Warehouse Management - Getting started

1What Warehouse Management is #

Warehouse Management is a module of its own, licensed separately. It is for running a warehouse at the level of the shelf: bins inside a storage space, warehouse tasks done by scanning, receiving and putaway, picking, packing and dispatch, and counting bin by bin.

• It adds where stock is inside a storage space and who moved it. How much stock the company owns is still decided by the vouchers, exactly as today.
• It has no voucher types of its own. Receipts, delivery notes, stock transfers and physical stock stay the vouchers they are.
• This sidebar group is the module's home. Today it holds the stock transfer vouchers under Voucher Entry, the three set-up screens under Setup - Warehouse Layout, Bin Master, Item Warehouse Settings - the masters a warehouse is set up with under Masters - Warehouse Master, Product Master, Unit Master - the floor's work under Tasks - My Tasks, Task Board - the receiving screens under Inbound - Receiving Desk, Goods Inward Register - the Wave Planner, Pack, Dispatch Desk and Load under Outbound, the stock screens under Stock - Putaway, Picking, Bin Stock, Opening Bin Stock, Bin Reconciliation - the reports under Reports - bin, inbound and outbound - and this guide. The other working screens (counting) are added as they are delivered.

2Laying out a storage space #

The first delivery of the module is locations: a storage space is divided into zones, each zone into bins, every bin gets a printed label, and each item can be given its pick bin. Nothing about stock changes yet - the bins are the addresses the later deliveries put stock into.

1. Open Warehouse Management > Warehouse Layout and pick the storage space.
2. Press Add (F3) for each zone: a short code (A, B, COLD), a name, and what the area is for - Receiving, Storage, Pick face, Staging, Packing, Dispatch, QC hold, Damage or Returns.
3. Pick a zone and fill Bins from a pattern: a prefix for the storage space, and the ranges of aisles, levels and positions. Preview shows how many bins the pattern gives and a few of their codes; Create the bins makes them. Running a pattern again only adds the bins that are missing.
4. Look at the layout map at the top of the screen: the bins just made are drawn in their zone, aisle by aisle. Press Arrange zones and drag each zone to where it stands on the real floor.
5. Press Print the zone's labels, choose the label size, and fix the labels to the shelves.
6. On Bin Master refine single bins - capacity, mixing rule, walking order - and Block a bin that must not be used.
7. On Item Warehouse Settings give each item its pick bin and the least and most to keep in it. A company that used racks can do this in one step with Racks into bins on Warehouse Layout.
8. On Masters > Inventory Masters > Warehouse, load the storage space, pick its default receiving bin and default dispatch bin in the block Run by the WMS, and switch it on.

The layout map

Warehouse Layout draws the storage space at the top of the screen, and the picture is worked with the mouse.

• The floor: every zone is a block, every row in it an aisle, every square a position - its levels stacked behind it, as a floor is seen from above.
• Colours: green in use, red blocked, amber being counted, hatched grey inactive; or, with Colour by bin type, what each bin is for. A ring marks a default receiving or dispatch bin, a dot an item's pick bin.
• Click a zone's head to work in that zone. Click a square or an aisle's label to open the aisle below the map as a rack face - the rack seen from the front, levels up and positions across.
• Click a bin on the rack face to see what it is, Block or Unblock it, or Open in Bin Master.
• Arrange zones: drag a zone by its head to where it stands on the real floor; the button in its head turns it so the aisles run the other way. Each move is saved as it is dropped; Set out again hands every zone back to the screen to place.
• The magnifier buttons make the picture smaller or larger.

3Stock in the bins #

The second delivery is bin stock. The books still say how much of an item a storage space holds - a voucher changes that, exactly as before. The bins now say where in the storage space it is, and must always add up to the books.

How stock reaches a bin

• Only a storage space run by the WMS (Warehouse Master) has bin stock.
• The system does not choose a storage bin by itself. A voucher touches only the two dock bins; a storage bin changes when an operator scans the bin and the material.
• Stock coming in on a voucher - and the opening of a storage space - lands in the default receiving bin and waits there, to be put away on Putaway.
• Stock going out leaves the default dispatch bin. Where that bin does not hold it, it goes below zero and shows in red - issued, bin not confirmed - until Picking says, by scanning the bin and the material, which bin really gave it.
• A voucher that is edited, cancelled or deleted is undone in the bins it used. Nothing on a bin card is ever changed or deleted; a Reversal row answers the earlier one.
• A storage space can be switched to Automatic allocation on Putaway Rules. The system then places stock in by the rules and takes it from the bins that hold the item, without a scan. It is off as delivered.

The two screens

Bringing the bins up to date

A voucher saved, cancelled or deleted on the web reaches the bins at once. Three things do not, and wait on Bin Reconciliation until the button is pressed: a voucher saved from the desktop; a draft posted by an approval or a workflow step; and the whole history and opening of a storage space just switched to the WMS.

The nightly check. So that a storage space is not left behind unnoticed, the API server makes the same comparison once a night for every storage space run by the WMS. Where the bins and the books disagree - a voucher has not reached the bins, an item's bins do not add up to the books, a bin row is below zero - an item appears on the bell of the Administrators and of the users holding the Alter right on WMS - Bins; clicking it opens Bin Reconciliation. The check moves no stock and does not press the button itself. A storage space left wrong is reported again the next night. Last nightly check on Bin Reconciliation shows when it last looked and what it found. It is switched on or off and its hour set on WMS Settings (*WMS nightly bin check*, *WMS nightly bin check hour*); as delivered it is on, from 2 o'clock at night. Bin Reconciliation also sets the bins beside the Storage Space reports: the columns Storage space and Outside the WMS show, item by item, stock moved by voucher types that have Use WMS Bins Off - stock no bin knows of. The nightly check says how many items that is in its note.

1. Open Warehouse Management > Bin Reconciliation and pick the storage space.
2. Read the verdict on the left: the bins agree with the books, or vouchers are behind.
3. Press Bring the bins up to date (F5) and confirm. The result says how many movements were posted.
4. If the dispatch bin is below zero, open Picking: tick the voucher and scan the bins that really gave the stock.

Not there yet: a Bin column on the voucher's lines (to say which bin a line uses), and counting bin by bin.

