Inventory in CRM.COM refers to the type and quantity of stockable physical goods residing in the business's warehouse, with the ultimate intention of either selling or renting these items to contacts or the business's organisations.
THE BASICS
Before explaining the Inventory features, let's familiarise ourselves with some standard terms related to Inventory used throughout the software.
Warehouse
The warehouse is a storage location where a business stores its stockable (traceable and non-traceable) physical goods until they are distributed to contacts or merchants/service providers who have ordered them.
Each business has a single warehouse which is automatically created when it signs up to CRM.COM
Items from the warehouse can be sold or rented to contacts or merchants/service providers in the business's network
Rental items returned to the business are also stored in the warehouse
The stock balance is adjusted accordingly whenever a stock item changes ownership
Stockable Products
Stockable products are the physical goods stocked in a business's warehouse and whose stock levels are tracked. Stockable products can be Sold or Rented to contacts or other organisations (merchants/service providers).
Traceable & Non-traceable Products
A stockable product can be one of two types:
Traceable - The product can be traced throughout the system using a unique identifier, which is usually the product's serial number. Traceable stockable products can be used to instantiate Devices. The system keeps track of each device's history, such as when the item was stocked-in in the warehouse, when it was sold or rented, who it belongs to, the invoice which sold the device etc.
Non-traceable - These products don't have a unique identifier (e.g. cables), therefore, can't be traced to a single instance. However, these products are stocked in quantities in the warehouse. The system keeps track of how many cables of a particular type are available in the warehouse but not which specific cable was sold to a contact.
Refer to the Product Catalogue manual for further details on traceable, non-traceable and other product types.
Devices
A device is a physical item which is uniquely identifiable in CRM.COM via a code, such as a serial number or an electronic id (e.g. MAC address).
A device can be a contact's own device (e.g. a mobile phone) which has been registered on CRM.COM for provisioning and communication purposes (e.g. for receiving push notifications) or keeping track of usage. In such cases, however, the contact is not charged for the device as it's not a product the business provides.
A device can belong to the business and be stocked in the warehouse to sell or rent to a contact through an order or an invoice. In such cases, the device is also defined as a physically stockable product in the system.
Aside from a business's personal contacts, devices can also be sold or rented to merchants/service providers in the business's network.
Devices which have been rented can be returned back to the business's warehouse.
Devices sold to contacts can also be returned to the warehouse by issuing Credit Notes.
Other uses of devices:
Measuring application users - e.g. sum of contacts who have downloaded and used CRM.COM front-end applications (apps or portals)
Communication purposes - used for sending in-app push notifications through CRM.COM applications
Provisioning purposes - to provision termed and one-time services and log consumed usage. A single device can be used to provision multiple services for the same contact
Billing of rented devices - charging a contact or merchant/service provider for their rented device, e.g. a device used to record the consumption of usage products, such as measuring fuel consumption of a vehicle
Recording usage consumption - consuming usage through a device, and after that, billing for what they have consumed, or just for keeping track of the usage which has been consumed so far
WiFi authorisation - authorising a contact over a WiFi platform to consume usage through a device
A device must be related to a contact in order to:
Log usage consumed by/through the device
Authorise services - in this case, the device is also related to the subscription (marked as subscription device)
State & Status
Each device in the warehouse has a state which reflects its condition at any point in time.
New - the new, unused device is owned by the business and located in the warehouse; it can be sold or rented to a contact or merchant/service provider.
Used - the device was previously rented to a contact or merchant/service provider who has returned it back to the business (who now owns it) and is located in the warehouse. Such devices can be sold or rented again.
Sold - the device has been sold to a contact or merchant/service provider (i.e. the owner is no longer the business). Such devices cannot be returned to the warehouse.
Rented - the device is owned by the business but is located at a contact's (subscriber's) address or a merchant/service provider location. Such devices are rented through subscription services.
Dispatched is a temporary state indicating that the device has been dispatched to the contact's address or merchant/service provider's location but has not yet been invoiced. While the item remains un-invoiced, it is still considered owned by the business. Once the invoice has been issued, ownership of the item will be transferred from the business to the contact or merchant/service provider, and the device's state will be set to Sold.
Blocked - the New or Used device is located in the warehouse but cannot be sold/rented. Unblocking the device will return it to the state it was in prior to being Blocked, which could be found in the device's history.
Own device - a contact's own device which has been registered in the system (e.g. a mobile phone used by a contact to register via an app). The business has never owned such devices and, therefore, cannot be returned to the warehouse. If the same device has been registered multiple times, then only the last contact who registered the device is recorded in the system.
