Advanced Inventory

STEP 1: Configure Advanced Inventory in a general way

First of all you need to configure your extension in a general way and according to your needs in:
System › Configuration › Wyomind › Advanced Inventory

Preferences

In the Preferences tab, start by choosing if you want the quantity and the availability to be based on Warehouses and POS stocks or on Global quantity.

• Multiple or single assignation
  Advanced Inventory allows you to assign orders to many points of sale. For that, you need to enable the Multiple assignations.
• Automatic or manual assignation
  You also have the possibility to activate the automatic assignation so that your orders can be automatically assigned to one or more points of sale according to several things such as the store view of the order, the customer group, the priority of the point of sale, the assignment rules and shipping address, the availability of the items in the stock.
• Order assignation notification
  If you enable order assignation notifications, you should get a message at the top of your admin saying some orders need your attention such as below:
  
  You can display a notification for the Customer Service when orders are not assigned to multiple inventories. You also have the possibility to edit the start date for order assignation. You will then be able to manage multi-stock for all orders placed after that date.
• Order status and assignation update
  With Advanced Inventory, you have the possibility to disable the assignation update for order statuses such as Complete or Canceled orders. Then it won't be possible to modify stock assignation for orders with these statuses.
  You can also enable an option to automatically update stock status when product quantities are changed from the admin panel.

System

In the System tab, you can also enable the Stock movement journal.

• Stock movement journal
  This tool is useful to see if your stock changes have been taken into account. To check your stock modifications, go to:
  Sales › POS / Warehouses › Stock movement journal
  At the same time, you can define how many days you want to include in the Journal history.
• Product and order grid enhancements
  Advanced Inventory allows you to see your stocks directly in the product grid. For that, define Show stock tree-view in product grid on YES. You should see a new column called Stocks if you go to:
  Catalog › Manage products

STEP 2: Manage your points of sale

Now, you need to create your points of sale. For this, go to:
Sales › POS/ Warehouses › Manage POS / Warehouses

When creating your warehouse/point of sale, you must fill in a certain number of fields.

General Information

In the General Information tab, you have to define a code for your warehouse/point of sale. Choose to make it visible in the store locator (CMS page). Give it an order of display as well as a latitude and a longitude using Google Maps.

Address & Hours

In the Address & Hours tab, define the address of the warehouse/point of sale. Give a phone number and an email. Add an image and specify the opening hours as well as the lunch hours. Note that if you have filled in the email field, a copy of the email sent to the customer will also be sent to the store when the order is assigned to a point of sale/warehouse.

Store Views Selection

Advanced Inventory is an extension for Magento that allows you to manage all kinds of scenarios. Indeed, you can link a warehouse/point of sale to one or more store views, or to one or more customer groups.

In the Store Views Selection tab, define for which store view(s) you want this warehouse/point of sale to be available. You can also make your warehouse/point of sale available for all store views.

Customer Group Selection

In the Customer Group Selection tab, select the group(s) of customers that will be able to see that warehouse/point of sale. Here again, you can do what you want and decide to make that warehouse/point of sale available for retailers only or for all customer groups.

Inventory Setting

In the Inventory setting tab, define a specific configuration for the pos/warehouse.

• Assignation method
  You have the choice between several methods:
  Do not assign any order
  Assign orders when product is available
  Assign orders depending on the shipping address: Then, fill in the Assignation rule to assign the orders to that particular point of sale (Check how to manage assignation rules).
  
• Order notifications
  When orders are assigned, you can also notify by email the recipients, that is to say, the manager(s) of the point of sale. For that, enter the different emails separated with a comma.
• Redirect the order to another POS/WH
  When you decide to assign the orders, you have the possibility to redirect the order to a Fallback POS/WH. When this option is set on YES, you can choose the Fallback POS/WH. This is useful when a store is closed for example.
• Low stock notification feed
  You also get the link of a feed including low stock products for that particular POS.
• Stock status message
  Display a stock status message in the product page when the product is available in this stock.
  

  Available now!

In the Default settings for products subtab, you'll also be able to define the default product settings for this stock.

You'll have the possibility to use the configuration settings for the backorder. If you don't, you'll have to define your own option for the backorder status between:

• No backorders
• Allow quantity below 0
• Allow quantity below 0 and notify customer

Finally, you'll be able to press the button to update all multi stock products with these settings.

