached image. Their meaning is described below.
If you want, you can edit an individual stock card by clicking on the pencil icon, which is located next to its name. The Stock card editing window will open. It offers the following options:
- Min. stock, Max. stock... state the minimum or the maximum quantity of the given goods that is permissible to have in stock.
- Default purchase, Default sales… enter the buy and sell price that will be automatically added on the income form.
Then fill in the following fields in the Actual inventory section:
- Actual state... the number of physically present units of the given item.
- Available state... is equal to the difference between the current status and the reservations for the given item.
On the Inventory movements tab, you can track all location changes that have been made with goods linked to this stock card in the past. If the list is empty, no move has been made yet, if the table contains at least one entry, you are immediately informed which move it was (in the Movement column). If you click on the pencil icon next to the date of the completed transaction, you can view the characteristics of the ongoing (and unfinished) movement.
There are also three buttons at the bottom of the form, but their meaning is already clear from the description:
- Save... you save the stock card form with the set values.
- Delete... you delete this stock card.
- Back... you return without saving changes to the edit form Inventory item.
Monitoring the current state of stock and solving the stocks below minimum stock level
The Stocks viewing window is used to immediately and completely determine the status of inventory items in the inventory. If you have previously entered a minimum or maximum limit for a given item (on the item's stock card), you will be warned by a red box to the left of the pencil icon of each item if the item's minimum status does not reach the minimum limit or, conversely, exceeds the maximum limit. Inactive inventory items are also displayed in the table (with a gray box), i.e. those for which you do not monitor the current quantity in stock. (It is set in the form Inventory items).
If you click on the pencil icon of any item, the stock card form described above will appear.
If you want to make up for insufficient inventory items, click on the Stocks below minimum stock level. A view page of the same name opens with a list of inventory items whose current amount does not reach the minimum or exceeds the maximum. For each item in the list, you can open the stock card (by clicking on the pencil icon) and possibly adjust the limit quantity for the item. If you want to bring the stock items up to the limit minimum, press the button Create order for the minimum stock in the Stocks below minimum stock level view page. After approval, an order is made for those items whose condition does not reach the minimum limit. You can find the order in the All sales orders view page, which can be found in the STORE module, in the RFQs nad purchase or sales orders application. It is marked with a blue box on the left and named Minimum Stock Level. It is expedient to further define this order. Therefore, click on the pencil icon and go to the order form headed by the order number.