4Receiving goods #

Goods come in against a purchase order - any voucher type under the group Purchase Order. The Receiving desk lists the goods lines each open order still expects in a storage space (items classified Fixed Asset or Inventory that are not service items; an order's service and labour lines are billed, never received), takes what came by scanning, and at Finish posts the goods receipt voucher (GRN, or Inward Supply where the bill itself moves stock) through the ERP's own save - linked line by line to the order - with the stock in the receiving bin and a Putaway task per line for the floor. A receipt may be short, with a reason, but never over the order.

1. When the vehicle arrives, log it on Warehouse Management > Inbound > Goods Inward Register: the supplier picked from the ledger accounts (add a new supplier on the ledger master first), invoice, LR, transporter and vehicle, boxes; and what the gate sees - the driver's name and phone, the gate pass number, the seal number before the seal is broken, and one photo of the vehicle, seal or load from the phone's camera (shrunk on the device, sent with Save). On a receipt without an order the desk takes the supplier from the gate entry picked. The voucher type asks for this entry when Track Goods Inward ID is on in Voucher Manager.
2. Open Warehouse Management > Inbound > Receiving Desk, pick the storage space first, then the goods receipt voucher type. The open orders with lines still expected here are listed.
3. Tick the order(s) the delivery came for - one supplier at a time. Where the type asks for it, pick the gate entry.
4. Scan an item - the order line's TranID, or the item's barcode, item code or part number. The order line is found; what it still expects is proposed as the quantity. On several lines, pick the one.
5. Give the quantity received. Less than expected needs a variance reason; more is refused - have the order amended first. For an item tracked by serial number, scan each unit's serial number. Press Add line (F4).
6. Press Finish (F5) and confirm. The voucher is posted and the putaway tasks it raised are listed with their suggested bins. The worker does them on My Tasks: scan the receiving bin, the item, the bin.

What the desk needs set up

The putaway task

• One task per item and batch the voucher put in the receiving bin, with the bin the storage space's Putaway Rules suggest. When no bin passes the rules the task is raised with no bin: the worker finds a free bin and scans it.
• On My Tasks the task is worked like a Move: scan the receiving bin, the item, the bin. Another bin than the suggested one is allowed where the storage space's Putaway Rules allow it (or with the Execute right), with a reason; the bin's kind, mixing and capacity are checked at Confirm as the rules say.
• The Putaway screen still works too: a receipt put away there instead of by its task leaves the task open - cancel it on the Task Board.
• Receipts on the desk lists the receipts finished, each with its lines and the state of their tasks, and prints a goods receipt slip. The voucher is a normal voucher afterwards: it is cancelled on the voucher screen, and the bin engine reverses its stock.

Goods with no order, and the Exceptions list

Goods with no purchase order are received the same way where the goods receipt type allows it (Voucher Manager, Receipt Without Order). On the desk switch Receive without an order on, pick the supplier, and scan any stock item - or press Find item (F3) and pick it by name, code, part number or barcode where there is no label to scan; the quantity is what you count. With *Allowed, needs approval* the receipt is kept, not posted - it waits on the Exceptions list for a holder of Approve on WMS - Receiving, who is told on the bell; the goods stay at the dock until it is approved (posted) or rejected.

Warehouse Management > Tasks > Exceptions is the one place for what the warehouse cannot decide alone: a putaway task the rules could not give a bin (give it one), a task a worker reported not doable (offer it again, or decide on the Task Board), a receipt on QC hold (*Release from QC* raises its putaway tasks from the QC bin once the Quality Order has passed - the Quality module, when built, releases by itself), and a receipt without an order waiting for approval (*Approve* posts it exactly as received; *Reject* keeps it as a record with the reason).

Pallets

Where the storage space tracks pallets (on by default), press New pallet on the desk before the lines that go on a pallet - one item and batch per pallet - and Loose for loose stock. Finish gives every pallet its label (PLT-000123, printed from the Finish window) and raises a putaway task per pallet; on My Tasks the worker scans the pallet's label instead of the item and everything on it moves as one piece. A pallet's label scanned on Enquiry shows what it holds, where it is and where it has been; a bin's enquiry lists the pallets in it. The bin balance itself knows nothing of pallets - the pallet register sits beside it, as the serial register does.

Product barcodes, pricing and product labels

A pallet label moves the pallet; a product label sells the item, and it is made exactly as the voucher screen makes it. The barcode is the receipt line's TranID, decided by the goods receipt type's TranID column in Voucher Manager: hidden = no barcode; CREATE-AUTO = the item master decides - *Manufacturer barcode* No means the system mints the next number at Finish, Yes means the item's own barcode (EAN) from the source *User barcode from* names (Item PartNo, Item SystemID or Std. Barcode). A barcode the purchase order already made is carried to the receipt line, never made again. CREATE-MANUAL, and a manufacturer barcode that would have to be typed, are refused on the desk - such goods are received on the voucher screen.

Pricing is the voucher's cost sheet (Voucher Manager, Show Costing Window). Two WMS Settings say who does what: WMS pricing at the Receiving desk - Yes = the cost sheet opens on the desk right after Finish, so the receiving person prices the goods (landed cost, MRP, retail and wholesale); No (as delivered) = purchase staff price them later on the voucher screen and the desk prints labels at the item master's prices. WMS product labels at Finish - *Automatic* = the labels are built and sent as soon as the receipt is posted, *Ask* (as delivered) = the desk asks "Print product labels?", *On demand* = only from the Print product labels button on the Receipt posted window and on Receipts. Labels print through the barcode label profiles (Settings > Barcode): a Direct To Printer profile goes to the label printer through the browser's serial port picker (Chrome or Edge), an editor profile downloads a text file. Receipts also prints a receipt's pallet labels again, and opens its cost sheet where the desk does the pricing.

5Putting stock away #

Stock that an inward voucher brought in is in the books, but not yet on a shelf: it waits in the receiving bin, and the voucher is pending. A putaway entry takes one or more pending vouchers of a storage space and says, by scanning the material and the bin, where every item of them went. Both scans are compulsory; that is what makes the bin stock true.