Orders

In that tab, you'll see all the orders that have been assigned to that point of sale or warehouse.

STEP 3: Manage Sales

Before anything, you must know that an order will be assigned to a pos or a warehouse according to the settings of those stores:

• the store view: if the customer is on the French, English, or German view of your Magento store for example.
• the customers group: if it is about a retailer, wholesaler, or a simple customer and according to your settings for the point of sale.
• the priority: if the warehouse has priority to another one.
• the availability of products: if a product is not available in the warehouse and must be sent from another one.
• the assignation rules: if for example, you have decided that the warehouse in New York had to deliver to all USA except to California.

Use the assignation table

You should see a column named Assignation in:
SalesOrders

A notification is displayed in the box. It can be:

• Green = the order is assigned to one or more pos.
• Grey = the order doesn't need to be assigned (because of its status or the start date for order assignation).
• Red = the order is not assigned because some products must be assigned manually to a store.

If you click on a green or a red notification, for example, a popup window opens and displays an assignation table.

That table will show to which point(s) of sale each item is assigned and in which quantity (you can find the same table when viewing an order).

At any time you can edit this table if the assignations don't suit you.

In the example above, you can see how many items must be assigned in the Qty column. On line 3, two items must be assigned. The line is in red because one item still must be assigned.

Whenever you want, you can change the order's assignation by yourself by assigning items to different points of sale by clicking on the assignation table from the Assignation column available in:
Sales › Orders

Some colors and symbols will help you to understand how the assignation table works:

• Numbers in Green: means that the pos has stock
• Numbers in Red: means that there is no stock and no backorders is allowed
• Numbers in Orange: means that backorders are allowed
• Stock not applicable is when multi-stock is disabled
• Stock management disabled is when you don't manage stock for a product at all

Use the assignation rules

The assignation rules allow you to automatically assign orders placed on your website to one or more points of sale.

These rules are based on your customer's shipping address: code of the country and/or zip code and/or regional code.

Assignation rules allow you to define the geographical area that each one of your points of sale can cover.

To create assignation rules, choose a point of sale and click on Edit from:
Sales › POS / Warehouses › Manage POS / Warehouses

In the Inventory settings tab, choose the option Assign orders depending on specific rules. If you can't see that tab, you probably need to enable the Automatic order assignation in:
System › Config › Wyomind › Advanced Inventory

There you can write your own assignation rules using the same syntax as Owebia Shipping extension (with their agreement).

• "*": By default, worldwide
• " ": If the Assignation Rules field is empty, the point of sale won't assign orders.

Here are some examples you can use with Advanced Inventory:

• FR(*): All France
• FR(75*): All French zip codes starting with 75
• DE(7*): All German zip codes starting with 7 (Bade-Wurtemberg)
• US(CA): California / United-States
• FR,DE,CH,ES,IT: France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy
• * - (DE, FR(2A,2B)): Worldwide except Germany and Corsica in France

For flexible assignation rules, it is also possible to use regular expressions:

• FR(/^75[0-9]+$/): Paris (All French zip codes starting with 75 followed by numbers from 0 to 9, in other words, Paris)

STEP 4: Manage Products

Advanced Inventory allows you to manage the stocks for each one of your products and on different levels.

Enable multi-stock

Before being able to use Advanced Inventory, you need to enable the multi-stocks option. There are several ways of doing it.

1. From:
   Catalog › Manage stocks
   Select the products you want or a product in particular, and from the Actions dropdown, select Enable multi-stock. Click on Submit and then don't forget to  Save all changes.
   

   

   
   
2. From:
   Catalog › Manage products
   Edit a product. In the Inventory tab and Stocks subtab, you can decide to Enable multi-stock. 
   

   

Use the tree-view

You should see a column named Stocks, where a tree-view shows the total of items for each store view, in:
Catalog › Manage products

Example:

Each point of sale is linked to one or more store views:

• FR pos: English and French Store views
• DE pos: English and German Store views
• US pos: English store view

For a product available in 3 points of sale:

• FR pos: 5 items,
• DE pos: 2 items,
• US pos: 4 items

You will get the following tree view:

Main websites
    Madison Island
        English SV (11)
            FR pos (5)
            DE pos (2)
            US pos (4)
        French SV (9)
            FR pos (5)
            US pos (4)
        German SV (6)
            DE pos (2)
            US pos (4)

You can also filter the results according to a store view. For example, if you choose the German store view, you will only get the product stocks of the points of sale linked to that store view.

