In some scenarios, it is possible that some products can belong to multiple virtual warehouses. In those cases, when a virtual warehouse is low on a certain product, it does not necessarily mean that the company is low on the product stock in general, since more inventory can exist in another virtual warehouse. In those cases, Paragon can do automatic inventory transfers so that the system does not indicate to the users that the warehouse is low on certain products. This document explains how to install a rule that will automatically do those stock movements / adjustments when issuing a shipment when the stock is not sufficient, i.e. virtually transferring the required stock from another virtual warehouse.

This document also explains how to create virtual warehouses in Paragon. If your virtual warehouses are already created, you can skip steps 1, 2 and 3.

Step 1: Add addresses in my company

Navigate to the settings page and then hit my company.

Hit the edit button at the top right-hand side of the screen.

Here, we will add extra ship to addresses that correspond to our virtual warehouses. Those addresses will all be the same since all our virtual warehouses are at the same physical location. However, we will include the name of our virtual warehouse in order to differentiate them.

In order to do that, first hit ship and then hit the blue arrow to list the addresses that are already on your system.

Then, hit new address.

Follow those steps for all of your virtual warehouses by entering the same address while also adding the name of the virtual warehouse at the end of the street name. In this example, we created 3 addresses that correspond to 3 virtual warehouses: imported from Canada, imported from USA, and made in house.

Step 2: Add values to your warehouse attribute

Now, we need to add the virtual warehouses to your warehouse attribute in Paragon. You will have to add values to the warehouse attribute list.

In this example, we added 3 values to the warehouse attribute as illustrated below.

Step 3: Setup your logical warehouses

Now is the time to setup your warehouse in the location module. You should setup those locations like any other location. For each one, select the address you just created that corresponds to that warehouse. Choose default for all transactions as the location type, and choose the correct warehouse attribute you just created in the location attributes section.

In this example, we created 3 locations as shown on the following screenshot.

At this point, you should adjust your inventory in your new warehouses so it reflects your current inventory status.

Step 4: Create a new attribute

This step will allow us to identify the products that can be moved between logical warehouses and those that can't.

Create a new attribute: non inventoriable. Set it as an on/off attribute and make configuration on the product.

Step 5: Install the rule

Rules are initially created by Jonar - all you have to do is install and activate them.

This rule should run on the after_issue_ship trigger.

Step 6: Modify the rule if needed

This step is necessary only if you have different location names than the ones presented in this article.

Locate the following text in the rule and modify the words in " " by your warehouse name.

var warehouses = ['US IMPORTED', 'CA IMPORTED', 'MADE IN HOUSE']
var shipTo = ['UNITED STATES','CANADA','OTHER']
var warehouseMadeInHome = 'MADE IN HOUSE'

You can find the attribute Id to use in your rule in the second column of the attribute panel.

Do not modify the words on the left of the "=" symbol.

Step 7: Create a shipment

Now go ahead and create a shipment! You can create the shipment from another transaction or create a manual one.

In this example, both the US imported and CA imported warehouses initially contained 100 units of the automatic robotic vacuum product. We created the following shipment with 105 units of this product. After issuing the shipment, a notification indicates that 5 units were moved from the US imported warehouse to the CA imported warehouse.

The automatic adjustment has been recorded and can be seen in your inventory history screen as shown below.

What's next?

We have explained how to create virtual warehouses and how to install a rule that makes automatic adjustments between those virtual warehouses when creating a shipment. However, you can modify this rule so that this adjustment is triggered when other transactions are created or issued.  For more help with setting up rules, please contact us at support@paragon-erp.com.