1. Save the receipt (or other inward voucher) with its storage space. It is now pending.
2. Open Warehouse Management > Putaway and pick the storage space first. Only its pending vouchers are listed, so an entry never mixes two storage spaces.
3. Tick the voucher(s) to put away - one, or several together. *To put away* lists what they brought, item by item.
4. Scan a material. It is checked against the ticked vouchers. The suggested bins are shown, best first.
5. Scan the bin you put it in, check the quantity, and press Add line (F4). An item can be spread over several bins, a line each.
6. Press Submit (F5) - when everything is scanned, or earlier to put away a part. What is scanned is in its bins; what is still *Left* stays pending on the voucher.

What is checked

Two ways to find the bin, two ways to give the quantity

• The system suggests (as delivered): the bins the rules name are shown, best first, with the reason. Another free bin may be scanned instead - the line is recorded as another bin than suggested.
• The operator finds a free bin: nothing is suggested; the stock is put in any free bin and that bin is scanned.
• Box - the box carries one barcode: scan it once and type how many. Piece by piece - scan every unit; each scan adds one.

Cancelling an entry

Entries on the Putaway screen lists the entries submitted for the storage space. Pick one, say why, and press Cancel this entry: its stock goes back from the bins to the receiving bin, and is pending again on its vouchers - other entries of the same voucher are not touched. Nothing is deleted - the entry stays listed as Cancelled. An entry cannot be cancelled while a bin no longer holds what was put in it; bring the stock back with a move on Bin Stock first.

Loading the opening bin stock

When a storage space first comes under the WMS, the books know how much it holds and nobody has said where: everything waits in its receiving bin. Warehouse Management > Stock > Opening Bin Stock takes the go-live count as a sheet - bin, item, batch, quantity - and places it in one go. It is the same work as Putaway, keyed instead of scanned.

1. Enter the storage space's opening stock and vouchers, so the books are right.
2. On Bin Reconciliation, press Bring the bins up to date: the receiving bin now holds what the books say.
3. Count the warehouse bin by bin into a spreadsheet with four columns: Bin, Item, Batch, Quantity. Item is the item's code, name, standard barcode or part number; leave Batch empty for an item that keeps none.
4. Open Opening Bin Stock and pick the storage space. Press Paste (F2), paste the rows and press Read the rows - or type the rows one by one: Item, Bin, Quantity, Add row (F4). With a scanner, click Scan and scan the item's barcode and then the bin's label: each fills its field, and Add row (F4) takes the row.
5. Submit (F5) and confirm. Every row is checked first; if any is refused, nothing is placed and every reason is listed by row number.

A sheet places no more of an item than waits in the receiving bin - it never changes what the storage space holds. Where the count found more or less than the books, post the difference with a Physical Stock voucher first. A sheet may place part of what waits; the rest stays at the dock for the next sheet, or for Putaway. One sheet takes up to 2,000 rows - load a large warehouse a zone at a time.

A submitted sheet is one putaway entry. The bin's type, mixing rule and capacity are checked as the storage space's Putaway Rules say; a sheet is not held to the bin the rules would suggest, because the stock is where it was counted. It is undone like any entry: Putaway > Entries > Cancel this entry sends its stock back to the receiving bin.

The bin reports

Warehouse Management > Reports (and All Reports) holds three reports. Bin Stock lists what each bin holds on a date - bin by bin, the sheet a stock-taker walks the aisles with, or item by item, every bin an item lies in - narrowed by storage space, bin, zone or item, with choices for rows below zero and for the dock bins only. Double-click a row for its Bin Card: the opening balance, every movement in and out with its voucher and the balance after it, and the closing balance - for a bin, an item, or an item in a bin, over a period. Double-click a movement to open its voucher. Both need the Warehouse Management module and run under the Reports right on the object WMS Reports.

The third, Serial Register, lists which bin each serial number is in, narrowed by serial, bin or item; with Show the history on it lists under each serial every time it entered the storage space, moved bin or left.

Serial numbers

The bins keep quantities. For items tracked by serial number a serial register stands beside them and says which bin each serial is in. It is fed without extra work: a stock voucher line that carries serial numbers and books to one storage space run by the WMS puts its serials in the line's bin, or in the receiving bin (an outward line takes them out; an edit, cancel or delete is followed); Putaway moves a serial to the bin when the serial is scanned; a move on Bin Stock moves the serials ticked. Bring the bins up to date brings the register up to date as well.

One rule keeps it true: the units the register names in a bin leave that bin only by serial. A putaway line or a move that names no serial may take only the units the bin holds without one - so a count sheet on Opening Bin Stock cannot place them; scan them on Putaway. On Bin Stock the row picked lists its serial numbers, and typing a serial in Find shows its bin. Not in the register: serial numbers of the opening stock and of stock transfer vouchers, of a line split over several storage spaces, and of a voucher type whose Use WMS Bins is Off; Picking does not ask for serials - the outward voucher takes them out. A voucher that takes such units out without naming serials is refused at Save on the web where its quantity is known; where it is not - a Physical Stock variance, a voucher from the desktop - the bin ends up holding fewer units than the register names, Bin Stock and Bin Reconciliation say so, and Serials that left... on Bin Stock is where someone ticks the ones that are gone.

The rules of a storage space

Warehouse Management > Setup > Putaway Rules sets, per storage space: whether the system suggests the bin or the operator finds it; whether another bin than suggested is allowed; how strict the checks on bin type, mixing and capacity are (Off, Warn, Stop); the suggestion rules and their order - the item's pick bin, a bin already holding the item, an empty bin in a zone of the item's putaway class, any empty bin; and the refinements - heavy items low, fast movers near dispatch, reserve near the pick bin, best fit, expiry kept apart, one trip.

Warehouse Management > Setup > WMS Settings holds what is the same for the whole company: the default order of those rules for a storage space that has not saved its own; whether the quantity opens on Box or Piece; whether a voucher may be put away in parts (Yes as delivered); how many bins are suggested - on Putaway and on Picking; whether a code may be typed instead of scanned; the nightly check and its hour; which storage spaces the screens list; how long a claimed task stays; and, for the Receiving desk, pricing at the Receiving desk and product labels at Finish (see Receiving). Administrators only.

A count typed as a Physical Stock voucher

On a Physical Stock voucher enter what was counted in the Physical Stock column. Qty is worked out by the save - counted less the books - and cannot be typed. More counted than the books hold comes in to the receiving bin and is put away like any receipt; less counted leaves the dispatch bin. After the save the voucher shows the variance that was posted.

