The Warehouses module allows you to track the stock levels & costs of the products you stock, going in and out of your warehouses.
Some other features include:
More accurate profit reporting with FIFO cost tracking
For easy management, an automatic function listing tasks that have material requirements.
Purchasing products in bulk per warehouse or van, not just per task.
Automatic stock consumption as field staff perform work onsite, with fallback warehouses in case digital collection is missed.
Warnings and easy transfers when vans or facilities fall low on stock.
A stock reservation workflow for tasks and vans, helping you digitally put aside stock and help keep your warehouse levels slim.
Setting up warehousing in Uptick
To start using this module, contact the support team to enable the Warehouse extension.
There are several permissions that you would need to switch on for staff to use this module:
Can create and manage warehouses, stock-takes and transfers | Allows office staff to:
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Can view purchase orders
Can create and update purchase orders and dockets | Allows office staff to create purchase orders for warehouses & receive those POs once delivered.
The internal approval & submission of those purchase orders to suppliers would still only be available to staff with approval.
Purchase order bills can also only be processed by staff with bill permissions. |
Can view product list and detail page | Allows office staff to drill into a product and view further information about that product |
Can change product | Allows office to mark products as something you want to start or stop stocking in any of your warehouses |
Creating a Warehouse (Facility or Van)
A warehouse can be defined as a facility or a van in Uptick. Functionality-wise, the differences between the two are:
You can only raise purchase orders from facilities. Those facilities can then transfer that stock to any vans that require it.
You can only reserve facility stock for an approved repair or installation task.
Select Billing > Warehouses
Select Create Warehouse
Fill in the following details:
Name | The name of the Facility/Van to help identify it when searching & transferring stock between warehouses. |
Type | Select between a Facility or Van |
Address Facility only | The address of this facility.
This will pre-populate onto purchase orders that need to be delivered here. |
Delivery Instructions Facility only | Any applicable delivery instructions for this warehouse.
This will pre-populate onto purchase orders that need to be delivered here. |
Manager |
If the driver of a van changes frequently and you wish to track stock in this van, you will need to update this driver as they change so we know what van to consume stock from when they perform tasks. If you don't care about tracking stock in the van, you can use the fallback warehouse feature to consume stock straight from a facility, bypassing the van. |
Home Facility Vans only | Nominate the Facility this van will collect its stock from.
Features this will support:
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Branch Branches extension only | Nominate the Branch responsible for this Warehouse. |
To view a specific warehouse, simply select the view button against that warehouse.
Warehouse column definitions
Product | The name of the product stocked in this warehouse. |
Supplier Ref (SKU) Internal Ref
Category
Supplier | All these fields come from what's already set on the product.
The supplier's reference for this product.
Your internal reference for this product.
The product's category.
Supplier this product is supplied from. |
Available to Warehouse / Van
| Quickly identify whether there is stock in another facility or van. 
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On Hand Facility only. | Total stock in the warehouse for that product, regardless of whether it's available to use or reserved for tasks or vans. |
Available | Stock available to use. |
Reserved | Stock that has been reserved & put aside for a task or van, awaiting future collection. |
On Order Facility only. | Stock that has been raised on a purchase order for this warehouse.
The status of that purchase order can be found by clicking on the On Order number:
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Restock Level | The Minimum Restock Level for this product, for this warehouse.
When the Minimum Restock Level is reached, the system will warn you that the stock in this warehouse has reached its minimum level and should be topped up. |
Required | A warning when stock in that warehouse has fallen below the Minimum Restock Level and how much by.
Facilities will also detect & warn you if any of the vans that call it home have gone below their Minimum Restock Levels, making it easier to know what stock needs to be put aside in that facility or create a bulk purchase order for your entire fleet.
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Stock Value | The value of stock On Hand in the warehouse for this product. |
How to start tracking products in your warehouses
In Uptick, a "Stocked" product represents a material you wish to start tracking & managing levels for in any of your warehouses. Only Stocked products can be purchased & seen in a warehouse.
Stocking products the first time.
The system will start consuming stock from your warehouses the moment you mark any products in your catalogue as 'Stocked' and staff with assigned warehouses start performing those stocked products on tasks.
