General
Q: Is the Inventory Management functionality available to all Cloud customers?
A: Yes, the Inventory Management functionality is available to all Cloud customers.
Q: Are there specific user permissions for the Inventory Management functionality?
A: Yes, there are 5 user permissions for Inventory Management. You will need to assign the required permissions to the relevant user groups.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: What inventory status indicators does Cloud provide?
A: Cloud has 5 inventory status indicators:
On-Hand – the total quantity of the inventory-tracked item available across all inventory locations.
Allocated – the quantity of the inventory-tracked item that has already been reserved for projects.
Available – the quantity of the inventory-tracked item you can reserve for projects when needed.
Ordered – the quantity of the inventory-tracked item in one or more purchase orders.
Needed – the quantity of the inventory-tracked item required across all projects.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: Does Cloud monitor and report shortfalls in available quantity?
A: Yes. Cloud allows for setting a minimum quantity threshold for each inventory-tracked item. You will get notifications when the available quantity falls below that threshold.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: Is there an integration between the Procurement functionality and the Inventory Management functionality?
A: Yes, here are a few prominent integration touchpoints.
When you mark a purchase order (PO) as “Received,” you will have the option to check in the inventory-tracked items in the PO to the inventory locations.
You can enable an automation setting that checks in inventory-tracked items in a PO to a default inventory location.
You can enable an automation setting that marks all items in a PO that are not yet marked as inventory-tracked as inventory-tracked.
If you set the “reorder quantity” threshold to order an item when it falls below a specific quantity, and specify the reorder quantity, Cloud will automatically populate it in the PO.
With Advanced Inventory, you can use a USB scanner to bulk-receive inventory-tracked items in a PO. Once received, Cloud will automatically mark the PO as “Received.”
Q: Is there an integration between the Project Management functionality and the Inventory Management functionality?
A: Yes, here are a few prominent integration touchpoints.
Inventory-tracked items in projects will show a Warehouse icon next to them.
When an inventory-tracked item is marked as Ready-To-Order in multiple projects, the total quantity of the item marked as Ready-To-Order is shown as the “Needed” quantity of the item in the Inventory view.
You can set an Install Status of the inventory-tracked item, which, when marked in the project, will automatically check the item out of inventory.
With Basic Inventory, you can reserve the required quantity of an inventory-tracked item for a project. With Advanced Inventory, you can identify and reserve specific assets by serial number, IP address, MAC address, notes, and so on.
Set Up Inventory Management
Q: How do I enable the Inventory Management functionality?
A: To enable the Inventory Management functionality, go to “Settings > Inventory > Settings“ and click "Enable Inventory Management and let’s get started."
You can choose to enable either the Inventory Pools mode, which includes entry-level Inventory Management features, or the Inventory Asset Management (IAM) mode, which includes all Inventory Management features.
Check out these articles for more details.
Check out this article for more details about the features available in the Inventory Pools mode and the IAM mode.
Q: How do I build out the physical locations in my warehouse to be represented on Cloud?
A: Go to “Settings > Inventory > Locations” and you can add your existing Warehouse and Delivery options as “Inventory Locations.”
By default, you will see a "Warehouse" as the inventory location. You can add zones, aisles, and more, and emulate your physical warehouse.
You can add the sites you use as pickup points and vehicles to dispatch products to the work site as additional locations.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: Will Cloud enable the Inventory Management functionality on all products in my catalog?
A: No. You can enable Inventory Management for selected products in the catalog. To do so, you will need to mark the product in the catalog as an “inventory-tracked item.”
If you want to mark all products in the catalog as inventory-tracked items, you can do so too.
Check out these articles for more details.
Q: How do I check in the initial on-hand quantity of an inventory-tracked item?
A: You can set the initial on-hand quantity of an inventory-tracked item:
When you mark a product as an inventory-tracked item
In the side panel of an inventory-tracked item
Check out these articles for more details.
Inventory Pools mode
Q: What is the Inventory Pools mode?
A: Inventory Pools is one of the two Inventory Management modes. It includes entry-level Inventory Management capabilities that track product quantities across inventory locations and allow you to reserve the required quantities for projects and service calls.
In the Inventory Pools mode, you cannot track the serial number or unit information for every asset. You will need to enable or switch to the IAM mode to track items at the asset level.
Check out this collection of articles on the Inventory Pools mode.