6Picking stock #

A picking entry takes one or more pending vouchers of a storage space and says, by scanning the bin and the material, which bins the stock of each of their lines is taken from. Only the storage spaces run by the WMS are offered. Two kinds of voucher are picked for. An order - a Sales Order, a Production Order, or an order of the StockType Order-IN (a Job Order set up so), of a type that moves no stock - the pick takes the stock from its bin and stages it in the dispatch bin, and the delivery or invoice made from the order takes it out later. A voucher that moves stock out - any stock-affecting outward voucher, a stock transfer out - took the stock from the dispatch bin at once, which went below zero: the pick says which bin really gave it.

1. Save the order - or the outward voucher, with its storage space. It is now pending, marked *order* or *issued*.
2. Open Warehouse Management > Picking and pick the storage space first. Only its pending vouchers are listed, so an entry never mixes two storage spaces.
3. Tick the voucher(s) to pick for - one, or several for one walk. Every line of them becomes a task, taken in the walking order of the bins to pick from.
4. The task says Go to bin, in large type. Go there, scan the bin's label, then scan the item you take out - or the item first: the screen goes to its task.
5. Check the quantity - − and + change it by one - and press Confirm pick (F4); the next task comes up. Where one bin does not hold enough, confirm what it holds and scan the rest out of another bin. Short pick records less than asked with a reason; Skip leaves a task for later.
6. Press Submit (F5) - when every task is done, or earlier to pick a part. What is confirmed leaves its bins; what is still *Left* stays pending on the voucher.

What is checked

Which bin is offered

• The item's pick bin first (Item Warehouse Settings), while it holds the item.
• Then the other bins that hold it, in walking order (Bin Master).
• Stock still in the receiving bin last: it can be picked straight from the dock, but is better put away first.
• Any other bin that holds the item may be scanned instead - the line is recorded as another bin than offered. How many bins are shown is Suggested bins shown on WMS Settings.

Cancelling an entry, and a voucher changed afterwards

Entries on the Picking screen lists the entries submitted for the storage space. Pick one, say why, and press Cancel this entry: its stock goes back from the dispatch bin to the bins it was picked from, and is to pick again on its vouchers. Nothing is deleted - the entry stays listed as Cancelled.

Stock picked for a voucher that no longer asks for it - an order closed short or cancelled, an outward voucher reduced - stands in the dispatch bin. The Picking screen says how much, and it is moved back to a bin on Bin Stock. Stock staged for an order that is still open is not in that list: it waits for the delivery.

7Waves and pick tasks #

Orders go to the floor in waves. The Wave Planner (Warehouse Management > Outbound) lists the open orders with a goods line still to pick in a storage space - a Sales Order, a Production Order or an order of StockType Order-IN whose type has Use WMS bins on - and says for each whether the bins could ship it in full, in part or not at all right now. The manager ticks the orders that go together, builds a wave and releases it: the bins are allocated oldest stock first (earliest expiry, then the bin that received the stock first, then the item's pick bin, then the walking order; never the dispatch bin, a QC hold, Damage, Returns, Packing or Dispatch bin, never an expired batch), the allocation is held on the bin balance, and one Pick task per line and bin is raised on My Tasks. Where the storage space tracks pallets a whole pallet that fits the line is one task. What no bin can give is short: shown at release with the reason, kept on the wave, left pending on the order for the next wave.

1. In Voucher Manager switch Use WMS Bins on for the Sales Order type (Optional is enough): its orders are then picked ahead. Set the storage space's dispatch bin on the Warehouse master.
2. Open Warehouse Management > Outbound > Wave Planner, pick the storage space, tick the orders, press Build wave (F3), keep *Release at once* on and confirm. The answer names the pick tasks raised and any line short of stock.
3. The picker opens My Tasks: a Pick task says Pick from bin in large type, the item and the order. Scan the bin, scan the item (its barcode or code; the lot's label where the line names a lot; the pallet's label on a pallet task), check the quantity, press Confirm pick (F5). There is no bin to scan at the end: the stock goes to the dispatch bin under the order's number.
4. Less than asked is a short pick: give the quantity found and a reason from the list; the rest is offered from the next bin that holds the item. Another bin that holds the item can be scanned at the start by a worker with the Execute right, with a reason.
5. Watch the wave on the planner: picks done, quantity picked, lines that could not be filled. Pick list prints the tasks in walking order for a picker on paper. A wave with nothing picked yet can be cancelled; its holds go and the orders return to the list.
6. Once the wave is Picked, make the Delivery Note from the order on the voucher screen: it takes the staged stock from the dispatch bin (the Picking screen shows what stands there). Where the storage space packs into cartons, Pack comes next; then the Dispatch Desk and Load post the Delivery Notes (below).

8Packing into cartons #

Once picked, an order's stock stands in the dispatch bin under the order's number. Where the storage space packs into cartons (the switch *Pack into cartons* on the Warehouse master's WMS panel, on by default), Warehouse Management > Outbound > Pack opens a numbered carton for the order, takes each item by scan - never an item that is not on the order, never more than was picked - closes it with its weight and size, and prints the carton label (the number the loader scans against the vehicle) and the packing slip (quantities only, never a price). A carton is a register beside the bins: nothing moves until the dispatch. A storage space with the switch off ships loose and is loaded by order on the Dispatch Desk.

1. Pick the storage space and the order (the drop-down on a phone, the cards at a desk). An order is listed while stock is staged for it and while its cartons wait to be loaded.
2. Press Open carton (F3). One carton of an order is open at a time.
3. Scan each item as it goes in - its barcode, item code or part number, a lot's label, or a unit's serial number (one scan a unit for serial-registered stock). The quantity in the box goes in with each scan; Pack on a line puts all that is left of it in without a scan.
4. Press Close carton (F5), give the weight and size, confirm: the carton is numbered *n of m* of its order and its label and slip open to print. Open the next carton for the rest.
5. A closed carton can be reopened until it is loaded; an open or closed one can be cancelled with a reason - what it held is to pack again. Papers reprints a closed carton's label and slip.