For each state, additional statuses can be configured by the business, thus extending the operational flows of device management.
Rentals
Devices owned by the business and located in the warehouse can be rented to contacts. Renting a device goes hand-in-hand with a subscription, so the connection will be charged a recurring rental fee along with the recurring subscription charge.
Rented devices are still in the ownership of the business but located at another address (i.e. a contact or merchant/service provider address). Rented devices must be returned to the business once the contact or merchant/service provider terminates their subscription and will therefore assume a state of Used.
Devices available for rental will have up to two prices defined in the product catalogue; the selling price and the rental price. Rentals can only be provided to contacts or merchant/service providers through Orders, never through an Invoice alone.
Ownership
A device can either be owned by a contact or an organisation (business, merchant/service provider).
Owned by a contact - The device is owned by a contact and has either been sold to them through an order or an invoice by the business or registered in the system by the contact themselves. A device owned by a contact can be used to provision a subscription service for that specific contact.
Owned by an organisation - The organisation can be either:
Business - The business owns the device and can either be located in the warehouse (not sold or rented) or at the contact's or merchant/service provider's address who has rented the device.
Merchant/Service provider - The merchant/service provider owns the device because it has been sold to them by the business through an order or an invoice. A device which a merchant/service provider owns can be transferred to a contact. CRM.COM doesn't log information on sales between a merchant/service provider and a contact. Instead, such transactions will be performed as a transfer of ownership between the two parties.
Transfer of device ownership is also allowed between two contacts of the same business.
Stock Balance
Calculating the warehouse stock balance is a dynamic process based on the transactions submitted against the warehouse. The stock balance is calculated per stockable product based on the following formula:
Stock Balance = all increased stock transactions (stock-in, add adjustments) - all decreased stock transactions (stock-out, minus adjustments).
Warehouse Transactions
Warehouse transactions move stock in or out of the warehouse, affecting the stock balance. They can either be carried out manually by a back-end system user or generated by the system following a user or contact action. There are three types of warehouse transactions:
Stock In - adds stock to the warehouse
Stock-Out - removes stock from a warehouse (only performed by other processes, cannot be done manually)
Stock Adjustment - used to adjust the stock balance of a stockable product in the warehouse. In the case of traceable products, then devices can also be created/deleted through this process.
Once a stock warehouse transaction has been posted, then the stock balance of the warehouse is immediately adjusted. See how Inventory actions are performed below.
Selling Devices Through Invoices & Orders
Stockable products (traceable/non-traceable) can be sold through:
An invoice financial transaction, where such products are directly sold to contacts/organisations, triggering an account invoicing and a warehouse stock-out transaction (if applicable) simultaneously
An order where, upon completion, will also invoice a contact/organisation, transfer the product's ownership to the contact/organisation, and create a warehouse stock-out transaction (if applicable)
Upon issuing an invoice or creating/completing an order, the stock management process is responsible for verifying whether the available stock is adequate for the requested product quantities. If there is adequate stock, the amount requested is reserved until the invoice is posted/order is completed, and such stock will be deducted from the available Balance. If the requested stock quantities are inadequate (the available stock balance is not enough or already reserved), then such an invoice cannot be created/an order cannot be completed. If an invoice/order is cancelled, all reserved products are released and can be dispatched again for another order.
Returns Through a Credit Note
The credit note financial transaction directly returns stockable products (traceable and non-traceable) back to the business from which the goods were sold, causing a stock-in warehouse transaction at the same time (if applicable).
Managing Inventory
To see the business's warehouse contents navigate to Commerce > Inventory. There are two views on this screen, Stock Balance and Devices. Switch between the views using the toggle button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
Stock Balance summary screen
This is the stock balance summary screen of all traceable and non-traceable products in the warehouse, with their respective stock balances. Use the filter option to narrow down your search if required.
Below is a brief description of each column, along with the formula used to calculate each total amount of the column.
Product: product name and SKU
Is Traceable? : if the product is classified as traceable (uniquely identifiable) or not
Ownership: All items which the business owns. This includes all of the items located in the warehouse and all items dispatched to contacts (through orders) but not invoiced yet.
Stock in hand: number of items currently in the warehouse
Reserved: number of items reserved, i.e. included in Orders or Service Requests which are not completed yet. Therefore those items are not invoiced yet.
