Inventory Management

Inventory management helps identify which and how much stock to order at what time. It tracks inventory from purchase to the sale of goods. It identifies and responds to trends to ensure there’s always enough stock to fulfill orders and proper warning of a shortage. Asset can do this for you, and here you read how to set it up inside Asset.

How to create a storage

Before we can use “Inventory Management,” we need at least one storage. We can find “Storages” in the menu under “Assets.”

To create a new storage, follow the next steps.

Open the “Storages” module using the option under “Assets” in the menu.
Press the button “New.”
Fill in the fields. The greyed-out fields are filled in automatically.
Press the “Save and return” button to complete the creation of a storage.

Field name	Description
Reference	is automatically filled
Parent	If the storage is part of other (more extensive) storage, select the warehouse it is part of.
Name	Give the storage a name
Area	Assign on which area the storage is located
Storage Manager	Assign a storage manager to this storage
Order Type order advice orders	Select the Purchase Order Type. If the pulldown is empty then you first need to create purchase order types (see article on purchase orders).

‘Settings’ tab

In the settings tab you can change a few settings:

Organization
You can set an organization, as extra info regarding the location.
Default location
You can set a default location in the storage, so you don`t have to set that if you add new items.
Stock valuation
You can also set how the stock value is calculated regarding price changes.

Info

Good to know: only use the lowest hierarchy for a default location.

Storage Locations

The previous screenshot shows that the storage module has three different tabs. On the tab “Locations,” you can create locations in the storage. The storage has to have at least one storage; the whole storage can be one location. For example, if the storage is a relatively small room, you don`t have more places to specify an item’s location.

The storage locations are the actual locations within a storage where the inventory item is placed. This can be put in a hierarchy level, for example: Hall B → Rack 3 → Bottom Shelf Rack 3

How to create storage locations?

Navigate to the “Locations tab” of a storage.
Press “New”
Fill in the fields
Click the ‘Create new sub item’ (icon on the top right) to create a sub location. When using this method, the current location is automatically set as parent of the location location that is created.
Press the “Save and return” button to return to the previous screen

Field name	Description
Reference	The reference name/number (if necessary)
Full name	The name of the storage location
Description	A description of the storage location
Area	Select the area where it is located
Picking Order	If you have the same item on multiple locations, you can prioritize the locations.
Storage	Part of which storage
Parent Storage Location	What is the parent storage location

Create catalog item

An inventory item is linked to a catalog item. Before adding a new item to an storage, always check if the catalog item exists. If the catalog item does not exist, follow the steps described here (orderable items section) to create a new one.

How much stock is there?

To see what the stock is of a storage, follow these steps:

Navigate to your storage using the option “Storages” in the menu under “Assets”
Select your storage.
On the bottom, you will find the button “Inventory”
On the next screen, use the field “Keywords” (or leave empty) > press “Search”
You will see a screen that resembles the screenshot, as shown below

How to add a new item to the inventory?

There are more ways to add an item to the inventory. Use one of these options:
1. Use the option “Storages” in the menu under “Assets” > open a storage > click on the button “Inventory” > click ‘Search’ >new (Note: the ‘new’ button might also already be available on the top right of the search screen). This is the preferred way when adding multiple items because the Storage will be filled in automatically.
2. Navigate to “Inventory” by using the option in the menu under “Assets” and press the “New” button.
Fill in the details of the Inventory item.
Use the locations tab to assign a “Storage location.”
Press the “Save and return” to save the item.

Info

Inventory items are always linked to a catalog item, and some fields are automatically taken over when selecting the item.

Field name	Description
Storage	In which do you want to keep stock of this item
Catalog	Select a catalogitem
Supplier	the name of the supplier
Price	the price of the item per quantity
Min stock	The minimum stock you want to have
Max stock	The maximum stock you want to have
Stock keeping	YES/NO. DO YOU WANT TO KEEP STOCK OF THIS ITEM
Negative stock	Is a negative stock allowed?
Backorder	Is a backorder allowed? Is it still possible to place an order if you are out of stock
Comments	You can put here extra comments
Shortlist	YES/NO. SHORTLIST THIS ITEM FOR EASY ACCESS
External reference	Note here an external, for example, the order number in the supplier catalog

Actual stock (quantity) of the inventory & transactions

Info

The stock of an item is automatically calculated through transactions and cannot be changed manually. A transaction is made to keep the stock up-to-date.

Automatic transaction

Transactions are created automatically when there is an internal or outgoing purchase order. This way, the changes in the quantity of the items can be tracked in detail.

Manual transactions

It is also possible to manually create these transactions (for example: as a correction), to register the initial stock, or to register the transfer (part of the) stock to another storage or to another location in the same storage (other shelves for example).

To create a manual transaction, follow the next steps:

Navigate to your inventory item:
1. Use the “Inventory” option in the menu under “Assets ”and search for the inventory item you want to edit.
2. If you know where the item is located, open the storage using the option “Storages,” and next, press the " Inventory " button, search for your item, and open the one you want to edit.
After opening the item, you will see the “General” tab. Press the “Transactions” tab.
You will see three buttons:
1. Create out transaction, for creating outgoing transfers.
2. Create in transaction, for creating incoming transfers.
3. Export to Excel, for exporting a list in excel of all transfers.
Press “Create out transaction” or “Create in transaction” to create a transaction.
Fill in the details and the quantity (in the include at the bottom) you want to transfer.
In one transaction it is possible to transfer multiple inventory items. Click ‘Add inventory item’ to add another transaction item
Press the “Process” button.

Hover over the fields to view the available help text.

Automatically generate purchase orders

By indicating the minimum and maximum stock on an inventory item, it becomes possible to let the system generate outgoing purchase orders based on the desired stock. This is explained in the purchase orders article

Summary

To use the inventory management system, you need at least one storage.
The stock of an item is automatically calculated through transactions and cannot be changed manually
Each inventory item is always linked to a catalog item

Content

Learning Objectives