9Dispatch: loading the vehicle and posting the Delivery Notes #

A dispatch is one vehicle load. On Warehouse Management > Outbound > Dispatch Desk the dispatcher opens it with the vehicle, driver, carrier and seal and the Delivery Note type it posts (a type that takes stock out, Use WMS bins on, *Post from = Warehouse confirmation*, linked to the order types), and puts the ready orders on it - packed into closed cartons, or staged loose where the storage space does not pack. On Outbound > Load (the phone) the loader scans each carton onto the vehicle, marks one that cannot be found Missing with a reason, and presses Finish loading. Close dispatch then checks the load against what was staged and posts one Delivery Note per order through the ERP's own save for what was loaded, the stock leaving the dispatch bin; the manifest and the gate pass print, and security records the time the vehicle went out with Vehicle out.

Goods picked for an order that will not go - the customer's credit was refused, the order was cancelled or put off - are sent back with Return to shelf on the Dispatch Desk. Take the order off its dispatch (or cancel the dispatch), press Return to shelf, pick the order and give the reason. One Move task per line is raised from the dispatch bin back to the bin the goods were picked from, and the order's cartons are cancelled. A worker confirms each task on My Tasks; only then does the stock move. The order is then to pick again, and a later wave takes it if the order still stands.

A dispatch short of what was staged - a missing carton, a carton not loaded, a loose order not fully staged - closes only with approval: a holder of Approve on WMS - Dispatch is told through the approval bell and decides on the desk. Approved, the notes post for what is loaded and the rest stays owed on the order (the Backorders report lists it); rejected, the dispatch goes back to loading. A note the voucher save refuses (credit control, stock, pricing) leaves nothing behind: the dispatch stays open, the notes posted before it stay posted, and the next close finishes the rest. Before anything posts the close also checks that the dispatch bin really holds what is loaded, and that each customer has a transaction class for the note - the one its GST details imply for the voucher type (local or inter-state), else the party's default; either failing is said at once. A carton left Missing on a dispatch that closed short and found afterwards is put back with Found, and its order is ready for another vehicle.

1. Dispatch Desk: New dispatch (F3) - vehicle number, driver, carrier, seal, route, the Delivery Note type.
2. Add orders (F4): tick the ready orders (an order held back says why - an open carton, stock not yet packed, already on a dispatch).
3. Load, on the phone: pick the dispatch, scan each carton on; Missing for one you cannot find; Loaded on each order where the storage space ships loose; Finish loading (F5).
4. Dispatch Desk: Close dispatch (F5), read the check, confirm. Short: wait for the approver, or approve if you hold the right.
5. Print the manifest (the driver's copy, signed on delivery) and the gate pass; press Vehicle out when security lets it go.

Eight reports under Reports follow the outbound work: Orders Awaiting Release, Wave Status, Short Picks, Order Fill Rate, Dispatch Register, Order Cycle Time, Gate Pass Register and Backorders.

10Counting: keeping the bins true #

A count checks what the bins really hold against what the system says, without stopping the warehouse. The stock controller starts it on Warehouse Management > Counting > Count Desk; the counters count on Counting > Count, on a phone. Only the bins of the count are frozen - nothing is put into them, picked from them or moved - and only until they are counted and agree, or the count is posted or cancelled.

The count is blind: the phone lists the items the books expect in the bin, never a quantity, and never says whether a figure agreed. The desk sees both figures. A line inside the tolerance is accepted. Outside it, the bin goes back to be counted again by somebody else. A recount still outside waits for approval: holders of Approve on WMS - Counts are told through the approval bell and decide on the desk - approve lets the counted figure stand, reject (with a reason) sends the bin round again. Nobody decides a line they counted.

The tolerance is set on WMS Settings, group Counting: a per cent of the book quantity for value class A (default 0), B (1) and C or unclassed (2), and a quantity that is always accepted (default 0). The larger of the two applies.

1. Count Desk: New count (F3) - pick the plan, press Show the plan to see the bins it finds and which it leaves out and why, then Start the count.
2. Count, on the phone: scan the bin's label (or press Count on its row), enter what is there of every item listed - 0 where there is none - scan anything in the bin that is not listed to add it, or tick The bin is empty; Send the count (F5).
3. Count Desk: watch the lines. Count again sends a doubtful line back; Approve or Reject the differences that wait.
4. Count Desk: Post count (F5). The bins are corrected to the counted figures and released, and one Physical Stock voucher dated today is saved for the storage space with a line for each item whose total changed.

• A bin that is Blocked or Inactive, is in another count, holds stock allocated to a pick, or is named by an open task is left out of a plan; the plan says why. Count it when its work is done.
• An item short in one bin and over by as much in another needs no voucher line: only the bins are corrected. A count in which nothing differed posts no voucher at all.
• The differences pass through the storage space's receiving bin on their way to the books, so the storage space needs one, Active. It ends the post holding what it held before.
• The company needs a voucher type of the group Physical Stock that affects stock, with Use WMS bins on, the storage space enabled and System numbering. The desk says so when none is ready; counting can go on meanwhile.
• A difference on a batch line, or on an item held by serial number in the bin, cannot be posted from a count yet. Leave out the bin and correct it on a Physical Stock voucher that names the batch or the serials.
• Count sheet on the desk prints the bins still to count with their items and no quantity, for counting on paper; the figures are then keyed on Count.
• Leave out releases one bin without posting anything for it; Cancel count releases them all.

Counting by pallet

In a storage space that tracks pallets a pallet is not counted item by item. On Count, with the bin open, scan the label of every pallet standing in it: each is added to the bin's pallet list with the quantity its label says. Then enter, for each item, only what stands loose - 0 if all of it is on pallets. The line's counted quantity is the loose quantity plus the pallets scanned.

• A label scanned by mistake is taken off with Take off beside it.
• The screen never says which pallets the register expects in the bin - the count stays blind.
• A pallet the register expected and nobody scanned is Not found on the Count Desk. It is closed when its bin is released: its goods were counted loose, or are short.
• A pallet scanned in one bin while the register has it in another stops the post. Leave the bin out of the count, move the pallet by scanning its label on Bin Stock > Move stock, and count the bin next time. If the label was scanned by mistake, send the line to be counted again and take the pallet off.
• A pallet of an item the bin's list does not show is recorded as found there, as a loose find would be.
• At a recount the pallets already scanned stay on the bin; the second counter adds or takes off.

