AMSHub looks at the entire life cycle when dealing with inventory. Watch this brief overview illustrating that life cycle within AMSHub:
When talking specifically about Inventory we’re referring to the main area within AMSHub where you manage the items you have in inventory, look at the details for items on the shelf, and the various properties you can configure for your inventory.
It is important to first understand some basic concepts regarding inventory. An item is comprised of generic item type data and specific details about an actual, physical item. Inventory type is data about an item that describes its characteristics, such as item number, item name, vendor, etc. This is general information about an item. If you were to order an item based on the general item data, you would receive an actual, physical item to add to your inventory. You can think of inventory type data like a product sheet about an item. It tells you all about the item but isn’t the actual item itself. A physical item is an actual item/object, meaning you read about the item on the product sheet and it was ordered, giving you that physical item.
Our cloud-based global catalog is a large library of product sheets that contain information about all the items we represent across all the vendors we support. When you order an item, or enter a physical item you currently have into your inventory, you must add the item type data from our global catalog into your facility’s inventory. That way when you want to order an item, or enter an existing item into your inventory, the items information is already there, and you will only need to provide basic information specific to it.
Along with the general item type data managed in our cloud-based catalog, an item type added to your local inventory will have some basic information added by you, specific to your facility. Specifically, a status – active or inactive – and your desired par levels. The system will automatically add information regarding how many items you have on hand, based on physical item information you provide, and keep track of items currently on order. If you do have actual product for this item type on hand, you can scan the item(s) in and associate the specific item details, such as lot number and expiration date, to the global data mentioned above.
When you view an item in the Inventory area, you will see the Item Details and then a list of actual item data for the items you currently have in your inventory. If you have items that are not regularly kept on hand, or have par levels set at 0, these items will not show up in your list of inventory items. These items are hidden by default, along with any inactive items. To view, check the show inactive checkbox. When you search inventory for an item, active items will show first and a button will let you see inactive or zero par items that also match.
There are so many important areas to read and learn about under Inventory. We are going to highlight a few of the most commonly used features here, but please take time to look at all of the different areas of information under Inventory because all of these could come up and are helpful to know more about.
Frequently Used Inventory Features
- Importing Existing Inventory: As you begin with AMSHub you will need to get all of your existing physical inventory into your inventory in AMSHub.
- Manage Inventory Items: Once you have your inventory in AMSHub, learn how to manage that existing inventory and edit and make changes to your inventory.
- Understanding Par Levels: Setting par levels helps determine levels of inventory on hand and triggers automatic ordering for those items, using this feature.
- Add New Inventory Item: Understanding the different ways items can be added to your inventory, including how to request a new item that isn’t in the Global Catalog.
- Item Price Editing: The Item Price Editing tool allows you to update pricing on items currently in Inventory or used from Inventory in the past.
- Understanding Items in Boxes: It is important to account for boxes when items come more than one item per box as this affects both scanning products in and out as well as reordering items.
- Barcodes 101: A lot happens behind the scenes of a barcode, so it is important to understand some barcode basics.
- Cycle Counts: Periodic physical inventory checks need to be done to audit the inventory items in AMSHub against what is actually on your shelves.