Locations
This page describes working with Locations using the Locations setting in the Stock and Service Orders modules and the Location register in the Warehouse Management module.
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A "Location" is any area, room or building where you keep stock (Items that you have purchased or produced for selling to Customers). When receiving Items in to stock, You will be able to specify the Location where Items will be stored when you receive them into stock, and similarly you will be able to specify the Location from where Items will be shipped when you issue them to Customers. Stock levels and valuations will be maintained for each Location and in total. You can move Items from one Location to another using Stock Movements, and you will be able to record any costs incurred in doing so.
If you have at least one Location, you must specify a Main Location in the Stock Settings setting. This will prevent you having stock that is not in any Location: if you forget to specify a Location in any stock transaction, that stock transaction will add stock to or remove it from the Main Location. This will be useful if you only have one Location. If you have more than one, you may also want to use the Require Location option in the same setting: this will ensure you have to specify a Location in every stock transaction. You can also specify default Locations in the Local Machine setting in the User Settings module and on the 'Sales' card of each Person record. The first will be used by default in all stock transactions entered on the particular client machine, while the second will be used by default in all stock transactions entered by a particular user.
If you are using Locations, you may wish to select the Queued Cost Model per Location and Weighted Average per Location options in the Cost Accounting setting in the Stock module. These will maintain separate FIFO/LIFO queues and Weighted Average schedules for each Location, ensuring that Items are removed from each Location in the order in which they arrived. If you have not selected these options, single overall FIFO/LIFO queues and Weighted Average schedules will be maintained, so Items will be removed from stock in the order in which they arrived, irrespective of the Location in which they are stored. These options will also affect the calculation of stock values in the Stock List report.
You can specify a separate Stock Account in each Location record. If you need to specify separate Purchase Accruals, Cost and Sales Accounts, use the Location Accounts setting.
To work with Locations, first ensure you are in the Service Orders, Stock or Warehouse Management module. If you are using Windows or macOS, click the [Settings] button (Service Orders and Stock modules) or the [Registers] button (Warehouse Management module) in the Home Screen, and double-click 'Locations' in the resulting list. If you are using iOS or Android, select 'Settings' from the Tools menu (with 'wrench' icon) (Service Orders and Stock modules) or tap the [Registers] button in the Home Screen (Warehouse Management module) and tap 'Locations' in the resulting list. The 'Locations: Browse' window will be opened, showing listing the Locations that you have already entered.
To enter a new Location, select 'New' from the Create menu (Windows/macOS) or the + menu (iOS/Android). Alternatively, if a Location that is similar to the one you are about to enter already exists, find it in the list, highlight it and select 'Duplicate' from the same menu.
The 'Location: New' window is opened, empty if you selected 'New' or containing a duplicate of the highlighted Location.
Header- Code
- The unique identifying code for each Location can consist of up to ten alpha-numeric characters.
- Group
- Paste Special
Location Groups setting, Stock module
- Together with Location Classifications (below, on the 'Address' card), you can use Location Groups to classify Locations. You can allocate several Location Classifications to each Location, but only one Location Group.
- An example use for Location Groups will be to group Locations geographically, perhaps with a separate Location Group for each city. If you need to assign a Location to a Location Group, specify the Group in this field.
- You can use the Location Group as a search criterion in the Delivery Journal, Goods Receipt Journal, Item History and Stock List reports in the Stock module. For example, if you specify an Item Number and a Location Group when running the Stock List report, the report will show how many units of the Items are held in each Location belonging to the Location Group.
- Name
- Enter the name for the Location, to be shown in the 'Locations: Browse' window and the 'Paste Special' list.
Address Card- Address
- Enter the address of the Location in these fields.
- If you want to give a name to each of the individual address lines, use the 'Address' card of the User Defined Fields - Contacts setting in the CRM module. This can be useful if, for example, you want to indicate that the town or city is always to be typed into the third line of the address:
- Contact
- Enter the name of the primary contact person at the Location here.
- Telephone, Fax, Email
- Enter the telephone and fax numbers and email address of the Location in these fields.
- Classification
- Paste Special
Location Classifications setting, Stock module
- Together with Location Groups (above), you can use Location Classifications to group Locations of a similar type together. You can assign several Classifications to each Location record, separated by commas.
- An example use for Classifications will be to record the type of stock that you hold in different Locations, such as raw materials, refrigerated goods etc.
- You can use the Location Classification as a search criterion in the Delivery Journal, Goods Receipt Journal, Item History and Stock List reports in the Stock module. For example, if you specify an Item Number and a Location Classification when running the Stock List report, the report will show how many units of the Items are held in each Location with the specified Classification.
- Responsible Person
- Paste Special
Person register, System module and Global User register, Technics module
- Enter the Signature of the Person responsible for the Location. You can enter more than one Signature, separated by commas.
- The Person(s) specified here will be sent Mails and To Do Activities when attempts are made to save Goods Receipts that have been marked as OK in which the Cost Price of at least one Item varies from its Weighted Average by more than a specified percentage. Please refer to the description of the Cost Price Variance Alerts setting for details.
- Reserv. Access
- Paste Special
Stock Reservation Access setting, Sales Orders module
- The Reserv. Access field is part of the Stock Reservation Access feature that allows you to specify the Locations from which each Person can remove stock. Please refer here for details.
- Stock A/C
- Paste Special
Account register, Nominal Ledger/System module
- The Stock Account that you specify in this field will be debited whenever you receive stock into the Location and credited when you deliver or otherwise remove stock from it (providing that you have specified in the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger and in the relevant Number Series settings that Nominal Ledger Transactions will be created when you mark incoming and outgoing stock transactions as OK and save). If you do not specify a Stock Account in a Location, the Stock Account for the Item Group to which the individual Item belongs (if you are using the Use Item Groups for Cost Accounts option in the Cost Accounting setting in the Stock module) or the Stock Account in the Account Usage Stock setting will be used.