Two reports under Reports follow the counting: Count Variance - every counted line that differed, with both counts, the decision and what was posted - and Count Accuracy - the per cent of counted lines that agreed with the books, by count, zone, value class or first counter.

11Replenishment: keeping the pick faces full #

A pick face is the bin pickers take an item from. It is set on Bin Master: open the bin, add the item under Item rules, tick Pick face, and give its least and its most. When the face falls below its least, a Replenish task brings stock from a bulk bin, up to its most.

The level of a face is what it holds, less what released picks hold of it, plus what open tasks are already bringing. Counting what is on its way stops a second task being raised for the same gap. What is brought is the most less the level - in whole cases where the item has a case size (Item Warehouse Settings, Units per case). Stock comes from the Storage bins of the same storage space that are Active and are not themselves a pick face of the item, in walking order.

• Warehouse Management > Movement > Replenishment lists every pick face with its least, its most, what it holds, what picks hold, what is on its way, and what a replenishment would bring from which bin. Raise tasks (F5) raises every task that is due; Raise on a row raises that face only.
• With WMS replenish automatically set to Yes (WMS Settings, group Replenishment - the delivered setting) the system raises the tasks itself: when a pick is confirmed from a face, when a wave is released, and once a night with the nightly check. A task a wave release raised comes before the picks.
• A Replenish task is worked on My Tasks exactly as a Move task: scan the bulk bin, the item, the pick face, confirm. Nothing moves until it is confirmed.
• A face that is due but has nothing in bulk is said so, never raised: receive the item, or put away what waits at the dock.
• A face with a least of 0 is never topped up. A face that is Blocked or frozen by a count is brought nothing until it is Active.

The report Replenishment Due (Reports) lists the faces below their least across every storage space.

12Transfers: sending stock to another storage space #

A transfer sends stock to another storage space in two steps. The dispatch is a Stock Transfer voucher from the sending storage space into a transit storage space; the receipt is a second one from the transit space into the destination, saved when the goods have arrived and been counted. Between the two the stock belongs to neither end: it is in the books of the transit space and on the in-transit list.

1. Sending site, Movement > Transfers: New transfer (F3) - where it goes, the transit space, the date expected, the vehicle. Find items in the bins of the sending space, press Add, give the quantities. Save the draft - nothing has moved.
2. Dispatch (F5): the bins are checked again and the voucher is posted. The stock leaves the bins and is in transit.
3. Receiving site, the same screen: pick the transfer, Receive (F4), enter what arrived on each line and of it what arrived damaged. A voucher brings it in; where the destination is run by the WMS it lands in the receiving bin and Putaway tasks are raised, and damaged stock lands in the QC hold bin.
4. If something is missing when the vehicle is unloaded, tick Nothing more is coming and say what happened. The transfer is Short.
5. Sending site, a holder of Approve: Decide short transfer - Keep waiting, Return (a voucher brings the rest back into the sender), or Close short with a reason.

• The sending storage space must be run by the WMS; the destination may be any storage space open to your branch. Both ends must be active.
• Only free stock is offered for a line: in an Active bin, not held by a pick, an open task or another draft.
• Stock in a batch, and items held by serial number, are not offered: transfer those on the Stock Transfer voucher under Voucher Entry, as before.
• A transfer may be received in several parts, never for more than was sent.
• A quantity closed short stays in the books of the transit storage space until a voucher adjusts it there.
• A dispatched transfer cannot be cancelled: it is received, or returned.
• To move stock between bins of one storage space, raise a Move task - no voucher is needed.

The report In-transit Ageing (Reports) lists what is on the road with its days and the date expected, late ones marked.

13Who sees which warehouse screen #

An ordinary user sees a warehouse screen only when an administrator has given it. Three things decide it, all on Admin > User Manager, on the user. Administrator, Global Administrator and Developer see everything and are not filtered.

The section's page lists only what the user may use. A counter given *WMS - Tasks: Count* and nothing else sees Count and My Tasks, not the settings and the desks. A section in which nothing is given does not show at all.

A new user starts with nothing ticked. Tick what the person needs; the column head's *all* link ticks or clears a right on every object of the tab, whatever the search box shows.

14Vans: route sales with a bin #

A van used for route sales can be run with a bin. It is an option, off by default: a van that is not switched on works exactly as before, and no screen of the WMS touches it. Switched on, the van is loaded from the warehouse's bins with one Stock Transfer voucher, sold from by ordinary invoices, and its stock is seen on Movement > Van Loads.

Setting up the van sales voucher type

Give van sales a voucher type of their own instead of switching your ordinary sales invoice on. The moment a type has Use WMS bins on, the bins must account for every voucher of that type - the old ones too. A new type has no old vouchers, so nothing has to be absorbed, and the ordinary invoice goes on as before.

1. Masters > Voucher Manager: find your sales type, press Duplicate and name the copy (for example VAN SALES INVOICE). Everything is copied - numbering, columns, tax, print formats.
2. Open the copy, press Modify and set Use WMS Bins to *Optional*.
3. Set Default Bin Rule to *FIFO* (or FEFO / Pick sequence). A van has one bin and no dispatch bin, so the rule must be one that chooses - with *Ask* a line that names no bin has nowhere to take the stock from.
4. Switch on Enable Storage Space, so the invoice has a Warehouse box in which the van is named.
5. Switch on Enable Employee Allocation if you want the salesman on every invoice (see below). Save.

The salesman on a van invoice

With Enable Employee Allocation on, the invoice has an Employee box. It fills itself: a new voucher starts with the employee whose ledger account names the login that is signed in. Set that link once on Masters > Accounts > Ledger Account, on the employee's account: switch Has Login on and pick the Login Name. One login belongs to one employee - a second employee on the same login is refused. The name can still be changed on a voucher, and a name already there is never replaced.

What the van salesman's login needs

A user who opens a voucher screen he holds no right on - from a link or a typed address - sees *You do not have rights on ...* and nothing else; the screen no longer draws an empty form.

1. Movement > Van Loads: pick the van on the left and press Switch on for the WMS. One bin is made for it - its storage, receiving and dispatch bin together.
2. If the books already show stock on the van, open Bin Reconciliation, pick the van and press Bring the bins up to date.
3. New load (F3): pick the van and the warehouse. Find items in the warehouse's bins, press Add, give the quantity. Save the draft - nothing has moved.
4. Fetch the goods bin by bin and put them on the van. Change draft corrects a line that could not be loaded.
5. Confirm load (F5): one Stock Transfer voucher takes every line out of its bin and into the van's bin. The van may leave.
6. On the route, sell as before: an invoice with the van as its storage space. The stock leaves the van's bin.
7. Pick the van on Van Loads at any time to see what it holds.

