Managing inventory locations

SECURITY  Security level with object permissions to add inventory locations. Refer to Inventory permissions.

NAVIGATION   > Inventory > Inventory Management > Locations

About the Inventory Locations page

On the Inventory Locations page, you manage the physical locations where your company keeps inventory items in stock. Inventory locations allow you to track the transfer of stocked items from one inventory location to another, until they arrive at the customer location and become customer devices.

You must select an inventory location when you add a purchase order item to a purchase order, or manually add stocked items to inventory. Inventory locations can be:

  • a warehouse or storage closet ("Albany Warehouse")

  • a retail outlet ("Syracuse Store")

  • a virtual holding place such as Lost Items or Returned Items. Virtual locations would be a sub-location at a physical location.

  • a resource who has temporary custody of an item on the way to the customer location

To add an inventory location do the following:

  1. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.

  2. Click New to add a new, editable line at the top of the list.

  3. Populate the following fields:

    4. Field Description
    Inventory Location Name

    Enter a descriptive Inventory Location Name.

    To set up a resource as an inventory location, preface their name with RESOURCE:. This will allow you to transfer the stocked item to the user while tracking the chain of custody. Refer to About RESOURCE: inventory locations.
    Total Products A read-only field that displays the number of inventory products associated with the inventory location.
    Total Items A read-only field that displays the number of stocked items currently on hand at the inventory location. Note that this quantity does not include items on order.
    Default

    Select this check box to make the new location the default location, and remove the default designation from the current default location.

    The default location will populate the Inventory Location field on purchase order items, but can be modified.

    NOTE  RESOURCE: inventory locations cannot be set as the default.
    Active A check mark indicates that the inventory location is active. You cannot add items to an inactive inventory location. Items assigned to the inventory location before inactivation are still available for transfer to another inventory location or assignment as a ticket or project charge or a device.
  1. Click Save.

Inventory locations are managed from a right-click menu:

Option Description
Edit Inventory Location Puts the selected row into Edit mode.
Inactivate or Activate an Inventory Location

To change the Active status for a inventory location, right-click the location and select Inactivate or Activate as appropriate, or click to put the location into Edit mode and change the status using the Active check box.

Inactive inventory locations have the following restrictions:

  • You cannot add new items to, or order additional items for, an inactive inventory location.
  • Items associated with an inactive inventory location before it became inactive are available for transfer from the inventory location.
  • Items previously ordered for the inventory location and not received can be received to the inactive inventory location.
  • You can select an inactive inventory location as one of your search criteria on the Inventory Items page and, if Inventory Items are associated with the location, they appear in the list of items.
  • You can return the inventory location status to Active and all functionality returns.
Set as Default

There can be only one default inventory location. If you set an inventory location as the default, it will take the place of the current default. When an item is added to a purchase order, the inventory location is automatically set to the default location.

NOTE  RESOURCE: inventory locations cannot be set as the default.
Delete Inventory Location You cannot delete an inventory location if an inventory item or purchase order is associated with it, even if you delete all items associated with the inventory location.

NOTE  Although you cannot delete a inventory location, you can inactivate it to prevent users from ordering items for the inventory location.

To enable you to track the complete chain of custody for a stocked item, users can be designated as inventory locations. They appear in this format: RESOURCE: [Resource Name]. RESOURCE: inventory locations are created when you pick an inventory item on a charge, and select Transfer these items to me. Refer to Picking a stocked item for a charge.

In many contexts, these RESOURCE locations are treated just like physical inventory locations, with the following exceptions:

  • they cannot be selected as the default inventory location.
  • they do not appear when you create a new inventory item, or create or edit a purchase order item.