Managing stock transfers between warehouses

[steveblamey]

At the moment warehouse transfers are handles by setting up a 'manual' stock transaction.

However, when transferring stock in a formal multi-warehouse operation there will be a need to generate paperwork (perhaps a special form of Despatch Note) which would then be tied in to receiving the stock at the destination warehouse - Goods Received.

There would need to be a way of identifying stock in transit for gegraphically distant locations

Warehouses (Stores) would also need to be associated with a shipping company address.

For SDL a warehouse transfer is transferred from the point of view of the "out" location. This means that it is (almost) like a sales order only it is not tied to a customer and not invoiced once completed.

Obviously the transfer 'header' would need a 'transfer from' and a 'transfer to' location and pick up the addresses from the store (which is tied to a shipping address id of the main company). Lines just need a part no and qty to be transferred. A despatch note could be printed once the transfer is "requested" and when the paperwork is printed the despatch can be confirmed in the normal way and the stock moved.

The reason for the simplicity is that SDL don't have staff at the "other" location so there is no need to have an "in transit" locatio - the goods can be deemed to have moved to the other location immediately.

In more comlicated scenarios there may have to be ian intermediate "in transit" location with a receiving function at the other end.

[steveblamey]

Dave did some work on this and the code may be kicking around in the tree somwhere

Here are his comments...

The setting up of the transfer is done from the manufacturing links. There are three statuses; 'N' for a new transfer (awaiting transfer), 'C' for cancelled, and 'T' for transferred. A transfer has a header and one or more lines. A transfer can be edited/cancelled if its status is 'N'. It is possible to view details for all status of transfers from here.

The 'despatch handling' of the transfer is done from the 'despatch' quick links. Only transfers with status 'N' (awaiting transfer) are listed; clicking on a transfer number will display the detail lines and give the option to action the transfer. Clicking on this option will set the status of the header to transferred, create the transaction pair for each detail line, update the balance locations and display the screen for printing the transfer note.

It is also possible to view the list of transfers that have been despatched from the 'despatch' links.

[steveblamey]

The code Dave wrote (if it made it into the master branch at all) probably doesn't work any more as I think the despatching system has changed a lot - can we review the code at some point to make sure it fits in with the despatching/SO system.

[steveblamey]

I've had a look at this code and I am re-opening the issue for further discussion as I think it will be useful ;-)

The code described above did make into uzERP but it is quite broken. There are two places to look;

• the manufacturing module - containing the UI for adding transfers/lines
• and the despatch module - containing the UI for processing the transfers

These two could be consolidated.

Issues with the current code;

• Adding lines to a new transfer is impossible, the JS breaks and the transfer will not save due to an error about a missing transfer header
• Not sure why adding transfer lines uses a different UI behaviour to other line based records, like sales orders
• Various views in the despatch module don't filter transferred and awaiting transfer
• Viewing transfer lines in the despatch module views shows all lines for all transfers in every case
• Transfer notes do not print
• Many other error checking issues and fragility

I have a hacky branch that allows transfers to be saved, enables transfers to be actioned, etc.