For the same example as above, you should get:

        German SV (6)
            DE pos (2)
            US pos (4)

STEP 5: Manage Stocks

Advanced Inventory allows you to manage stocks.

The Stock movement journal tool will help you to see if all your changes have been taken into account. This includes changes made by any user, customer, or via the external api.

You should find a list of all the actions you've done in:
Sales › POS / Warehouses › Stock movement journal

There are 4 ways to edit stocks:

• from the grid:
  Catalog › Manage Stocks
• from the backend product page:
  Catalog › Manage Products
• with Mass Stock Update (Check how to use the Mass Stock Update extension):
  System › Import/Export › Mass Stock Update 
• with the API (web developers only)

Stocks for each point of sale are visible on the product page directly. The points of sale displayed will depend on the store views linked to the pos and on the store view that the customer has selected. If you don't see the product stocks for each point of sale, have a look at our FAQ.

Manage your stocks from the backend product page

You can manage your stocks for each point of sale at the product level. To have access to the backend product page, choose a product from:
Catalog › Manage PRODUCTS

Clicking on Edit will give you the possibility to manage local stocks directly in the product Inventory tab and Stocks subtab.

To manage your stocks, define Enable multi-stock on YES.

Now you can manage your stocks for each point of sale. For each POS/WH, you have the possibility to:

• Enable stock: manage the stocks for that POS/WH.
• Disable stock: the POS/WH won't be taken into account. Useful when some products are not available in all your POS/WH. On the frontend product page, this will be displayed as Out of Stock. 
• No stock management: unlimited stock, no quantity is managed for the product.

When stock management is enabled, you can define the product stock for each point of sale. You have also the possibility not to use default settings. If you untick that box, you have the choice between 3 options: 

• No backorders: when there's no stock, it's impossible to order the product.
• Allow quantity below 0: even if there is no stock, the product can be ordered.
• Allow quantity below 0, and notify customer: even if there is no stock, the product can be ordered and the customer will be able to see in the frontend that backorder is allowed for that product.  

You can also filter by store view.

For example, if you choose the French store view, you'll see only the point(s) of sale linked to that store view and the product quantity of the French store view.

Manage your stocks from the grid

Advanced Inventory allows you to manage your stocks from the product grid in:
Catalog › Manage Stocks

The product grid display for each product the quantity available.

You can enable or disable stocks by clicking on the arrow on the right of the grid. If you choose Disable multi-stocks, you won't be able to manage your products stocks.

If you decide to enable multi-stocks, you can enter directly in the grid the number of products in each point of sale. The quantity is then adjusted according to the number of items in each point of sale. 

The orange circle next to a point of sale quantity means that backorders are allowed, so you can type -10, it will be deducted from the total quantity as you can see on the last line of the below example.

You can also filter by store view. For example, if you choose the French store view, you'll see only the point(s) of sale linked to that store view and the product quantity of the French store view.

Manage your stocks through the API

You may use a Web app or a software to manage your stocks. In order to make the link between that tool and your Magento, Advanced Inventory allows you to use the API to manage your stocks.

You should get an example file in your Magento root directory, in the Tools/api directory. It's called Advancedinventory-apicall.php.example.

There are 5 methods:

• setMultistock: to enable multi-stocks for products
• getWh: to get all the available pos/warehouses
• getData: to retrieve data (ex: the stock of a product in a particular pos/warehouse)
• setData: to update data (ex: update stocks of a product in a particular pos/warehouse)
• writejournal: To add a line in the stock movement journal

STEP 6: Manage permissions

Advanced Inventory allows you to assign permissions to the different admin users in:
Sales › POS/Warehouses › Manage users permissions

Let's imagine you have 6 points of sale managed by 3 store owners:

• The first store owner manages FR and US points of sale.
• The second store owner manages SP and UK points of sale.
• The third store owner manages IT and DE points of sale.

Then you can assign permissions to them so that they can manage their own points of sale such as on the below example.

Now, when a store manager will log in (for example the third one), he'll be able to see, manage and change the number of items assigned to the points of sale he manages (IT and DE) among the orders placed by the customers.