Setting up Multiple Location Control.

The module is an add-on module that tracks inventory beyond the warehouse, such as warehouse bin locations, trucks or any other area specific to your business. The module tracks quantities at a location, but not financial data.

The Multiple Location Control module is an add-on to the Acctivate system that tracks inventory beyond the warehouse. It can track inventory in any location that is a step below the warehouse such as warehouse bin locations, trucks or any other area specific to your business.

The module tracks quantities at a location, but not financial data such as unit cost and value.

Multiple Location Control in action

The Multiple Location Control module adds to the power of tracking inventory by warehouse and gives you even more control over your inventory in the following ways:

• Organized inventory count sheets
  Inventory count sheets display the locations and zones in which a product is stocked. When using zones you can group locations by those zones.
• Transfer inventory between locations
  Now you can transfer between warehouses or transfer between warehouse locations as well.
• Stock your locations
  When receiving products into inventory you can now specify the location as well as the warehouse into which product is received.
• Sell from your locations
  When entering a sales order you can specify from which location you want to sell.
• Set a primary location
  Set a primary location for a product that will be the default location for every transaction. Set a stock level as well to keep track of how much should be stocked in your primary locations.
• Locations on the fly
  Set up all locations at one time or add new locations on the fly.

Configuring Locations

The Warehouse Locations configuration option in the Acctivate Configuration Manager allows warehouse locations to be setup and maintained. Warehouse Location configuration screens During the configuration process you may see the following screens:

1. Before setting up the locations, you’ll need to Enable location tracking. The same screen will appear if, for some reason, bin locations were disabled.
   1. Go to File > Configuration Management > Inventory > Locations
   2. Click Edit
   3. Choose to Enable
   
   
2. The Create Locations window will appear after step 1.3 above. The user has the following options:
   1. Convert existing locations – This section has check boxes for selecting which types of existing locations to convert for tracking purposes. (Existing locations are any values you may have in the "Location" field on the product grid.)
   2. Select delimiters for multiple locations – This section has check boxes for selecting which delimiters to use to separate locations when there are multiple locations for a product in a specific warehouse. (i.e. J44;B22;B23)
   3. Generate preview – The Preview button generates a preview of all new locations that will be created for tracking purposes.
   4. Preview locations – Displays the preview of the new locations that were generated in 2.3 above. You can toggle between each warehouse, if multiple exist.
   5. Create locations – The Create button converts the locations from the preview, so their inventory can be tracked.
   
   
3. Manage Locations – This screen opens right after locations have been created in 2.5 above. After locations have been enabled and created it will be the only screen that opens when the Inventory > Location option is selected in Configuration, unless location tracking is disabled.
   • This screen contains the following:
     • Warehouse – A drop-down field that allows a warehouse to be selected, in order to view locations for that specific warehouse.
     • Disable – A button that disables location tracking for all future transactions.
       Note: Location tracking can be enabled again by clicking the Enable button described above.
     • Location – The name or number that identifies the warehouse location.
     • Zone – The zone by which the location is grouped for inventory counts.
     • Active – Activates or deactivates tracking for the specific location.
     • Re-Sort List – Choose to sort the list alphabetically when the locations aren’t showing in this order by default.

Tracking Warehouse Locations Process

After the locations have been created and configured, inventory can be tracked for each location in the system from the Product Information Window; and transactions can be performed for the locations as well.

How do I track and manage inventory by warehouse location?

Once your locations have been created the Manage Locations screen will open every time you select Inventory > Locations in the Configuration Manager unless you click the Disable button. See step 3 above for all options.

The Available and On-hand quantities for warehouse locations can be viewed in the Product Information window for each product. If the location shows as a blank value, set the Primary Location on the product to move the inventory into this new location.

1. Select Inventory > Edit Product to open the Edit Product window.
2. In the Product ID field either use the lookup button or type a product ID into the field and press Tab to open information for a particular product.
3. In the Inventory tab, click the Locations tab on the right-hand side.
   For each warehouse the product is stocked, the Locations tab stores the Primary Location, Primary Stock Level, any other locations if there are multiple locations and the Available and On-hand quantities for each location.
4. On the left-hand side of the Inventory tab in the data grid select a warehouse from the Warehouse column. When you select a warehouse the location information for that specific warehouse will display in the Locations tab.

Performing transactions for specific warehouse locations:

Products can be sold from specific locations, received into locations and transferred between locations.

Receiving inventory into a location

You will receive inventory as usual, but if you need to receive inventory into a different location other than the primary location for the product you will have to change it in the Location field.

The Location field is in the data grid of the Receipts window (Inventory > Receipts) for each product entered. When a product is entered, the Location field will default to the primary location of the specific product in the selected warehouse.

To receive inventory into a different location or add a new location to receive inventory, do the following:

1. To select another location, click in the Location field and click the drop-down arrow that appears. If the particular product has multiple locations they will be in the drop-down menu. Select the appropriate location.
   Note: If you want to receive inventory into multiple locations for the same product you must select the product again on a new line, but select the other location in the Location field.
   
2. To add a new location to receive inventory, type the new location in the Location field. If the product doesn’t exist a prompt will pop-up asking if you would like to add the location.
3. Click Yes to add the new location.

Selling from a location

You will enter a sales order as usual, but if you need to sell from a different location other than the primary location for the product you will have to change it in the Location field.

The Location field is in the Sales Order window (Sales > Enter Sales Orders) > Detail tab for each product entered. When a product is entered, the Location field will default to the primary location of the specific product in the selected warehouse. The location field only is used for standard control (non-lot/serial products).

1. To sell from another location that the product is stocked, click in the Location field and click the drop- down arrow that appears. If the particular product has multiple locations they will be in the drop-down menu. Select the appropriate location.
   
2. If you want to sell from multiple locations for the same product, you must select the product again on a new line but select the other location in the Location field.

For lot/serial products, the location field on the "Lot #s" or "Serial Numbers" tab at the bottom of the window is used instead and the location field on the grid (as show above) should be disregarded. See below for an example:

Transferring from one location to another

You will transfer inventory as usual, but you will need to specify from which locations you need to transfer from and to.

1. When a product is entered in the Product ID field the From Location and To Location fields will both automatically populate with the primary location that has been set (in the Product Information window) for that product for the selected warehouse.
2. To select the appropriate locations to transfer from and to, click in those field and select the location from the drop-down.
   
3. To add a new location to transfer inventory into, type the new location in the To Location field. If the product doesn’t exist a prompt will pop-up asking if you would like to add the location. Click Yes to add the new location.

For more information about locations and how they work, check out our docs page.