GNU Health/Stock Management

Basics of Stock Management

Stock management contains all processes to track physical products within a company. This allows a company to tell which products in which quantities are on stock and in which location they can be found. The Inventory & Stock module of GNU Health allows to document any change in stock, be it a shipment from a supplier, a shipment to a customer, or simply a move from one location to another.

In the context of a health instution, stock management is especially useful for keeping track of medicaments available in the pharmacy.

Stock Locations

Stock locations can be defined, edited, and deleted in the Inventory & Stock → Locations section. You can have as many locations as you need, and you can create hierarchical structures by assigning a parent location to a location.

There are six types of locations:

• Storage: Storage locations represent real places where products are stored.
• Warehouse: Warehouses are used to group several storage locations.
• Customer: Customer locations are virtual locations for products that have been sent to customers.
• Supplier: Supplier locations are virtual locations for products that have been received from suppliers.
• Lost And Found: Lost And Found locations are used for inventory gaps.

Stock Movements

Whenever goods are transported from one location to another you create a move record in the Inventory & Stock → Moves section. There you basically indicate what amount of a certain product has been moved from one location to another, and at which date. By doing so you tell GNU Health to adapt the inventory of the two locations affected.

A move has one of the following states:

• Draft: A move that is planned for the future but still subject to modifications. Default state for new move records.
• Assigned: A move that will not be modified anymore. The products affected by the move will be reserved.
• Done: A move that has been performed in the real world.
• Cancel: A move that has been cancelled in Draft or Assigned state and therefore has never taken place in the real world.

Shipments

A shipment is simply a group of several moves happening at the same date and around the same location.

Supplier Shipments

A supplier shipment record is created when products are received from a supplier. It contains information about the Supplier, the Warehouse in which the products are coming, the Planned Date and the Effective Date of the shipment. In addition, a supplier shipments contains Incoming Moves (moves between the supplier location and the input location of the warehouse) and Inventory Moves (moves between the input location and the storage location of the warehouse).

A supplier shipment has one of the following states:

• Draft: Incoming moves and inventory moves are in Draft state.
• Received: Incoming move are set in state Done, inventory moves are created if necessary.
• Done: Inventory moves and incoming moves are in Done state.
• Cancel: All containing moves are cancelled.

Supplier Return Shipments

((to be added))

Customer Shipments

A customer shipment record is created when products are sent to a customer. It contains information about the Customer, the Warehouse in which the products are going, the Planned Date and the Effective Date of the shipment. In addition, a customer shipment contains Inventory moves (moves between the storage location and the output location of the warehouse) and Outgoing Moves (moves between the output location of the warehouse and the customer location).

A customer shipment has one of the following states:

• Draft: Outgoing moves and inventory moves are in Draft state.
• Waiting: Inventory moves are created (or completed) to balance the outgoing moves. This shipment should be processed.
• Assigned: Products have been assigned (or reserved) from the storage locations.
• Packed: Inventory moves have been made, i.e the products have been physically moved to the outgoing locations.
• Done: Outgoing moves have been made, e.g. the truck has left the warehouse.
• Cancel: Shipment was cancelled before reaching the Done state. All containing moves are cancelled.

Customer Return Shipments

((to be added))

Internal Shipments

An internal shipment record is created when products are sent across locations inside the company. It contains information about the From Location, the To Location, the Planned Date and the Effective Date of the shipment. In addition, an internal shipment contains a list of Moves.

An internal shipment has one of the following states:

• Draft: The containing moves are in draft.
• Waiting: The shipment is waiting for been processed.
• Assigned: The products have been assigned.
• Done: The moves have been made.
• Cancel: Shipment was cancelled befor reaching the Done state. All containing moves are cancelled.

Inventories

An inventory is basically a list of all items in a certain stock location at a given time. It allows to control and update the quantities of the products in stock.

To create an inventory you enter a Storage Location, a Lost and Found Location and a Date. By clicking the Complete Inventory button a list with the expected quantities for each product in the location is created. If there is a difference between the expected quantities and the quantities in the real world (i.e. the number of products in the shelves), the real quantities can be entered. By clicking the Confirm button, move records are created to balance expected quantities and real ones.