Tips and Best Practices
Here is a summary of all tips and best practices regarding inventory locations. Take a moment to look over these tips to ensure you set up locations properly.
Click the plus icon to view the tip in detail.
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| title | Need to convert existing locations into inventory locations? |
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To convert existing locations into inventory locations of the Warehouse, Supply House, or Truck type, please contact ServiceChannel to get assistance as there is no way to make this happen via the UI, alas. Note that if you want to convert a standard location into an inventory location with the Location type, you can do that on your own by selecting the Inventory Location checkbox on the location details page. 
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| title | Work orders can be created for Locations, Warehouses, and Supply Houses. |
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You can submit work orders for Locations, Warehouses, and Supply Houses. Note, however, that no work orders can be created for Trucks. |
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| title | Avoid techs' names in your truck location names. |
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We DO NOT recommend that you use technicians' names when you fill out the Location Name field for your trucks. Technicians come and go, while trucks remain within your organization. Thus, to prevent issues with your analytics reports on the usage of trucks and parts stored there, avoid making reference to the technicians. | Status |
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| colour | Red |
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| title | not recommended |
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| title | Recommended |
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| title | Reflect the physical location (region) of the warehouse in the warehouse name. |
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When you create warehouses, we recommend that the Location Name reflects the warehouse physical location, for example, region. |
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To manage inventory across your locations via Inventory Manager, you first need to create inventory locations and indicate to which type each location belongs in the Locations & Provider Assignments section.
Inventory Location Types
Within Inventory Manager, four types of inventory locations are available: Location, Warehouse, Supply House, and Truck.
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You can assign the Location, Warehouse, Supply House, and Truck types only upon creating inventory locations. Should you need to mark an existing location as inventory, only the Location type will be available in that case. |
Switch between the tabs below to learn more about each location type.
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| The location represents a retail location that has inventory. To mark that your inventory location belongs to the Location type, select the Inventory Location checkbox, and pick Location from the Type drop-down list on the page for creating a location. |
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Once you’ve saved such a location, you cannot edit its type. When you need to move this location out of the inventory locations list, you can do this by removing the Inventory Location checkbox — say, when this location no longer stores inventory. |
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| The warehouse is a company-owned location that supplies other locations with parts. To mark that your inventory location belongs to the Warehouse type, select the Inventory Location checkbox, and pick Warehouse from the Type drop-down list on the page for creating a location. |
You may also select the primary and secondary supply locations. These are locations that will supply the warehouse with parts. These drop-down lists contain only inventory locations of the following types: Location, Warehouse, and Supply House. | Note |
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Once you’ve created a Warehouse location, you cannot edit its type. Nor can you move this location out of the inventory locations list. Only info on the primary and secondary supply locations can be updated. |
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| The supply house is a non-company-owned location where goods are purchased from. To mark that your inventory location belongs to this type, select the Inventory Location checkbox, and pick Supply House from the Type drop-down list on the page for creating a location. You may also enter the supplier name — the company that furnishes this location with items. |
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Once you’ve created a Supply House location, you cannot edit its type. Nor can you move this location out of the inventory locations list. Only the supplier name can be updated. |
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| The truck is a mobile unit that moves around locations to fix the broken equipment. To mark that your inventory location belongs to the Truck type, select the Inventory Location checkbox, and pick Truck from the Type drop-down list on the page for creating a location. |
You may also choose the primary and secondary supply locations. These are locations that will supply the truck with parts. These two drop-down lists contain only inventory locations of the following types: Location, Warehouse, and Supply House. For example, if the required part is not available on the truck, a technician can look at the Primary Supply Location for the part. If the part is missing there too, the Secondary Supply Location will be the next place to check. Make sure you also specify the Home Location for the truck. | Info |
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A Home Location is the location where the truck might report into or receive deliveries to. Typically, this is a retail location for remote technicians who don’t have access to the company’s warehouse on a daily basis. |
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Once you’ve created the Truck location, you cannot edit its type. Nor can you move this location out of the inventory locations list. Only info on the primary and secondary supply locations can be updated. |
Trucks should also be associated with a technician via User Management in Provider Automation. See Assigning Technicians to Trucks. |
Creating Inventory Locations
All inventory locations are created in the Locations & Provider Assignments section. Once you upload parts to these locations, they also appear in Inventory Manager. You can either mark an existing location as inventory or create a new inventory location from scratch.