Q: How do I enable the Inventory Pools mode?
A: To enable the Inventory Pools mode, go to “Settings > Inventory > Settings,“ click "Enable Inventory Management and let’s get started," and choose “Inventory Pools.”
Check out this article for more details.
Inventory Asset Management mode
Q: What is the Inventory Asset Management mode?
A: The Inventory Asset Management (IAM) mode is one of the two Inventory Management modes. It includes features such as asset-level tracking of inventory-tracked items in inventory locations, asset-level allocation to projects by serial number or QR code, the ability to move, reserve, and check in inventory-tracked items in bulk, and more.
Check out this collection of articles on the Inventory Asset Management mode.
Q: How do I enable the Inventory Asset Management mode?
A: To enable the Inventory Asset Management mode, go to “Settings > Inventory > Settings,“ click "Enable Inventory Management and let’s get started," and choose “Inventory Asset Management.”
Check out this article for more details.
Q: What is my immediate next step after I switch to the Inventory Asset Management mode?
A: When you switch to the Inventory Asset Management mode, Cloud sets the reserved value to 0 for inventory-tracked items in projects that have not been checked out. You will have access to a CSV file containing all reservation data.
Check out this article for more details.
So, you will need to re-reserve the Inventory-tracked items in projects.
You can also start adding serial numbers and other attributes, or print QR labels for inventory-tracked items.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: How do I configure asset-level tracking of inventory-tracked items?
A: After you enable or upgrade to the IAM mode, you will need to associate asset-level details such as serial number, IP address, and MAC address. This makes asset-level tracking possible on Cloud.
Check out these articles for more details.
Q: I don't want to track all inventory-tracked items at the asset level in the IAM mode. Is that possible?
A: Yes, you can switch the mode of the items you don't want to track at the asset level to Inventory Pools.
You will not see the option to add asset-level details for such items. Also, you can reserve them for projects and service calls without scanning serial numbers or QR codes.
Q: What are the options to look up assets in inventory?
A: You can search for assets by their asset ID, serial number, IP address, and serial number. Once identified, you can see its location, its allocation to a project or service call, and its full history since it was checked in.
Q: Can I configure how the QR labels look?
A: Yes, you can configure the dimensions, orientation, and the asset details displayed on the label.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: Can I print QR labels using a label printer?
A: No, not right now. This feature will be made available in a future Cloud release.
Switching Inventory modes
Q: Can I enable the Inventory Pools mode now and switch to the IAM mode later?
A: Yes, you can enable the Inventory Pools mode and upgrade to the IAM mode at any time later.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: Can I switch back to the Inventory Pools mode from the IAM mode?
A: Yes, you can switch back to the Inventory mode from the IAM mode.
You will not see the option to add asset-level details for such items. Also, you can reserve them for projects and service calls without scanning serial numbers or QR codes.
Check out this article for more details.
Reserve inventory-tracked items for projects
Q: How do I reserve inventory-tracked items for projects?
A: You have two options to reserve inventory-tracked items for projects.
Automated allocation
In the Inventory Pools mode, you can automate the process of reserving inventory-tracked items in projects by setting the "Marking items as <Install Status> automatically reserves if sufficient quantity is available and checks out when the item exists in a single warehouse location" to ON. Now, inventory-tracked items will be automatically reserved for a project when their Install status is changed, and a sufficient quantity is available.
Check out this article for more details.
Manual allocation
In both Inventory Pools and IAM modes, you can manually reserve inventory-tracked items for projects. You can reserve multiple inventory-tracked items for a project in the project’s Details view or reserve an inventory-tracked item for multiple projects in the Inventory view.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: Can I reserve a specific asset from the pool of an inventory-tracked item for a project?
A: Yes. In the IAM mode, you can add serial numbers, IP addresses, MAC addresses, and notes to the pool of assets of an inventory-tracked item. When reserving items for a project, you can select assets with specific serial numbers, IP addresses, or MAC addresses.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: Can I reserve inventory-tracked items in a project in bulk?
A: Yes, you can reserve inventory-tracked items in a project in one go. In fact, you can reserve items across projects in one go by using the USB Scanner integration with Cloud.
Check out this article for more details.
Q: Can I unreserve an inventory-tracked item from a project and reserve it for another project?
A: Yes, you can unreserve an inventory-tracked item from a project and reserve it for another project.
Check out this article for more details.