Available for sale/rent: stock in hand which is available to be sold or rented. Reserved items are excluded.
Dispatched: number of items dispatched to contacts via Orders but not yet invoiced, so the business still has ownership.
Rented: number of items rented, i.e. items (traceable only) given out to contacts as a rental so the business still has ownership.
Average cost per unit: unit cost/quantity
A stockable product's Stock Balance information is available within
Each product's screen is where system users can additionally view which Orders or Service Requests the item is reserved for and
The ordering flow so users can easily identify products in/out of stock
View Devices
In the case of traceable products, this link (View Devices) is also the access point to view the actual list of devices in the warehouse for a specific product.
Device actions are available from the device's screen are explained below.
Devices summary screen
Switching the toggle to Devices from Stock Balance view changes to the devices summary screen, where all devices are displayed, whether owned by the business, a contact or a merchant/service provider. Use the filter options to narrow down your search if required.
The Reserved badge states the initial entity for which the device is reserved (applicable only for reserved stockable items).
Device actions
There's a list of available actions which can be performed for each device; the actions, however, vary depending on the state of the device.
Change Location
A device can have a spatial location within the physical warehouse; use this action to identify the exact location of the device (e.g. geospatial coordinates, shelf numbers etc.)
View History
Please look at how a selected device's history has evolved, from the moment it was stocked into the warehouse when it was sold or rented, when it was returned, and so on.
Edit Characteristics
If the product type definition includes any characteristics, they can be set here. Refer to the Product Catalogue manual for further information on how to set up product characteristics.
Block Device
Block the device from being sold or rented. This option is only available for devices with a State of New. The device can be Unblocked at any point in time.
Inventory Actions
From both the Stock Balance and Devices screens, additional options allow dedicated stock actions to be performed against the warehouse. Select the more options (…) icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
Stock In
This action is used to add new items to the warehouse; you can stock multiple products with a single transaction.
Supplier - State the supplier from where the products were purchased; this is a free-form text field.
Product - Select the product to be stocked in; only stockable products can be selected for the stock-in action
Serial Number/Electronic ID- In the case of traceable products, you must specify the serial numbers of the devices that are being added to the warehouse; this is not applicable for non-traceable goods
Quantity - The number of items to be stocked must be manually specified only for non-traceable products. For traceable products, the serial numbers provided will be used to determine the quantity.
Unit Cost - Enter the product's unit cost from the supplier; note that this cost is irrelevant to the product's selling/rental price
Select Save to complete the stock-in transaction. The respective items will be created in the warehouse, which can then be sold or rented.
Manual Stock-in transactions must only be created to add new stock items to a warehouse.
Stock-in transactions are also performed when contacts and merchant/service providers return physical goods previously rented by them back to the business. However, in such cases, a stock-in transaction is automatically created and managed by CRM.COM processes, such as when issuing a Credit Note.
Stock Adjustment
Create a Stock Adjustment transaction to correct any stock balance errors for traceable or non-traceable products.
Description - provide a brief description explaining why the stock adjustment is being made.
Product - select the product whose Balance will be adjusted; multiple products can be added
Available Balance - once the product has been selected, the available stock balance is displayed
Adjusted quantity - for non-traceable devices, set the quantity to be adjusted (to increase the quantity enter the number to be increased by, to reduce the quantity, enter a negative number). In the case of traceable physical goods, specify which of the existing devices must be removed and/or which ones should be added.
A third warehouse transaction Stock-out is automatically performed by CRM.COM when an item is Sold or Rented, indicating that it no longer exists in the warehouse and that it's now in the possession of a contact or merchant/service provider.
View Transactions
This is a history log of all transactions performed against all warehouse items; click on the view (eye) icon of a specific transaction to see further details. The list includes all three types of warehouse transactions; stock-in, stock-out and stock adjustments. Use the filter options to narrow down your search.
Contact Devices
On the contact screen (Contacts > My Contacts), one is able to see the devices owned or rented by the contact and may or may not be associated with a contact's subscriptions. Select the View Devices devices option button to view current devices, and select Register Device to add a new one.
Inventory Settings
Navigate to Settings > Commerce > Inventory
Device Statuses
There are pre-defined device statuses in the system describing the state of a device at any point in time. The business can configure additional statuses but must be mapped to one of the default states available to copy their behaviour.
Reference Material
You may also find it useful to refer to the following manuals for further reading in relation to Inventory.
Business Network
Contacts
Product Catalogue
Subscriptions
Billing
Financials
Automation
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