Managing Inventory & Warehouse Settings

Managing inventory and warehouse settings is an essential part of product management in Afosto. Here you will find a detailed explanation of how to do this.

Navigate to the 'Items' Page

Start by clicking on the 'Products' tab.
Then, click on 'Items'. This will take you to the page with all your products.

On the Products page, click on the product for which you want to add inventory or adjust warehouse settings.

Add Stock

To add stock, click on the product you want. This opens a window with the product details.
Click the '+ Stock' button at the top right of the screen.

A window will open where you can:

Choose warehouse

In the 'In Warehouse' field, select the warehouse where you want to add the inventory. This could be your physical store or a warehouse at another location. This helps you track where your inventory is located. If you haven't added a warehouse to your account yet, you can add one here. For more details on adding a warehouse, check out the Warehouses documentation.

Specify company

In the 'For Company' field, specify which company the inventory belongs to if you have multiple companies linked to your Afosto account. This indicates which of your businesses owns this inventory.

Mandatory fields

The 'In Warehouse' and 'For Company' fields are mandatory. The field for position setting is optional. This field can also be adjusted later. (For example, if the exact location within the warehouse hasn't been determined yet.)

Position Determination

Use the 'Position' field to indicate where the product is located in your warehouse, for example, rack A, shelf 8, slot 12. If you haven't set up positions yet, you can add them by clicking 'Add New Position'.

Then, you give the position a name and choose whether it's a Default (normal) or Bulk position. A bulk position usually means you have pallets of inventory there. After adding a position, you can create another for your regular stock. This way, you can use both bulk and regular locations in your warehouse, making your operations more efficient and your inventory better organized.

These positions can be linked to a scanner, so when you scan a product or barcode, you immediately see the correct location. For more information on scanning and creating barcodes for products, check out our WMS app documentation.

Specify Quantity

With the 'Quantity' field, you specify how many products you currently have in stock. This keeps your inventory records up-to-date.

Once you're done, click 'Add'. The inventory is now recorded in the system, and you'll see the updated stock in the warehouse section.

Here's how it will look:

Adding Position Settings

Finally, you can add position settings by clicking the gear icon next to the position name.

In the window that opens, you can enter various specifications:

Maximum Number of Pieces: 'Limit to a maximum number'. Use this field to set the maximum number of items of this SKU that can fit in this position.

If you choose 'Unlimited', no maximum number of products will be linked to the position.

Position Type: This is useful for products with limited availability or limited-edition items. When the stock reaches zero, the position will be freed up for other products.

Lastly, click 'Save'. I've added an extra position named 'F2'. This position is unlimited and set as a 'Bulk position'. You can specify this when creating a new position. If the position has already been created, you can change this setting elsewhere.

To adjust position settings, look in the positions documentation.

Here's how it will look:

If another pallet comes in, there won't be space on position F2 in the system. To allocate a spot for this pallet, you can now choose a temporary position.

Now you're done adding inventory and adjusting position settings. You can choose to add warehouse settings where you can input settings like reorder points for new stock, pre-order settings, and backorder settings.

Magazijn instellingen

In the next section, we'll adjust the warehouse settings. If this doesn't apply to you, you can skip this part and you're done with the setup.

Warehouse Settings

With warehouse settings, you can apply different settings to your inventory for each warehouse. This is useful if you have, for example, a physical store and a warehouse, or if you want to link two companies to the same warehouse. In this part of the explanation, I'll show you what's possible.

To start:

Click on the 'Warehouse Settings' button. You can click the button at the top right or the one next to the specific warehouse you want to configure. If you click the button at the top, you can also add a new warehouse for this product. If you click the button next to the warehouse, you can't do this.

After clicking the button, this menu will open:

In the first part of this menu, we'll cover 5 settings:

Safety Stock

This is the inventory level you always want to maintain in your warehouse. It's useful if you have a physical store and want to ensure that customers can always buy the product.

Reorder Point

This is the inventory level at which you want to reorder. When your stock falls below this point, you can get a notification. With this notification, you can, for example, create a purchase order.

Pay attention

Your reorder point cannot be lower than your safety stock. If you enter this incorrectly, a warning will appear. This can't be lower because otherwise, your stock might fall below the safety stock level.

Maximum Stock

This is the maximum number of products you want to keep in stock in this warehouse.
For the previously mentioned notification from the reorder point, the maximum inventory can also be taken into account. This way, you can see how many products need to be or will be ordered.

Limit to One Position

If you want this product to always be in the same place, you can enable this setting.
For example, if you don't want to use a bulk location and prefer to place products in one row on a rack with pallets above and individual items below.

Backorder Allowed

When this setting is enabled, it allows the product to be ordered even if it's no longer in stock.
This can be relevant if you work with preorders and thus don't have stock in your warehouse.

Here, you can finally add a Preorder Deadline. This only applies if you're working with products that can be ordered as preorders.
The deadline entered here is the point up to which the product can be ordered. After this point, customers can no longer order the product.

Add Product Units

The "Add Product Units" feature in our Warehouse Management System (WMS) lets you define various units of measurement for products, enhancing both stock management and operational efficiency. This allows you to categorize products by different units, streamlining the processes of counting, ordering, and adjusting stock.

For example:

Per Piece: A single unit is added to the inventory.
Per Package: If one package contains 12 pieces, adding a package automatically increases stock by 12.

In the Afosto system, 'pieces' is the default unit for inventory tracking. This ensures consistency across stock management, regardless of the unit in which products are added. When you input products using different units, such as crates or boxes, the system automatically converts and displays the total stock in terms of individual pieces.

For your understanding:

If you add 2 crates, each containing 24 pieces, and later add 20 loose pieces,
The system will register the total inventory as 68 pieces instead of displaying "2 crates and 20 pieces."

Key Benefits of Using Units

Adding stock quickly and efficiently: Add stock in bulk (e.g., packages) rather than manually updating piece-by-piece.
Ordering in different units from your supplier: You can order products in other units than you sell, allowing you to purchase in bulk packages while selling per piece. The system automatically converts these bulk units into the default tracking unit, ensuring accurate inventory records after purchase. (e.g., purchase in bulk packages while selling per piece).

How to Add Product Units

Click the “Units” tab on the product detail page.

Click the “Add” button, and an Add unit modal window will appear. Enter the Type and Quantity of the product.

FAQs

1. What are the available units?

Every product added to the system starts with a default unit called "Pieces", which consists of one piece. Additional units can be added based on packaging requirements, such as boxes, crates, or pallets, each containing multiple pieces. These units allow for efficient stock management, ordering, and tracking.

2. What is a ‘standard purchasing unit’?

The standard purchasing unit is the default measurement used in replenishment lists for a specific product. Therefore, when creating a replenishment list, this standard unit is employed, whether it be crates, boxes, or any other unit of measure.

3. Can units be edited or deleted after they have been added to a product?

The default "Pieces" (1 piece) unit cannot be edited or deleted unless an additional unit has been added.
Once a second unit is added, you can modify or remove units as needed, provided that at least one unit with a quantity of 1 remains in the system.
If a product has transactions associated with a unit, restrictions may apply to prevent inconsistencies in inventory records.

4. Is there a way to update or change units/conversion rates once they are set?

Yes, but only if at least one unit with a quantity of 1 remains in the system.
The system allows you to edit or update additional units and their conversion rates, ensuring flexibility in inventory tracking.

Overview

In this overview, you now see a chart with information about your inventory. As you can see, the stock is too low, and reordering will be necessary to replenish the safety stock. All of this could be automated. If you have any questions about this, feel free to send an email to support@afosto.com.

Price Lists Logistical Process

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