We recommend marking your products as 'Stocked' and quickly setting the current stock levels for these products in each warehouse, based on your previous system. You can use the data importer for both tasks (see below).
How to set products as Stocked in bulk via the data importer:
Go to your Product Catalogue and download all your material products.
Remove any materials from your spreadsheet you don't wish to track in any of your warehouses.
Remove all columns in your spreadsheet other than the product ID, Product Name and the Stocked column.
In the Stocked column, change all the values to TRUE.
Save your file as a CSV.
Select Tools > Data Importer to access the data importer tool
Select from the What are you importing list the Products option and choose the CSV file you have ready to import.
Click Start Import.
On the Field Mapping page that is given to you next, amend any issues before selecting Save and Preview
Confirm there are no issues with the data on the Preview.
Click Finalise. This will bulk update all those products in your system to Stocked.
*Keep this file handy if you wish to also set stock levels via the importer below.
How to set warehouse stock levels of Stocked products in bulk via the importer:
Select Tools > Data Importer to access the data importer tool
Navigate down the page and select the Stock Adjustments CSV template. This will give you a CSV download on which columns you need to update your stock levels in all your warehouses via the importer.
Complete the Stock Adjustments CSV spreadsheet - Quantity, Cost Price, Product Identifier*, Warehouse Identifier* (see below).
Select from the What are you importing list the Stock Adjustments option and choose the CSV file you have ready to import
Click Start Import.
On the Field Mapping page that is given to you next, amend any issues before selecting Save and Preview
Confirm there are no issues with the data on the Preview.
Click Finalise. This will set stock levels of those products in the selected warehouses in your system.
Quantity | The stock level of this product |
Cost Price | Cost Price associated with this stock. This is the individual cost of the product in this warehouse. If you only have a total figure for all units, you'll need to set an average cost price for all of this stock.
All stock purchased in Uptick after this import will use the cost price set on the purchase order. |
Product Identifier*
| For the Product Identifier, you only have to fill out one of the following columns. Any of these will help the system find which product you want to apply stock levels for:
If you've just used the importer to set products up as Stocked, we suggest just using the product_id column as you already have this data in the spreadsheet you used. |
Warehouse Identifier* | For the Warehouse identifier, you only have to fill out one of the following columns. Any of these will help the system find which warehouse you want to add these stock levels to:
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You can also mark multiple products as Stocked without using the importer, but instead using the product catalogue's bulk edit abilities:
Select Billing > Product Catalogue
Filter for only products that are type materials (i.e remove the equipment and expenses from the list)
Select the Edit Products option and choose from the Is Stocked dropdown Yes and select Apply Changes to bulk set those products as stocked
Setting Individual Products as "Stocked"
The system will start consuming stock from your warehouses the moment you mark any products in your catalogue as 'Stocked' and staff with assigned warehouses start performing those stocked products on tasks.
In Uptick, a "Stocked" product represents a material you wish to start tracking & managing levels for in any of your warehouses. Only Stocked products can be purchased & seen in a warehouse.
Full video:
Select Billing > Product Catalogue
View any product that is type materials
On the product's view under Stock Levels & Locations select the Is Stocked option
In the Is Stocked popup message, select Confirm to stock the product
Setting Minimum Restock Levels
A Minimum Restock Level can be set against a product, for each warehouse in which that product is stocked. When the Minimum Restock Level is reached, the system will warn you that the stock in this warehouse has reached its minimum level and should be topped up.
Select Billing > Product Catalogue
View any product that is type materials
On the product's view page, under Stock Levels & Locations select the Set min restock levels option
In the Set minimum restock levels popup, either Increase, Decrease or enter the restock level as a whole number for each warehouse you wish to have it set for
Once ready select Confirm to set the minimum restock levels for this product
Configuring your Fallback Warehouses
Configuring warehouse fallbacks ensures tasks always know where to consume stock from. If a technician starts performing a task and they either don't have an assigned van or the system thinks they don't have the stock in their van, the stock will instead be consumed from the fallback warehouse.
