Advanced Bin / Numbered Inventory Management

Important:

The functions discussed in this topic require an administrator to enable the Advanced Bin / Numbered Inventory Management feature.

The Advanced Bin / Numbered Inventory Management feature is an enhanced version of tracking inventory in bins. This feature includes serial numbered and lot numbered items on a per-location basis.

The Advanced Bin / Numbered Inventory Management feature includes functionality that is not available in the Bin Management feature.

No Pre-association Requirement

Use bins on transactions without being required to pre-associate bins to items. This lets you put away items using the Bin Putaway Worksheet, even if bins are not associated with those items.

The Bin Management feature requires you to associate a bin with the item on the item record. You must do this to select the bin for that item on transactions.
The Advanced Bin / Numbered Inventory Management feature lets you use any bin for any item. You do not have to identify the bin on the item's record. However, you can associate bins with any item on the item record. Then, those bins show in the Associated bins list on transactions. You can also set a preferred bin for an item.

Use Bins for Serialized and Lot Numbered Items

When you also use the Lot Tracking or Serialized Inventory features, you can assign bins to serial numbered items and lot numbered items. To set one these bins as your preferred bin, see Lot, Serial, and Bin Numbering.

If you use basic Bin Management, you cannot associate serial or lot items with bins.

Use Bins on a Per-Location Basis

When you also enable the Multi-Location Inventory feature, you can use bins at only specific locations. For example, you can set warehouse and store locations to use bins to track inventory. You can also choose to not use the Advanced Bin Management functionality at your head office location.

If you use basic Bin Management, you cannot use bins on a per-location basis.

For more information, see Bin Management by Location.

Subtabs Available

Depending on the item type, item records show the following subtabs on which you can track on hand and available quantities:

Inventory Detail – For items that use bins, this subtab shows the quantities for inventory numbers within each bin.

Note:
To display the inventory numbers on hand, you can select Inventory Numbers on Hand in the View field. Items that you do not put away are not included in the on-hand count at the bin level.
Bin Numbers – Shows the quantities for each bin
Inventory Numbers – Shows the quantities for each inventory number within a location

Inventory Detail Subrecord

Note:

The inventory detail subrecord on item records display on-hand and available quantities in five decimal places, whereas it displays those on transactions in eight decimal places. If you want to get these quantities with eight decimal places from the inventory detail subrecord through scripting, saved search, or formula, use the Inventory Balance Search. Otherwise, you might get a mismatch between the quantity values.

A popup selector is available for choosing a bin for an item. Click the Inventory Detail icon on records and transactions to filter the bins list, choose a bin, and enter a quantity.

The Inventory Detail icon shows in one of two ways:

Arrow – The arrow icon indicates that the inventory detail is available for the item and needs to be configured. It appears only in Edit mode for a transaction.
Check mark – The check mark icon indicates that you have already configured the inventory detail for this item. It appears in View mode for transactions, or in Edit mode after you configure the inventory detail.

After you click the Inventory Detail icon, enter the following in the popup window:

If the item is numbered, in the Serial/Lot Number list, select the appropriate number.
In the Bin list, select the bin in which you want to add the items. The Bin column displays the preferred bin by default. The list of available bins to select updates based on the transaction’s associated location.

The popup window includes filters to limit bin choices available for selection within a large set of bins. These filters include the following:

All bins
Preferred bin
Associated bin

If the associated transaction adds to your on-hand inventory, the following filters also appear:

Bins with quantity
Previously used Bins

In the Inventory Detail popup window on bin transfers, you can also specify the originating bin and receiving bin.

Inventory Details for Inventory Status

When you use the Inventory Status feature, a Status field appears in the Inventory Detail popup window. Use this field verify or select the status for the items on the associated transaction.

Inventory Details for Serial and Lot Numbered Items

When you use serial or lot numbered items, additional buttons are provided in the Inventory Detail popup window.

When you click the Inventory Detail icon, you see the following options to enter multiple numbers at the same time:

Express Entry – You can click this button to use a text box to cut and paste numbers to increase and decrease inventory. When you click OK, the inventory detail populates in the list.
Autogenerate Numbers – For inventory increase transactions, you can use this button to generate a list of serial or lot numbers. Inventory increase transactions include item receipts and assembly builds for assembly completions.

Choose settings in the following fields to define the numbering used:
- Prefix – the prefix of the serial or lot numbers
- Minimal Digits – the least amount of digits to be used
- Starting Number – the first serial or lot number in the sequence
- Quantity – the quantity to enter for each inventory number

The Inventory Detail icon is available on the following transactions when the feature is enabled:

Assembly Build
Credit Card Charge
Credit Card Refund
Cash Refund
Cash Sale
Check
Credit Memo
Invoice
Inventory Adjustment
Inventory Distribution
Inventory Transfer
Inventory Worksheet
Item Receipt
Item Fulfillment
Assembly Unbuild
Vendor Bill
Vendor Credit
Sales Order
Work Order
Transfer Order
Purchase Order
Return Authorization
Vendor Return Authorization
Bin Transfer
Bin Putaway

Permissions for the inventory detail subrecord are inherited from its parent transaction. For example, to edit the inventory detail from a sales order, you must have permission to edit the sales order. For more information, see Standard Roles Permissions Table.

You must enable and set up the Bin Management feature to use Advanced Bin / Numbered Inventory Management with your inventory. When you enable the Bin Management feature, note the following:

You cannot associate serial numbers or lot items with bins.
If it is enabled together with Serialized Inventory or Lot Tracking features, you cannot associate serial or lot numbers to bins.
When you enable the Advanced Bin/Inventory Management feature, you can associate serial or lot numbers to bins.

For additional details, read Setting Up Bin Management.

For information about using SuiteScript with this feature, see SuiteScript Overview.

For information on using SOAP web services code with this feature, see Updating SOAP Web Services Code When Advanced Bin / Numbered Inventory Management is Enabled.

Bin Management Upgrade

Warning:

If you also use both the Lot Tracking and Serialized Inventory features, note the following. It is very important to perform a bin management upgrade immediately after you enable the Advanced Bin / Numbered Inventory Management feature.

Any item that is lot or serial numbered and uses bins is not placed in a bin. These items must be manually reassigned to a designated bin using a bin putaway worksheet. To learn more, see Bin Putaway Worksheet.