Summary

This document will explain how ServiceBox handles Inventory.  We view inventory as physical items that are located somewhere within your organization be it a head office, warehouse or even inside vehicles.  Our inventory module allows you to manage the inventory inside these locations by transferring items from one location to the next.  You can set reorder points for individual items to determine when the next group of items needs to be reordered.  Once new items are added in you can update the inventory amounts in different locations.  


Once you have inventory created and are managing the inventory for your organization,  you will be able to create quotes that utilize inventory pricing.  For jobs that need to use inventory you can add inventory for Time and Materials jobs directly from the inventory location or you can pull the inventory items from the quote.  Once ready to bill to the customer you can include the inventory items sale price in the invoice.


To summarize, your organization will be able to:

  • Manage inventory for your organization
  • Set reorder points for materials that need to be ordered
  • Transfer items from one location to another location
  • Create quotes that have inventory pricing
  • Use inventory items in Work Orders (essentially pulling them from inventory).
  • For quoted jobs, inventory can be pulled into a work order and allocated to that job.
  • Set pricing for all inventory items so they can be generated into an invoice.


Inventory Settings

In order to utilize inventory in your organization you will need to turn on the inventory in the features section.  To do this navigate to Settings -> Plan -> Features.  To enable inventory check of the "Inventory" options.


To maintain the settings for Inventory go to Settings -> Inventory. 


The only settings that are required is to set up the Locations for your inventory.  If you have multiple locations where the inventory is located then you will set these up here.  You will need to have at least one inventory location set up.


For each "User" in ServiceBox (employee logged in under a username), they may have a default location set where they would primarily be drawing the inventory from, for Work Order usage tracking.  If that is the warehouse, so be it.  If they are drawing it from a specific vehicle to use on their Work Order, excellent!  If they are picking up inventory items from the warehouse and taking them with them in their vehicle, an item transfer must happen for accurate inventory.  Someone must record the transfer of the item from the warehouse/office, into their vehicle (explained below).






The Inventory Section

The inventory section is where you will be able to manage your inventory.  You must have turned on the inventory feature to access any inventory information.  


The inventory section has the following functionalities:

  • Manage the inventory items list
  • Manage the quantity of items in the various locations
  • View the reorder point of the item and view if any items are ready for reordering
  • Transfer Items from one Location to the next
  • Export Items to Excel for Quick updates
  • Import Items from Excel for group updates
  • For Pricebooks can set a price for specific items based on the pricebook selected.


Managing Inventory Items

To get to the inventory section please click on the link on the left hand side in the main menu.  Once you are there you will notice a screen that looks like this:




The Inventory table includes the following columns:

  • Item # - This is a unique identifier for the item.
  • Description - This is the description for the item.  You can also add in a long description by clicking on the ... button.
  • Average Unit Cost - This is the average unit cost for the Item. 
  • Latest Cost - This is the last price paid for the item.
  • Sale Price - This is the price the item will sell to customers at.
  • Tax Level - This is a drop down to choose the taxes to be applied to the inventory item.
  • Quantity on Hand - This is a sum total of all of the items that are in your inventory (in all locations).
  • Reorder Point - This is the trigger point for new items to be reordered.


To manage the inventory in the inventory table, you can do the following:

  • You can add new items directly in this screen by adding the items in and then clicking the green checkbox.  
  • Edit Inventory items by clicking on the pencil icon in the row.
  • View the allocation of inventory in the various locations by clicking on the allocation button.
  • Delete an inventory by clicking on the trash can button.


Price Books

For price books, you can override the sale price for each item in inventory depending on the individual price book selected.


To make changes to items in a price book, choose the corresponding price book in the price book dropdown.

Once a price book is selected a new column is added to the table, Override Sale Price $:

If you edit the row you will be able to enter in a new value for the Override Sale Price $ column.  This should be the only column that is editable.  Click the green check box to save.


Note: If you delete the item in this view it will delete the item from Inventory.


Transfer Items

We have provided functionality that is used to transfer items from one inventory location to another.  To access this screen click on the Transfer button.  When you do this you will see the following screen:

To transfer items from one location to the next follow the following steps:

  1. Choose the From Location.  This is where the items will be transferred from.
  2. Choose the To Location.  This is where the items will be transferred to.
  3. Enter in the transfer quantity column the number of items you will move from the From location to the To location.
  4. Once you have entered in the amount to transfer click on the plus button (add to cart button).  This will add the inventory transfer to the cart for processing.
  5. When you add the item to the cart, you will see that the number in the cart will increase accordingly as the number of inventory transfers that are going to take place.
  6. Click on the cart button and this will bring up the Transfer Items screen to confirm the transfer of the items from the from location to the to location.
  7. This screen will be used to confirm the transfer is as expected.  If required you can adjust the Quantity before clicking on the Perform Transfer button.
  8. You will receive a confirmation that the transfer is completed and will show the number of transfers that took place.  You will also see the transfer has moved the items as expected.

Export Items to Excel

You can export all inventory items into an excel format that can allow you to quickly adjust the inventory values and then reimport the values back into the inventory.  You can manage both the inventory items specifically and you can also adjust the price books Override Price values.


To export the items to excel, open up the inventory section and click on the Export to Excel button.  This will start a download of a spreadsheet that includes all of your inventory items.


Details of the spreadsheet:


Inventory Main

  • Includes all of the inventory items in a list.
  • All fields correspond to the inventory table.
  • Also includes all locations in the system along with the corresponding counts.
  • All fields in white are editable, any grey columns are fixed and not editable.
  • You can add new rows to a spreadsheet that will be used for import back into ServiceBox.
  • Items that are removed from the spreadsheet, will not be deleted from ServiceBox on Import, but ignored.


Price Book Columns

  • There is one tab for each price book.
  • Sales Price can be overridden for each item.


Import Items from Excel

Along with the ability to export all items over to an excel spreadsheet you can take the same spreadsheet, make adjustments and then import the inventory items in.  This is mainly used to do a mass update of inventory items or price book values.  We recommend to take an export and then update the spreadsheet right away to prevent data missing during the update.


To Import a spreadsheet do the following:

  1. Open the Inventory Section
  2. Do an export of the inventory items to Excel.
  3. Make adjustments to the spreadsheet values and add new values if required.
  4. Click on the Import from Excel button.
  5. A dialogue will appear that will allow you to upload a spreadsheet and click Import.
  6. Another message will appear to confirm the Import is beginning and a notification will be sent to the current users email once the inventory import is completed.  This will happen in the background.
  7. Once the email is received the inventory will be updated with the changes.  It will also notify you if there were any issues with the import.


If you have any questions about this functionality please contact the Service Desk through the feedback button or to email [email protected].