Warehouses and Locations

A warehouse is a place that holds your stock. Zones and locations say where in that place the stock sits.

A warehouse is a place where your organization keeps stock. It can be a real building, or a virtual warehouse with no address. Set up your warehouses first, because every stock record names one.

Inside a warehouse, a zone is a part where one kind of work happens, such as receiving or packing. A location is one exact place that holds stock, such as a rack, a shelf or a bin.

You need only the warehouse. Stock can sit in a warehouse with no location, and a location can sit outside any zone. So add zones and locations when your team needs them to find the goods.

These records tell your team where stock is. Beelocity does not direct the work. It does not tell your team where to put stock away, and it draws no route through the warehouse. On each document, your team picks the location.

Of the roles that come with Beelocity, only the owner of your organization can change these records. Anybody else needs a role that the business makes.

Warehouse Types

Type	What it represents	When to use
Physical	A real building, such as a warehouse, a factory stockroom or the back room of a shop.	For your usual storage, where your team can walk up to the stock.
Virtual	A warehouse with no address, for stock that your records must place somewhere. Nobody walks into it.	For stock that you do not hold yourself, such as goods that you left with a partner.
Returns	A warehouse for goods that customers send back.	If you keep returned goods apart. The type holds nothing back. The Goods condition on each return line sets the status: Good gives Available, and Damaged gives Damaged.
Transit	For goods that have left one place and have not reached the next.	If you want to record such goods yourself. A transfer order does not use this warehouse. It takes the stock out of the source at In transit, and adds it to the destination at Completed.
Supplier site	The supplier’s own site. The goods there are still yours.	If a subcontractor works on your material at their site. Beelocity counts those goods as your stock.

The type only describes the warehouse. Beelocity moves and counts stock the same way in every type. So stock in a Transit or Supplier site warehouse counts as on hand. If its status is Available, a document that names that warehouse can sell it.

Start with one Physical warehouse, and add another type when you need it.

Creating a Warehouse

Go to Inventory → Setup. It opens on the Warehouses tab. Click New.
Fill in:
- Code: The form opens on the next code, such as WH-000004 after WH-000003. All your warehouses share this series. Keep the code, or type your own, such as ALG-NORD. If you clear it, Beelocity gives the next code when you save.
- Name: A name that your team knows, such as “Main warehouse, Algiers” or “Returns centre, Oran”.
- Type: Physical, Virtual, Returns, Transit or Supplier site.
- Default: New documents open on this warehouse. Your first warehouse is the default, so the switch opens on while no warehouse is the default. If you turn this on for another warehouse, that warehouse takes over.
- Address line 1, Address line 2, City, State and Postal code: Where the warehouse stands.
- Contact name, Contact email and Contact phone: The person to call at this warehouse.
A Virtual warehouse asks for neither an address nor a contact, because nobody goes there.
Click Save.

After you save, you can add the warehouse’s zones and locations.

The Warehouses list searches by code, name, city or contact. Its filter button narrows the list by Type, to the Default warehouse, or by Active (see Working with lists).

To close a warehouse, open it and click Deactivate. Beelocity keeps its history. You can still choose the warehouse on a document, so tell your team to stop using it.

Zones

A zone is a part of a warehouse where one kind of work happens. Zones follow the path of goods through your building, from the day a delivery arrives to the day it leaves.

Zone Type	What happens here	Example
Receiving	Incoming goods arrive here first. They wait until your team checks them and puts them away.	The loading dock and the area beside it.
Storage	The main part of the warehouse, where you keep most of your stock.	The main rack area.
Picking	Small quantities of popular products, close at hand, so that your team walks less.	An area close to packing.
Packing	Your team boxes picked products and labels them for each order.	Benches near the shipping dock.
Shipping	Packed orders wait here for the carrier.	The area beside the outbound door.
Quarantine	Stock that waits for a check. This zone does not stop a sale. Only the stock’s own status does that.	A locked part of the warehouse.
Returns	Your team receives customer returns, inspects them and decides where they go.	An area near receiving.

The type only describes the zone. It changes nothing in how stock moves.