• A van has one bin. Nobody scans shelves inside a van.
• Only free stock is offered for a load: in an Active bin, not held by a pick, an open task or another draft; without a batch; not held by serial number.
• A van load is never in transit: the voucher moves the stock from the warehouse to the van in one step, and the load is closed by the confirm.
• A confirmed load cannot be cancelled. What is not sold comes back when the van's day is closed.
• An invoice saved from the desktop reaches the van's bin at the next Bring the bins up to date, or with the nightly check.
• A van that already has zones or bins laid out by hand is switched on on Warehouse Layout, not on Van Loads.

Closing the van's day

When the van is back, pick it on Van Loads and press Close the day (F4). It is two steps, in this order: count what is left, then return what comes back.

1. Start the count. The van's bin is frozen and appears on Count - pick the van as the storage space. The counter is not shown what the books say.
2. A figure that differs is counted again by a second person. One still outside the tolerance waits for approval as a count variance: it is on Warehouse Approvals and is decided on the Count Desk.
3. Post the count on the Count Desk. One Physical Stock voucher corrects the van's bin and its books, and the bin is released.
4. Back on Van Loads, Close the day > Return what is left. The list opens with everything on the van; lower a quantity or remove a line for what stays on board. Save the draft.
5. Take the goods off the van and press Confirm return (F5): one Stock Transfer voucher brings them into the warehouse's receiving bin, and Putaway tasks are raised.

• While the count is open nothing can be loaded, sold from the bin or returned - the order keeps itself.
• Starting the count asks Create on WMS - Counts; approving a difference asks Approve on it, and the Warehouse Approval Rule for Count variance where one is set.
• A van that keeps its stock overnight needs only the count - or neither step.

15Customer portal: showing what can be supplied #

The customer portal already shows stock: what the books hold at the customer's branch, less what is reserved and blocked. That figure includes stock a picker cannot take - goods still at the receiving dock, on QC hold, damaged, in a blocked bin, or already held by a pick. With the option below switched on, the portal shows what the warehouse can actually supply instead. It is off by default.

• A bin can be picked from when it is Active and of the type Storage or Pick face. Receiving, staging, packing, dispatch, QC hold, damage and returns bins are not counted; nor is a blocked bin or one frozen by a count.
• Only storage spaces open to the customer's branch are counted, whatever is ticked. Vans are never counted.
• The figure is never below zero. An item with no stock in a pickable bin shows as out of stock, even if the books hold it.
• The customer sees one figure per item - never a bin, a batch, a cost or another customer's reservation.
• The same figure is used when an order is placed: the portal refuses a quantity above it where it refuses one today.
• Stock that was received but not yet put away is not offered until it is in a storage bin - put away promptly.

16Control: the dashboard, approvals and who is asked #

Three screens under Warehouse Management > Control are for the person who runs the warehouse. The Warehouse Dashboard shows a storage space as it stands this minute. Warehouse Approvals lists everything waiting for a second person. Warehouse Approval Rules says who that person is.

Warehouse Dashboard

Pick a storage space. Each tile answers one question and has a button that opens the screen or report with the rows behind it. A marked tile wants someone to act. The figures are read when the screen opens and when you press Refresh (F2).

Warehouse Approvals

Four warehouse actions are held for a second person. This screen lists them all, the oldest first, with how long each has waited, who was asked, and whether you may decide it. Open (F5) goes to the screen where it is approved or rejected - the decision is made there, where you can see what is being decided.

Warehouse Approval Rules

Without a rule, every user who holds the Approve right on the action's permission object is asked, and any of them decides. A rule names the people instead - for one approval, in every storage space or in one.

1. Control > Warehouse Approval Rules, New rule (F3). Pick the Approval and the Storage space (or Every storage space).
2. Pick the Level 1 approvers - users, user groups, or both. They are asked first; any one of them decides.
3. Optional - Level 2 decides from a value of: a request worth that much or more goes to level 2 instead of level 1. The value is the quantity that differs at the cost of the item's latest lot. It works for Count variance and Transfer shortage.
4. Optional - Ask level 2 as well after (hours): a request nobody has decided after that long is sent to level 2 too, and from then on either level decides.
5. Where a value or hours is given, pick the Level 2 approvers. Save (F5).

• A rule for one storage space wins over the rule for every storage space.
• A rule narrows who decides; it does not give the right. The person still needs Approve on the action's own object in User Manager. An administrator may always decide.
• By value it is one decision, sent to the right level - not two approvals one after the other.
• Nothing is ever decided by time. Escalation only asks more people; the system checks every ten minutes.
• A rule switched off, or whose approvers are inactive or in an empty group, is ignored: the holders of the Approve right are asked.
• A rule applies to requests raised after it is saved. One already waiting keeps the alert it sent, but only the people the rule names may decide it.
• Whether an action is held at all is not set here: the count tolerance is in WMS Settings, and holding a receipt without an order is a setting of the voucher type.

Rights, in User Manager: the dashboard is a preference - User Can View Warehouse Dashboard on the Preferences tab; on the Masters tab, WMS - Approvals (View) and WMS - Approval Rules (View, Alter). Four reports under Reports go with these screens: Open Warehouse Tasks, Warehouse Productivity, Bin Occupancy and Warehouse Approval Log - every request and decision, with who decided and why.

17Tasks and the phone #

A job on the warehouse floor is a task: so much of an item, from one bin to another, offered to somebody, with a state. A supervisor raises and follows tasks on the Task Board; a worker does them on My Tasks, a screen made for a phone or a handheld, by scanning. Nothing moves in the bins until a task is confirmed. Move tasks are raised by hand on the board; Putaway tasks are raised by the Receiving desk, one per line received, and worked the same way. Pick tasks are raised by a wave and worked on My Tasks too. Counting has a list of its own - Counting > Count - because a counter must not see the quantity a task would show.

