You can set up a virtual warehouse where you track products consigned at a customer's location, owned and maintained by the distributor and replenished through Stock Transfers. In this configuration, the salesperson routinely visits and counts the inventory to determine usage.
Important
DDI recommends consulting with DDI Customer Care before adding or modifying any warehouse settings.
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Add a customer consignment warehouse
- Go to File > Company > Warehouse.
- Click New.
- The system assigns the next sequential warehouse code. Complete the Short Name and Address information. We recommend that this information match the customer information.
Note: DDI-DSPro recommends reserving numbers 1-19 for traditional warehouses and using numbers 20 and above for consignment warehouses.
- From the Warehouse Type list, choose Consign to Customer. The Consign to Customer Options appear.
- In the Customer box, type the customer number of the customer where the merchandise will be consigned.
- In the Consign Whse box, click
and choose the warehouse from which you are retrieving consignment products.
- Click Save.
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Choose which products to consign
- With the Customer Consignment Warehouse open, as described above, click the Consignment Product tab.
- Click Edit.
- Click Add Consignment Product.
- In the new Consignment Product row that appears, type the Product number that you want to consign, including the Min Quantity and the Max Quantity that you want to keep in stock. When inventory drops below the Min Quantity, stock should be transferred from the replenishment warehouse to the customer site.
- Optionally, use the Transfer Lead Time Days tab to set the number of days it takes to fulfill stock transfers between warehouses. This helps in calculating delivery dates for consignment products. Dates display on the Inventory tab in the Sales Order screen (under the Detail tab)
- Repeat for all products that you want to add.
- Click Save.
- With the Customer Consignment Warehouse open, as described above, click the Consignment Product tab.
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Add products to the customer consignment warehouse
Create a stock transfer to fill initial quantities at the consignment warehouse. As products are sold, you will create additional stock transfers to replenish consignment products
- Go to Inventory > Stock Transfer > Stock Transfer Entry.
- Transfer stock from your primary warehouse to your customer consignment warehouse. You may have to manually type the consignment warehouse into the To Warehouse box, rather than select it from the list.
- To automate the transfer based on minimum and maximum quantities you configured, click the Customer Consignment Replenishment button, and then click OK on the confirmation message that appears. The Stock Transfers area prefills the list of products to transfer to the consignment warehouse (based on your entries on the Consignment Product tab in the Warehouse Master).
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The Print Document screen opens. Print two copies of the stock transfer. Give one to the customer, and ask them to sign the second copy so that you can file it for your records.
- With the Stock Transfer Entry screen still open, click the Receiving button on the bottom left.
- Click Edit. In Received By, type your initials. Then click Receive All at the bottom left of the screen to receive all products into the consignment warehouse immediately.
- Click Save
- For more information, see Transfer stock between warehouses.
- Go to Inventory > Stock Transfer > Stock Transfer Entry.
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Run the Inventory Value Report
This report shows the dollar value of the inventory at the consignment warehouse. See Inventory Value report
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Track inventory
Typically a salesperson counts the inventory during on site customer visits. The salesperson can run a quick physical inventory on the consignment warehouse and print a worksheet to record the counts of products to bill the customer for and which ones to replenish. When you run this inventory, do not click Update. Simply print the sheet and bring it with you.
For more information, see Run physical inventory .
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Create the sales order
Bill the customer for parts sold based on what you counted at the consignment warehouse.
- Go to Sales > Sales Order > Sales Order.
- Choose the consignment Customer.
- Make sure you select the consignment warehouse in the Warehouse box, so that the inventory comes out of that warehouse.
- On the Detail tab enter the products that were sold.
- Click Save.
- On the Final tab, click the Create Invoice button.
- Click Exit.
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Create a Stock Transfer to Replenish Inventory
To replenish the inventory that was sold, create a stock transfer as you did to fill initial quantities at the warehouse, and continue with the remaining sections of this document. This will now become an ongoing process whenever you replenish inventory at the consignment warehouse.