Managing Zones

Open a warehouse from the Warehouses list, and go to its Zones tab. You can search the tab by code or name. Its filter button narrows it by Type or Active. You can:

Add a zone. Click Add, type a Name and pick a Type. Beelocity saves the row when it has both. If you leave Code empty, Beelocity gives the next code, such as ZON-000007. All your warehouses share this series. If you type your own code, such as RCV, Beelocity keeps it. Another warehouse can use the same code.
Edit a zone. Double-click a cell in its row. Beelocity saves the row when you leave the cell.
Deactivate a zone. Turn off Active in its row. Beelocity keeps the zone and its history, and you can still choose it.
Delete a zone. Click the Delete icon at the end of its row. The zone’s locations and count tasks stay, and they lose their zone. You cannot undo this.

Not every warehouse needs every zone type. A small stockroom may have only Storage and Shipping. A large warehouse may use all seven.

Locations

A location is one exact place in a warehouse that holds stock. Pick the type that matches the place:

Location Type	What it is	Example
Aisle	A corridor between storage structures.	Aisle A, Aisle B, Aisle C
Rack	A structure of shelves or a pallet rack in an aisle.	Rack A-01, Rack A-02
Shelf	One level of a rack.	Shelf A-01-3 (third shelf of rack A-01)
Bin	One compartment on a shelf, and the smallest place that holds stock.	Bin A-01-3-B (second bin on shelf A-01-3)
Floor	Open floor, for pallets, large products or bulk goods.	Floor-F1, Floor-F2
Special	Any other kind of place.	Cold room

The type only describes the location. To show that one location sits inside another, set Parent location. A bin sits on a shelf, a shelf on a rack, and a rack in an aisle.

Location Properties

Code and Barcode identify a location. The other fields below are notes for your team. Beelocity stores them, and it does not check them when stock moves.

Property	Description
Code	Beelocity gives the next code, such as `LOC-000012`. All your warehouses share this series. You can type your own code instead, such as the walking path `A-01-3-B`. Two locations in one warehouse cannot share a code.
Barcode	The barcode on the location’s label. Two locations cannot share one. You can search for it on the Locations tab. Picking, putaway and counting do not read it.
Position X, Y and Z	Three figures for your own records: two across the floor and one for the height, with the ground at zero. The warehouse map does not use them.
Maximum weight	The most weight that this location can hold. The field has no unit, so agree on one with your team. If there is no limit, leave it empty.
Maximum volume	The most volume that this location can hold. The field has no unit, so agree on one with your team. If there is no limit, leave it empty.
Status	Available, Full, Reserved, Blocked or In maintenance. Beelocity stops no movement on any status. So if you block a location, tell your team.
Pickable	Whether your team picks stock from this location. Turn it off for a reserve location that pickers should not visit.
Receivable	Whether your team puts incoming stock in this location. Turn it off for a location that fills only from inside the warehouse.

Managing Locations

From the warehouse’s page, go to its Locations tab. You can search the tab by code, name or barcode. Its filter button narrows it by Type, Status, Pickable, Receivable or Active. For example, three filters list every bin that is pickable and full. You can:

Add a location. Click Add and pick a Type. Beelocity saves the row when it has a type. If you leave Code empty, Beelocity gives the next code. A new row opens on the status Available, with Pickable and Receivable on.
Edit a location. Double-click a cell in its row. Beelocity saves the row when you leave the cell. The row holds Code, Name, Type, Barcode, Pickable, Receivable, Status and Active.
Deactivate a location. Turn off Active in its row. Beelocity keeps the location and its stock history, and you can still choose it.
Delete a location. Click the Delete icon at the end of its row. Beelocity refuses if a stock record, a serial number or a register names the location. It also refuses if a line on a delivery note, a goods receipt or a return names it. After a delete, the product assignments on the location are gone. Locations inside it lose their parent, and past movements and journal entries lose the location.

Other fields are only on the location’s own page: Zone, Parent location, Position X, Position Y, Position Z, Maximum weight and Maximum volume. The tab has no link to that page. To reach it, open a record that names the location, such as a stock record or a product location assignment, and click the location there.

