Materials and Items Introduction

Before start reading this article its important to understand the terminology of storages, materials, and items.

A storage is where the items are stored. Inside storages you have the material's location. This allows the identification of the shelf/rack or the place where a specific material is placed inside the storage. The material is always a group of items. Each item created always has the same name as the material.

As an example, we can have a storage named East Storage, where a material called "Computer Brand X" is stored. That material is on the shelf B1 (material location). Within a material, it is possible to have several items.  

For example, the material called Computer Brand X is stored on the East Storage, on shelf B1, and can have all these items:

• Computer Brand X serial number 101
  
• Computer Brand X serial number 102
  
• Computer Brand X serial number 103
  
• ...

Note: If you want to know more about storages and materials locations click here. 

These new features can be found in release note version: 0.68.0.

To access the materials page navigate to the left menu and select the "Inventory" tab. Then click on "Materials".

Entering the materials page, you will see a table with all the materials available. To see more details about a specific material you just need to click on it.

In addition, you can filter your materials by storage or by location. To do that, click on the "Filter" button on the top right corner above the materials table. 

A new window will appear on the right side where you can filter the materials by selecting only the storages or locations of the materials you want to see.

You can also choose the columns you want to see on the materials table. To do that, just click on the columns button. 

Then you just need to select the columns you want to see and unselect the ones you want to hide. 

If you have already created materials, you can create new ones by clicking on the "Add Material" button in the top right corner of the page. 

If you haven't created any yet, when you enter the materials page just click on the "Add Material" button that appears at the center of the page.

After clicking on the button, you will be redirected to a new window where you can choose the material type and add all types of details about it.

There are two different types of materials:

• Stocked Product: When the option "stocked product" is selected, it means this material doesn't have a serial number (only ID).

• Serialized Product: This option must be chosen when the material has a serial number. Selecting this material type it will show a new mandatory input called "serial number" on the form.

In addition, you are going to also be able to insert the name, amount, and units of the material, description, brand, model, dimensions, and labels and you can even upload photos of the material. 

Once the required fields are completed, you just need to click on "Save".

There are three ways to add new items to your materials. The first is to do it following the creation of a new material. The other is to add the item to the materials through materials table. And finally, you can add items through your item table. Let's see how you can do it. 

In the end of the process of creating a new material, when you click "Save", the material and all its information are saved, and a new window will appear asking if you want to add items to the material or skip that step. 

Note: If you choose to skip this step your material will be empty without any items associated and you will be redirected to the materials page where your new material will appear on the materials table.

If you choose to click "Add Items" you will be redirected to a new page where you can detail all information about your items and add them to your material (remember that a material is always a group of items).

Furthermore, you can also immediately assign the item to a storage and a location so that it can be easily found within a facility.

If for some reason you need more or fewer information fields when adding a new material you can manage your item fields by clicking on the "Manage item fields" button.

You are able to change the order (by drag and drop) of the actual fields of your items form or select/deselect the ones you want to include in that form. 

You can even add new customised fields by clicking on "Add Field".

After making the changes, you can close the side menu. 

In the end, don't forget to save your item and all is information by clicking on the "Save" button. After this, the item is created and you will be redirected to the materials page.

Here you will be able to see all material information with the storages of each item and the date when the item was added. 

Note: If the material is stocked it will show the sum of all items using the material unit. If the material is serialized it will show each item added. 

You can add items to your materials directly through the materials table, just hover your mouse over the row of the material you want to add items to and the options to edit the material and add items to the material will appear.

This will open a new window for creating the new item and specifying all its details. This window is the same and works in the same way as when you add items immediately after creating a material, as explained above.

Finally, you can also add items directly through the items table. 

Go to the inventory and then enter the materials page. You will then have two tabs at the top of the page, the materials tab, where you are at the moment, and the items tab. Click on the "Items" tab.

When you open the new items tab, you'll find a table with all the items you've already created. Here you can see more details about each item.

To add a new item to your table, simply click on the "Add item" button.

A window will open with all your materials so you can choose which material your new item belongs to (remember that a material is a group of items).

You can select one of the materials directly from the table by clicking on it or you can choose to search in the search bar for a specific one if the table contains a large number of materials.  

After that, the new item form will open (same form that appears in the other alternatives for adding an item that we talked about previously). Here you can enter all the details of your new item related to the previously selected material. In addition to all the details about the item, don't forget that on this page you can also immediately link the item to the storage and its correct location. 

After clicking "Save" you will be redirected to the items page where you can see that your new item already appears in the items table.

If you click on the "Materials" tab and look at the materials table, you can see that the number of units, of PH Scanners in this case, has risen to two, as there are now two items associated with this material.

As with the materials, you can also filter the items on the items page and choose which columns you want to see in the items table.

To do this, as with materials, simply click on the "Filter" or the filter columns button, both in the top right corner. 

If you have any questions please contact technical support.