If you don't configure fallback warehouses the following can happen:
If technicians start performing a task and they don't have an assigned van, the stock will never be consumed from any warehouse, causing your stock levels to be incorrect.
If technicians start performing a task and their assigned van doesn't have enough stock to fulfil that item, you'll see their van go into negative numbers. Your stock levels will be incorrect if this isn't later resolved by the office.
Setting up fallbacks per branch
If you have the Branches extension enabled, you can configure a fallback warehouse for each branch. The system will look at this fallback before looking at the default fallback below.
Select Control Panel > General > Branches
Choose the Branch you want to modify by selecting Edit
Scroll down and select the Default Warehouse dropdown and choose a facility warehouse
Select Save to commit the changes
Setting up a default fallback
Select Control Panel > General > Warehouses
Select the Default Warehouse dropdown and choose a facility warehouse
Select Save to commit the changes
Using Warehouses in Uptick
You have four main workflows when tracking & managing stock in a warehouse in Uptick;
Purchasing more stock for your facility when the Minimum Restock Level has been reached.
Transferring stock into your vans to replenish their Minimum Restock Level, keeping them well stocked for callouts & maintenance tasks.
Reserving facility stock specifically for upcoming repairs or install tasks for later collection by field staff.
Reserving facility stock for general van replenishment for later collection.
Purchasing stock for a warehouse
Required stock can easily be ordered from your facility warehouses via the Order Required Stock option.
By pressing this button:
A draft purchase order will be created for all the stock flagged as Required in your warehouse.
The On Order column will populate with what was just added to the purchase order.
Note: Warehouses do not have a 'Max Restock Level' so you will need to manually increase the quantity of the materials that appear on the purchase order. This workflow will only populate what is required to reach the Minmum Restock Level.
Select a facility you wish to replenish
If there is required stock you will see an option to Order Required Stock
Select the Order Required Stock and a draft Purchase Order will be created with all the stock you require added as product line items
Increase the quantity of the materials in the draft purchase order so you order more stock than your minimum.
Select Update on the purchase order to modify the intended supplier you wish to purchase from
Select Save
Once the purchase order is finalised, change the status from Draft to Submit for Approval or Submit to the supplier.
Alternatively, you can manually create a warehouse purchase order from the purchase order list by going to Billing > Purchase orders > Create Warehouse Purchase Order.
Once your stock has been delivered/collected from the supplier and you've checked everything is correct, you must either represent that approved delivery by adding dockets or clicking All Goods as Received on the corresponding warehouse purchase order. This will move those materials from On Order into Available in your warehouse.
For more information on the purchasing process, you can read our Purchase Orders guide.
Transferring stock to vans & other facilities [instantly]
There are several ways to transfer stock between warehouses without a reservation, the main workflows are depicted below.
Transferring stock into a van from van:
View the van that requires stock and select the Action Required Stock option.
Click Transfer Now.
Transferring stock into a van from home page:
View the warehouse home page and click the orange, Required number against that van.
Click Transfer Now.
Transferring stock from or into a facility:
View the facility that is going to transfer the stock into another warehouse.
Select the Bulk Transfer option.
Confirm the To Warehouse.
Optionally add a Comment for the transfer.
Optionally type in the Filter products to search for the products you want to transfer.
Enter the products you want to transfer in bulk.
Click Confirm Transfer.
Reserving & collecting stock for tasks & vans (best practise)
The reservation workflow in Uptick allows you to digitally move stock from Available into a Reserved state in a warehouse. This represents the physical movement of available stock onto a reserved shelf or tub in a warehouse.
Reserving warehouse stock for scheduled tasks (approved repairs & installs)
When a task, such as a repair or installation, requires materials, it's up to the office to Reserve or put aside that stock so it doesn't get used up on another task.
The benefit of reserving warehouse stock for a task is as follows:
The office can control what stock should be allocated to what tasks, ensuring you have enough stock for tasks which need to be collected next.
You have a clear indication of when available stock is low and needs to be replenished. With this, it's much easier to keep stock levels low & rotating frequently.
With the upcoming feature below, task & van reservations can be collected by field staff via the app, encouraging complete autonomy in the field once a reservation has been made by the office.