- Tag/Object
- Paste Special
Tag/Object register, Nominal Ledger/System module
- You can assign up to 20 Tags/Objects, separated by commas, to a Location.
- The Tags/Objects that you specify here will usually not be copied to Stock transactions (e.g. Goods Receipts and Deliveries) that move stock into and out of the Location, but they will be assigned to all postings to the Stock Account in the Nominal Ledger Transactions created from those stock transactions.
- However these Tags/Objects will be copied to the 'Terms' card in Goods Receipts and to the header in Stock Depreciations created for the Location by the 'Stocktaking Comparison' Maintenance function. As well as being assigned to the postings to the Stock Account as previously mentioned, this will mean that from these Goods Receipts, they will be assigned to the credit postings to the Stock Gain Account and from these Stock Depreciations, they will be assigned to the debit postings to the Stock Loss Account. This will allow you to analyse in the Nominal Ledger stock gains and losses for each Location resulting from the stock checking process.
- Purchase Location
- Paste Special
Locations setting, Stock module
- The Deficiency Stock feature allows you to create shopping lists of Items to be ordered, and then to create Purchase Orders for those Items. Usually these will be Items whose stock levels have fallen below specified minimum quantities for the Location. If you need these Items to be received into stock into a different Location, specify that Location here. Please refer to the Creating Purchase Orders from Deficiency Stock page for details about the Deficiency Stock feature.
- Via Location
- Paste Special
Locations setting, Stock module
- If stock that is moved to a particular To Location will always pass through the same Via Location, you can specify that Via Location in this field in the Location record for the To Location. After doing so, that Via Location will be brought in to a Stock Movement automatically when you specify the To Location. You will not be able to change to a different Via Location in a Stock Movement, but you will be able to make the Via Location field blank.
- Ignore Chronology
- Standard ERP contains a chronology feature that you can use to help improve the accuracy of the FIFO/LIFO queue, as it will ensure you will enter stock transactions in date sequence. This feature is controlled using the Chronology in Stock options in the Stock Settings setting. If you are using this feature, you will not be able to mark a stock transaction (e.g. Invoice, Goods Receipt, Delivery, Stock Movement, Returned Goods record or Stock Depreciation) as OK if there is at least one stock transaction (in any of those registers) with an earlier Transaction Date that you have not marked as OK yet, or stock transactions with later Transaction Dates that you have marked as OK. You can switch this chronology check off for a particular Location using this Ignore Chronology check box.
- Require Position
- If the Location is one that has Positions, select this option if you want to ensure that you always specify a Position when you use the Location.
- You will usually only need to use this option if you are using the Warehouse Management module.
- If you need to deselect this option in a particular Location, you must move all stock out of every Position in the Location first (i.e. every Position in the Location must be empty).
- Closed
- Tick this box if the Location is no longer to be used (you should not delete a Location record altogether if stock has passed through it). You must move all stock out of the Location first (i.e. you cannot mark a Location as Closed if it contains any stock).
- Closed Locations will appear in the 'Locations: Browse' window but not in the Locations 'Paste Special' list. You will not be able to use a closed Location in any stock transaction.
- You can re-open a closed Location at any time.
- Type
- The Type of a Location controls the choice of Stock Gain and Stock Loss Accounts that will be made by the 'Stocktaking Comparison' Maintenance function when it creates Goods Receipts and Stock Depreciation records for the Location.
- Other
- Choose this option for standard Locations. If the 'Stocktaking Comparison' Maintenance function creates a Goods Receipt for an Item in the Location, the Stock Gain Account will be taken from the Account Usage Stock setting. If the function creates a Stock Depreciation, the Stock Loss Account will also be taken from the Account Usage Stock setting.
- Production
- If the 'Stocktaking Comparison' Maintenance function creates a Goods Receipt for an Item in a Production Location, if the Item belongs to an Item Group and if you are using the Use Item Groups for Cost Accounts option in the Cost Accounting setting, the Stock Gain Account will be the Usage Variance Account in the Item Group. Otherwise, it will be taken from the Account Usage Stock setting. Similarly, if the function creates a Stock Depreciation and the same conditions are met, the Stock Loss Account will be the Usage Variance Account in the Item Group. Otherwise, it will be taken from the Account Usage Stock setting.
- If a Location is not a warehouse but a workshop or similar, specifying that its Type is Production will also be useful if you are using Auto Production Items. Auto Production Items allow you to have Recipes in which you can substitute various different component Items to produce the same final Item. For example, you may have a Recipe to produce chocolate milk, which requires milk powder as a component or ingredient. Milk powder is a generic component: when the Recipe simply calls for milk powder, you can in fact use Brand A Milk Powder or Brand B Milk Powder, supplied in 5 kg or 10 kg sacks, and the resulting chocolate milk will be the same. After receiving Brand A Milk Powder or Brand B Milk Powder in to stock (in a Location in which the Type is Other i.e. in a warehouse), you can move it to the workshop using a Stock Movement. If the workshop is a Production Location, marking the Stock Movement as Received and saving will also cause a Production to be created that converts the Brand A Milk Powder or Brand B Milk Powder to generic milk powder. Please refer to the description of the Auto Production Items setting here for more details.
Warehouse CardThe 'Warehouse' card is part of the Warehouse Management module: please refer to your local HansaWorld representative for details.
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Introduction to Settings in the Stock Module
