Warehouses: locations, transfers, batches and counts

#What it is

Until now a branch had one stock: the one its tills sell from. With Warehouses, a branch can keep stock in several places, move it between them with transfers that travel until they are received, follow batches and serial numbers wherever they are, and count and value each place apart.

Imagine a trading company in Al Quoz: a showroom with a till, a back store behind it, a warehouse down the road and a van that supplies cafeterias. Each is a location of the same branch; the showroom's till sells only from the shop floor.

Warehouses are part of Online Restaurant and Chain, and an add-on for Online Retail (AED 49 a month before VAT: the owner buys them in Billing → Plan → Add-on modules, or asks us on WhatsApp). They need Stock and Purchasing. They are not in the buy-once desktop program.

#Switching it on

Settings → Warehouses (managers):

• the switch (off until you turn it on);
• transfers between branches: instant (the stock moves at once, as before) or in transit (it leaves when sent and arrives when the other branch receives it; Chain plan);
• after how many days a transfer still on the way alerts the owner (3);
• the serial-tracked categories (phones, appliances): their products are received serial by serial;
• whether counts are blind for staff (on by default).

#Locations

Each branch's own stock is its shop floor: the location its tills sell from. Add more locations on the same page: a name, the kind (back store, warehouse, van, consignment) and, if you like, the location it is refilled from. A central warehouse is a location, not a selling branch, so there is no extra branch to pay for. A shop can have up to 50 locations.

A location can be renamed, change its kind or source, or be taken out of use. Its stock never shows on a till: to sell it, move it to the shop floor first.

#Bins, min and max

For each product in each location you can set a bin (the shelf code, such as A-03-2) and a min and max. Pick lists are sorted by bin, so the person picking walks the aisles once.

#Transfers

A transfer goes request → pick → dispatch → in transit → receive.

1. Request: from one location to another, with the products and quantities.
2. Pick: open the scan page and scan with a barcode scanner or the phone's camera. A product's barcode counts one unit, a pack's barcode a pack, and a batch or serial reference that unit (a serial counts once). Lines nobody scanned go as asked.
3. Dispatch: the stock leaves the source at its cost. A numbered transfer note prints with the lines, their value at cost, signatures and a QR code.
4. Receive: at the other end, scan the note's QR (or type its number) and count what arrived, by scanning or by typing, then Confirm the receipt. A delivery may be received in parts.

Two locations of one branch always move at once (Move now after picking). Between branches, the setting decides: instant, or in transit until received (Chain plan). The older Inventory → Transfers page keeps working and lists the new transfers too.

#Differences on arrival

What did not arrive is short, what arrived broken is damaged, and anything more than was sent is over. Only the good units enter stock until a manager settles each difference:

• short: written off, or back at the source (it never left);
• damaged: written off, or kept in stock;
• over: kept, or kept and taken off the source.

Every settled line names who settled it. The owner is alerted when a transfer has been on the way longer than the days you set, and when a receipt has differences.

#Batches and serial numbers

Batches move with their expiry date and cost from location to location; when you pick, scanned batches go first, then the first-expiring ones.

For serial-tracked categories, each unit is received with its serial number, and a serial already in stock is refused.

Recall: search a batch or a serial to see every location that holds it, every transfer carrying it, and the receipts it was sold on. Ask your shop answers "where is batch L2405?" the same way.

#Counts per location

Count a whole location, one category or one bin. Counts are blind for staff when the setting is on: they type what they see without the expected quantity. A manager sees the difference and approves it.

#Valuation and replenishment

Warehouses → Valuation shows the stock of each location at the product's cost, plus what is on the way.

Replenishment: a location at or under its min is brought up to its max from its source location, as an internal request you pick and dispatch. A location with no source is pointed at the smart reorder.

#What it does not do

• A till sells only from its branch's shop floor, not from a van or a second location.
• Consignment stock is tracked as a location; settling it with the supplier is not built.
• Warehouses are not in the buy-once desktop program.