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When you need to mark an existing location as inventory, only the Location type can be assigned. |
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| title | ⦿ How to Mark an Existing Location as Inventory |
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- Navigate to the Locations & Provider Assignments section. The locations list appears.
- Open the details page of the desired location.
- In the Inventory Details section, select the Inventory Location checkbox. The Location type gets automatically assigned.
 - Click Save Location Details to capture your changes.
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| title | ⦿ How to Create an Inventory Location |
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- Navigate to the Locations & Provider Assignments section. The locations list appears.
- Click Add New Location. The page for providing location details opens.
- In the Inventory Details section, select the Inventory Location checkbox, and then opt for the required Type.
Based on the selected location type, you need to provide the corresponding information. - Fill out the required fields — those that are marked with a red asterisk.
- Click Save Location Details.
- (For Locations, Warehouses, and Supply Houses) Select the location from which you’d like to clone provider assignment rules, and click OK.
 - (For Locations and Warehouses) (Optional) Switch between the tabs at the top of the page to add more info on your location. Remember to save your changes on each tab.
- Click Close in the upper-right corner to get back to the locations list.
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| title | ⦿ How to Create Multiple Inventory Locations via Template |
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- Navigate to the Locations & Provider Assignments section.
- In the Upload & Download section, switch to the Locations tab.
 - From the Select a task dropdown, select Download Blank Template.
- From the Select a Location Type dropdown, pick the desired location type. According to the type you select, your downloaded template will contain location attributes relevant to the location type.
- Hit Download. The template is exported to your device.
Fill out the template.
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Refer to the description of each location type provided earlier in this article when completing the template, especially when filling out inventory-related columns. |
Once ready, save the file as a tab-delimited text file. - Select Upload a Location Type in the drop-down list on the left, pick the corresponding location type in the drop-down list on the right, and then click Upload.
- In the overlay that appears, click Browse a File, and open the required file.
- (Optional) Add the file description.
- Click Upload.
- In case some fields in the file are filled out incorrectly, you need to download the results file, correct errors, and reupload the file.
 - When no errors are found, you get a confirmation message about successfully created locations.
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Of all inventory location types, you can create work orders for Locations, Warehouses, and Supply Houses. You manage Locations and Warehouses the same way as you deal with non-inventory locations: you assign providers as well as add attachments, location notes, business hours, and other information on the location details page.
Even though you can open work orders for Supply Houses, you cannot add location notes, assets, business hours, and more on the location details page. Note, however, that you can clone provider assignments from another location upon creating a supply house.
No work orders can be created for Trucks. Therefore, you don’t need to assign providers, add attachments, location notes, or business hours on the location details page.
Assigning Technicians to Trucks
Once you’ve created a truck, it’s time to assign a technician to it — an employee who is going to drive the truck from one location to another to perform the requested service as well as keep track of parts on hand at the truck.
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- You can assign trucks only to technicians of internal providers. Make sure the Is Internal flag is activated for your provider on the Providers page of your Admin settings. If it is not, contact ServiceChannel to get it enabled.
- A person who needs to be assigned to a truck should have the Technician user role and permission configured in their profile in User Management.
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| title | ⦿ How to Associate a Truck with a Tech |
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- Navigate to the User Management section of Provider Automation.
- Open the user profile of the required technician.
- Switch to the Employee Details tab.
- Pick the required truck from the Truck Assignment drop-down list, and hit Save.
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The employee is now assigned to a truck and becomes responsible for the parts on hand at that truck.
Filtering Inventory Locations
Each inventory location has an icon representing the location type. The icons help you visually identify the location type when you are on the locations list.
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| Locations that don’t store inventory are marked with an empty-store icon in the Locations & Provider Assignments section. These locations don’t appear in the Inventory module. |
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To quickly find inventory locations, take advantage of the following filters:
- Location Type: Show locations that belong to a specific location type: Location, Warehouse, Supply House, or Truck.
- Inventory: Display either inventory locations only or those that don’t store inventory.
