Overview
The Stock & Warehouses module is the central hub for inventory management in Uptick. It allows you to track product quantities, manage stock movements between locations (facilities and technician vans), and automate consumption based on work performed. Its proper function is highly dependent on the correct configuration of products, users, and permissions. Misconfiguration can lead to inaccurate stock counts, incorrect job costing, and workflow failures in purchasing and task management.
SETUP TIME ESTIMATE: TODO: 1-3 hours, depending on the number of products and warehouses to configure.
COMPLEXITY_LEVEL: Medium
DEPENDENCIES: Product Catalogue, Users (Technicians), Security Groups, Tasks, Purchase Orders
Related modules
High impact:
Product Catalogue: Products must be configured correctly to be tracked as stock.
Tasks: Consuming stock happens when products are marked as 'Performed' on a task.
Users (Technicians): Technicians must be assigned to warehouses to control stock consumption.
Medium impact:
Purchase Orders: Used to replenish stock in facility warehouses and order parts directly for tasks.
Billing & Invoicing: Stock consumption directly impacts job profitability and the cost of goods sold calculated on invoices.
Low impact/Optional enhancers:
Branches: Allows for setting branch-specific fallback warehouses for more granular stock control in multi-location businesses.
Recommended configuration sequence
Configure Products in the Product Catalogue — Rationale: Only products of type 'Material' that are explicitly marked as "Is Stocked" can be added to a warehouse or managed as inventory. This is the foundational step; without it, no stock can exist in the system.
Create Warehouses (Facility then Van) — Rationale: You must first create a 'Facility' warehouse, which acts as a central hub. 'Van' warehouses, which are assigned to technicians, must be linked to a 'Home Facility' during setup. Purchase orders for general stock replenishment can only be sent to Facility warehouses.
Assign Technicians to Warehouses & Set Fallbacks — Rationale: Stock consumption is tied to the technician listed in the "Performed By" field on a task. Assigning a technician as the 'Manager' of a van warehouse ensures stock is deducted from their van first. Setting a company or branch-level 'Fallback Warehouse' prevents consumption failures when a van has insufficient stock.
This module depends on:
Name: Product Catalogue
Common placement:
Billing > Product CatalogueImpact: High
If missing: If a product is not marked as "Is Stocked", it cannot be added to any warehouse, reserved for tasks, or have its inventory levels tracked.
Prerequisites: Products must be created with
Type = Material.
Name: Users (Technicians)
Common placement:
Control Panel > UsersImpact: High
If missing: If a technician is not assigned as the 'Manager' of a van warehouse, the system cannot link them to a specific stock location. Stock consumption will rely entirely on the fallback warehouse, leading to inaccurate van stock levels.
Prerequisites: User accounts for technicians must be created and active.
Name: Security Groups
Common placement:
Control Panel > Security GroupsImpact: High
If missing: Users without the permission "Can create and manage warehouses, submit stock adjustments and transfers" will not be able to see the Warehouses module or perform any stock-related actions.
Prerequisites: None.
Modules that depend on this module:
Name: Tasks
Impact: High
If misconfigured: If a technician's warehouse is not assigned or a fallback is not set, stock consumption will fail or be recorded against the wrong warehouse. This can result in negative stock levels and incorrect job costing. The system consumes from the warehouse of the technician in the "Performed By" field, not necessarily the technician scheduled for the task.
Recovery: Un-perform the product on the task's Work tab. Navigate to the Margin Review tab and use Transfer Task Stock to return the item to the correct warehouse, then perform the product again.
Name: Purchase Orders
Impact: Medium
If misconfigured: When creating a task-based PO, products must be added to the task's 'Work' tab (Web) or 'Products' tab (App) before raising the PO. If a PO is created directly without this step, the received items will not appear on the task as servicetasks to be performed, breaking the workflow and requiring manual correction. Warehouse-based POs can only be created for 'Facility' type warehouses.
Recovery: TODO: Confirm if there is a recovery path other than manually adding items to the task after the fact, which may cause financial discrepancies.
Name: Billing & Invoicing
Impact: Medium
If misconfigured: Incorrect stock consumption (due to wrong technician assignment or fallback settings) leads to inaccurate Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) on tasks. This directly impacts the profitability reporting for jobs and the accuracy of financial data exported to accounting systems.
Recovery: Correct the stock consumption on the source task using the recovery tip above. Financial data may need to be manually reconciled.