Upcoming feature: Primary or supporting technicians will be able to collect task reservations via the mobile device this month. Collection will be tracked and is hoping to completely replace paper collection slips.
Managing & reserving your tasks best practice:
Firstly, use the Part Status filter on the task list to find tasks which require materials:
Go to the task list
Add the Parts Status filter
Into the Part Status filter, add Parts Required.
We recommend eyeballing the list or adding more filters to this page to help you find which tasks you wish to stock first. You may wish to stock tasks which are the highest priority, have SLAs to meet, are due next, have an appointment organised or are created first - it's up to you and how your business wants to operate.
Once you've found a task you wish to stock:
View that task
Click on the Work tab
You'll see a Reserve Stock banner if any of the materials on this task are normally stocked in your warehouse, click Reserve Stock.
Select the warehouse you wish to stock this task from
If the selected warehouse has enough stock, you'll be able to make a reservation for this task, and click Reserve products.
This will move the stock in that warehouse from Available to the Reserved column.
If the reservation was able to reserve all the required stock for this task, the Part Status will change to Parts Allocated signifying to the schedulers that this task is now ready to schedule.
If your warehouse is only able to partially fulfil a product's requirement, say 3/5 Fluorescent Tube's as per the above example, you will need to perform the following actions:
Reserve all the stock you can from the warehouse by clicking Reserve products.
Remember the number of Fluorescent Tubes you'll need to purchase (2/5).
Raise a purchase order for the Fluorescent Tubes as per step 6, except edit the quantity on the purchase order to 2 instead of 5.
Once you've sent the PO to the supplier, go back to step 1 to make a reservation for 3/5 products - it will now let you just raise a reservation for the 3 Fluorescent Tubes.
If you don't have enough stock in your warehouse to fulfil all the material requirements for this task, your next step will be to create a purchase order to fulfil the rest of the requirements.
Once the purchase order has been submitted to the supplier, the Part Status will change to Parts In Delivery for you to keep track of.
When the materials have been delivered or collected, the office or technician must mark the purchase order as All Goods Received either via the app or web. This will move the task's Part Status from Parts In Delivery to Parts Allocated signifying to the schedulers that this task is now ready to schedule.
Once you are happy with the number of reservations you've made from your warehouse, it's now time to physically move that stock in your warehouse to their allocated shelves, ready for collection.
Go to Billing > Warehousing and View the warehouse where you've made your reservations for.
Click Download > Download Picking List. This will give you a list of all task & van reservations you have made digitally that are yet to be collected. Use this to physically move all the reservations onto the right shelves or bins.
Full video here:
Once someone is ready to collect the reservation for their upcoming repair and/or install tasks, an official transfer can be made from the individual task:
For now, this must be done by the office, but it will be recommended to get your field staff to do this autonomously via the app.
Upcoming feature: Primary or supporting technicians will be able to collect task reservations via the mobile device in the next few months. This tracked event will also try to replace paper collection slips.
Reserving warehouse stock for vans & facilities (min levels)
If one or more of your vans have hit their minimum restock levels and need replenishment, reserving stock for a van is a great way to digitally set aside stock for a technician to collect the next time they are in the warehouse.
The reservation workflow in Uptick allows you to digitally move stock from Available into a Reserved state in a warehouse. This represents the physical movement of available stock onto a reserved shelf or tub in a warehouse.
A reservation against a van is simply to replenish their minimum restock levels used in everyday callouts & maintenance and is distinguished from reserving stock for tasks.
If you have multiple facility warehouses, a reservation can also be made for another facility.
Making a reservation for a warehouse can be completed either from the warehouse the stock is going to or coming from by using the Bulk Transfer option and clicking the Reserve Stock button:
Once you are happy with the number of van reservations you've made from your warehouse, it's now time to physically move that stock in your warehouse to their allocated shelves, ready for collection.
Go to Billing > Warehousing and View the warehouse where you've made your reservations for.
Click Download > Download Picking List. This will give you a list of all task & van reservations you have made digitally that are yet to be collected. Use this to physically move all the reservations onto the right shelves or bins.