To fill in those fields on a new location, use the New location link at the end of a location list. The Location list on a new stock record has this link. To move a location to another zone, use the Warehouse Map (below).

Beelocity has no document that moves stock between two locations of one warehouse. See Stock movements.

A location cannot sit inside itself, or inside a location that it already holds, such as a rack inside one of its own bins. Beelocity refuses that change and says so. Pick a parent that sits above the location.

A location belongs to its warehouse

Wherever you pick a location, the list offers only the locations of the warehouse that the record names. The list waits until you pick that warehouse. This holds on:

a stock movement’s Source location and Destination location
a transfer order line
an inventory adjustment line or a count task line
a goods receipt line or a delivery note line
a stock record, a serial number, a register or a count task

Beelocity refuses a location of another warehouse, and a message says so.

Two edits follow from this:

A document’s warehouse does not change while its lines use its locations. On those lines, clear or change the location first. Then change the warehouse.
A location does not move to another warehouse while stock, a serial number, a register or a document line uses it. Add a new location in that warehouse instead. If nothing uses the location, you can still move it, to correct a mistake.

Warehouse Map

The map shows each warehouse with its zones, and the locations of each zone. In the sidebar, open Inventory > Stock, and go to the Warehouse Map tab. It shows one card for each warehouse. Click a card to open that warehouse.

The map is not a floor plan. Each zone is a box with one card for each of its locations. A card shows the location’s code, its type and a dot for its status. A location with no zone appears under Outside any zone. The map does not use a location’s position.

You can add records on the map:

Add a warehouse and Add a zone open a short form. Type a name, pick a type and click Create. If you leave the code empty, Beelocity gives the next one.
The + button in a zone, named Add a location, opens a short form in that zone. The same button under Outside any zone adds a location with no zone. A location needs neither a code nor a name, so you can click Create at once.

A warehouse with nothing in it shows only Add a zone.

To move a location to another zone, pick the zone in the list on its card. Beelocity saves the change at once.

Location Naming Conventions

Beelocity numbers a new location LOC-000001, LOC-000002 and so on, which is enough to tell locations apart. If your shelves carry labels, type the label as the code, and Beelocity keeps it. A code that follows one rule is easy to find and easy to say:

A-01-3-B = Aisle A, Rack 01, Shelf 3, Bin B
B-05-2-F = Aisle B, Rack 05, Shelf 2, Bin F
FLOOR-01 = Floor position 1, for pallets or large products

Choose a rule that matches your layout, and keep to it. When somebody says “take this product from A-01-3-B”, everybody should know where that is.

Product Location Assignments

A product location assignment says where a product, or one variant, should be kept. It is a reference for your team, and no step in Beelocity reads it. See Product location assignments.

Assignment Type	Purpose	Example
Default	The product’s main location.	“Bluetooth speakers go in A-03-2-A”
Picking	The location where your team picks this product for orders.	“Fast-moving T-shirts are picked from PICK-01”
Receiving	Where a delivery of this product waits before your team puts it away.	“New phones wait in RCV-ELEC”
Overflow	The second location, for when the main location has no room left.	“When A-03-2-A is full, use A-03-3-A”

Assignment Properties

Each assignment can have:

Priority: Your order of preference, with the lowest number first. Beelocity does not choose between two assignments.
Valid from and Valid to: The first and the last day of the assignment. For example, seasonal products can belong at the front of the warehouse for three months. Beelocity moves nothing on those days.

Managing Assignments

You manage assignments on the Product location assignments tab of Inventory > Setup. You can assign a product or one variant to a location, and set the type, the priority and the dates.

Tips

Start simple. You do not need to define every bin on day one. Start with your warehouses, and add zones and locations when your team needs them. A small business can keep its stock at warehouse level at first.
Use location codes that match your labels. If your shelves are labeled A-01 to A-20, type those codes over the ones that Beelocity offers. Your team and Beelocity then use one name for each location.
Write down where each product belongs. Product location assignments keep this in one list that your team can search. They direct nothing, so your team still picks the location on each document.
Keep zones close to how you work. Zones should follow how goods move through your building. If you receive and store goods in one space, you may not need two zones. If two areas have different staff, two zones make sense.