1. On Warehouse Management > Task Board pick the storage space and press New task (F3).
2. Pick the From bin - the Item list then shows what it holds free - the Item, the Quantity and the To bin.
3. Pick Who: anyone who may work Move tasks, a user group, or one person (the task is then theirs alone). Optionally a Priority (1 first, 9 last), a Due time and Remarks. Press Save (F5). No stock has moved.
4. The worker opens Warehouse Management > My Tasks on the phone and picks the storage space. Their own tasks come first, then those offered to them - by priority, due time and walking order.
5. Tap the task: it is now open on the worker's name and nobody else can take it. The screen shows the From bin in large type.
6. Scan the From bin, then the item (its code, barcode or part number - or, where the bin holds units by serial number, the serial number of each unit taken), then the To bin.
7. Check the quantity and press Confirm (F5). The stock moves now; the task shows as Confirmed on the Task Board, with every scan in its history.

Rights (User Manager, Masters tab). On WMS - Tasks: Move: View lists Move tasks on My Tasks, Alter works them, Create raises them and moves on the spot, Execute lets the worker put the stock in another bin than the task names. On WMS - Task Board: View opens the board, Alter gives and re-orders, Delete cancels. Administrators hold them all.

18A storage space with no barcode labels #

A warehouse whose bins and goods carry no labels can still be run by the WMS. The working method is set for each storage space, so a labelled storage space and an unlabelled one can work side by side. Scan labels is the default.

• Switch it on: Masters > Warehouse, open the storage space, block Run by the WMS, Working method = Confirm on screen (no scanning), then Save WMS settings.
• Bin check codes: with Check the bin by its code on (the default), every bin has a two-digit check code. Press Bin check codes in the same block, print the list, and write or paint each code on its bin.
• Working a task: on My Tasks the worker goes to the bin the task names, types the code written on it and presses Enter; taps This is ... for the item; then types the code of the bin the stock goes to, and confirms. A wrong code is refused - it means he stands at another bin.
• Without the bin check: switch Check the bin by its code off, and a tap on I am at bin ... is enough.
• Checking the item too: switch Check the item by its code on, and the worker types the item's code instead of tapping.
• Serial numbers are always entered unit by unit, as before.
• What is recorded: every step confirmed this way is marked no scan in the task's history on the Task Board.
• Pack, Load, Count, Receiving: in a storage space that does not scan, a code can always be typed there, Pack and Load have a button on each line or carton, and every screen says confirm where it said scan.
• A second person for costly stock: Second person for class A items and Second person from a line value of (same block of the Warehouse master). When either applies, the task is confirmed only after a colleague has pressed Second check on the Task Board.
• No device on the floor - Paper lists: set Working method = Paper lists. On the Task Board press Print task list, hand the list to the floor, and when it comes back pick each task and press Confirm from paper: type the quantity done (and the reason when it is less). Serial-numbered items are still done on My Tasks.
• A move on the spot (My Tasks, Move F3) follows the same method: each bin typed is proved by its check code, and the item is tapped from what the bin holds. A move that needs a second person is raised as a Move task instead.
• Second check from My Tasks: the colleague presses Second check on his own My Tasks and types the task's number - he needs no Task Board.
• Rights and menu: the worker needs the right to work that kind of task (and Create on WMS - Tasks: Move for a move on the spot); a menu group such as Purchase shows for a user only when it is ticked for him in User Manager, Menu Definition.

19Which voucher the warehouse works on #

In a chain of vouchers - Purchase Order > GRN > Inward Supply, or Sales Order > Delivery Note > Outward Supply - the warehouse works on the voucher that moves the stock: the GRN is put away, the Delivery Note is picked. The order moves nothing yet, and the bill made from a GRN must not move stock again (its voucher type does not affect stock), so neither is put away. Whether the warehouse handles a voucher type at all is set on the type, in Voucher Manager, by four settings. Every type starts with Use WMS Bins Off: the warehouse ignores its vouchers until it is switched on - switch it on on the GRN, the Delivery Note, the stock transfer and the orders to pick ahead, and leave the rest Off.

The bin of a line. With Use WMS Bins on, each stock line of the voucher has a Bin button (the location pin in its Actions): it lists the bins of the line's storage space, those that hold the item first, and the line shows the bin chosen. A line split over several storage spaces names one bin in each of them. On Save the stock goes straight into or out of that bin - no Putaway or Picking for that line. A line with no bin follows the Default Bin Rule. Because an Off type moves no bin, the bins of a storage space add up to the stock of the types the warehouse handles: Bin Reconciliation compares the bins with those, not with the whole Storage Space report. A type made on the desktop starts Off as well, and a type switched back to Off gives its vouchers' stock back from the bins at Bring the bins up to date.

Making a voucher wait for the warehouse

A voucher made from another can be told to take only what the warehouse has done - in Voucher Manager > Linked Transaction properties > Warehouse Condition of the voucher type being made (Inward Supply, say, with GRN as its link source):

• None - as before: the source is offered whatever the warehouse has done.
• Put away / picked quantity only - a source line offers only what is put away (a receipt) or picked (an issue, an order picked ahead). A GRN with 6 of 10 put away offers 6.
• Put away / picked in full - a source voucher is offered only once it is put away or picked in full.

The database keeps to it, for the web and the desktop alike: the source is not listed, its quantity is cut, and a save taking more is refused with the quantity that is done. Cancelling a putaway or picking entry is refused too when a voucher made from it has already taken what the entry did - reduce or cancel that voucher first.

20Licence and who sees the group #

The licence is read by the server, not taken from the browser. After your software vendor adds the module to the licence it takes effect within ten minutes, or at the next sign-in.

21Where related things are #

How storage spaces, racks and stock transfers work is explained in the Inventory guide, under Storage spaces, racks and transfers.

22Where to find help #

• On every screen: the Help panel on the right. It explains what the screen is for, how to work in it step by step, every field, the keys, and what to do when something does not work.
• The manual: at the foot of this guide - Warehouse Layout, Bin Master, Item Warehouse Settings, Putaway Rules, WMS Settings, My Tasks, Task Board, Putaway, Opening Bin Stock, Picking, Bin Stock, Bin Reconciliation, the Warehouse master, the Rack Master and Rack-wise Stock, in the words their Help panels use.
• Search help in the header searches every screen's help at once; type a field, a message or a report name.

23If something does not work #