Once someone is ready to collect the reservation, an official transfer can be made from two main spots:
From the warehouse the stock is going to by using the Action Stock option and clicking the Confirm pickup button:
From the warehouse home page by clicking the Reserved count and click the Confirm pickup button:
Upcoming feature: Van reservations will be available to collect via the mobile device in the next few months.
How is stock used/consumed from warehouses
Stock is consumed when a product that is marked as Stocked is performed on a task.
If the technician who performed the product has a van or facility assigned to them, the stock will be consumed from that warehouse.
If that van or facility doesn't have enough Available stock or they don't have an assigned warehouse and you have fallbacks setup (recommended), the stock will be consumed from the fallback warehouse. If the fallback warehouse doesn't have enough stock, that warehouse's Available column will go into negatives and should be a flag to the office that something is wrong.
If you don't have fallbacks set up:
and the technician doesn't have enough Available stock in their warehouse, the warehouse will go into negatives.
and the technician doesn't have a warehouse assigned, the consumption will not occur and will be lost.
When Uptick consumes stock, it uses the FIFO principle (First In, First Out) to determine the cost of that stock and will update the item on the Work tab of a task accordingly when performed.
Transferring unused task stock back to a warehouse.
We've built a basic workflow for office staff to transfer unused stock from tasks, back into a chosen warehouse.
When your field staff don't need all the warehouse stock collected for the task, they are expected to add this information to the technician notes of the task to flag this to the office. Any materials that are not used should remain unperformed on the Work tab if possible.
Unperformed, warehouse stock on the Work tab of the task can be transferred back to a warehouse by going to the Margin Review tab of a task here:
** If you need to transfer out only some of a Work tab item, you'll need to manually split the item into 2 Work tab items, one to transfer out and one to perform.
Completing a stocktake
How to complete a stocktake.
In any warehouse you can perform a stocktake with our stock adjustments tool, where it pre-fills the products in the warehouse, so you don’t need to add each one manually.
View the warehouse you'd like to do a stocktake on
Select Stock Adjustment to see the stock adjustment popup
Fill in any Comment you need to leave for the adjustment
Review the current list of stock available in the warehouse
Perform a stocktake in your warehouse
Either Increase, Decrease or enter your new count of stock
Enter "0" as a value to indicate that there is zero stock
Leaving a stock's row blank will mean no change is made to available
Any new count of stock will replace the Available count
When a new count entered is greater than available enter a Unit Cost
A default unit cost will be supplied from the product catalogue
Select Finalise adjustment when you are ready to update the warehouse with the new stocktake results
Add more stocked products not listed in a warehouse
Sometimes when you perform a stocktake new stock is found that wasn't already listed in a warehouse. You can add stock in a warehouse the following way.
View the warehouse you'd like to add stock to
Select Add stock
Start typing a search term in the Product field and then select it once it appears in the list (Code and Supplier fields will populate automatically if these details are present on the product)
Type the current stock count in the Quantity field
If there are additional line items you want to add, click + Add Line Item and repeat steps 3 to 4 on the new line.
Click Submit to complete the stock take. This will return you to the main page of that Warehouse where the updated stock levels will be displayed.
Audit stock movements with stock history
Access stock movement history for all warehouses by viewing the warehouse home page and clicking Stock History, otherwise, you can view an individual warehouse to get only its stock history.
In this view you can see the following:
The table itself details the following information:
Warehouse Home page only | Name of the warehouse this transaction was made from. |
Transaction | The unique identification number of the transaction. |
Created | Transaction created date. |
Committed by | The person who caused the transaction. |
Product | The name of the product that moved. |
SKU | Comes from the product if these details have been populated. |
Source | The origin of the transaction. Source origins can include the following:
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Difference | The amount of difference to applied in the stock transaction.
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Cost Price | The total cost that moved with the transaction.
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Tracking Stock Without Warehousing
For customers who aren’t using warehousing, you can still benefit with the new Parts Status feature to help track the availability of parts for your tasks.
Parts Required | Some or no materials have been allocated to the task. |
Parts in Delivery | Purchase orders have been raised for the remaining materials. |
Parts Allocated | Purchase orders have been fully docketed or reservations have been created. The task is ready to go. |