- Overview
- Inventory Presets
- Tracked by S/N
- Model Container
- Unit Container
- Contents Available
- Contents Permanent
- Free Pick Container
- Virtual Item
Overview
The Structure/Availability settings are set for each inventory model in your Flex system. These settings determine how your inventory is structured and how it is prepped and returned during the job scanning process. You can choose which settings are applied to an inventory model as you are creating a new inventory model, or as you are editing an existing inventory model.
Inventory Presets
The Structure/Availability settings include the following presets:
- Serialized Model - This will result in a parent inventory model with all model information (price, replacement cost, suggestions, etc.) and individual serialized units (each unit you own has its own unique barcode).
- Serialized Model w/ Accessories - Same as Serialized Model, but with the addition of a “Contents” tab on the parent model page. Anything put in this “Contents” tab will be considered “Accessories” to the parent inventory model and will automatically add to a Quote with the parent model.
- Serialized Free Pick Container w/ Accessories - Same as Serialized Model w/ Accessories, but with the addition of being able to “open” the item during the scanning process to add units inside of it.
- Serialized Free Pick Storage Container - Same as Serialized Storage, but with the addition of being able to “open” the item during the scanning process to add units inside of it.
- Serialized Package - Same as Serialized Model, but with the addition of being able to make each unit a “container” which can have other units scanned into it.
- Serialized Free Package - Same as Serialized Package, but with the addition of being able to “open” the item during the scanning process to add units inside of it.
- Serialized Storage - Same as Serialized Model, but with the addition of being able to make each unit a “container” which can have other units scanned into it for temporary storage.
- Non Serialized Model - This will result in a parent inventory model with all model information (price, replacement cost, suggestions, etc.), but each unit does not have its own barcode (quantity is controlled by typing in the number that you are scanning in and out).
- Non Serialized Model w/ Accessories - Same as Non Serialized Model, but with the addition of a “Contents” tab on the parent model page. Anything put in this “Contents” tab will be considered “Accessories” to the parent inventory model and will automatically add to a Quote with the parent model.
- Virtual Model - This will result in a “non-physical” inventory item.
- Virtual Package - This will result in a package that is made up of any number of physical inventory items.
When you choose a preset, notice how each setting will change to match the preset settings. Additionally, if you change the individual settings, the preset will change to match any settings changes. This might result in a “Custom” preset, which is fine if you know what each setting does.
Tracked by S/N
Determines whether or not the item is tracked by serial number, or, in other words, whether the item is serialized or non-serialized. If set to “Yes”, the inventory model will be considered a “Serialized Model,” which means each unit of the model that you own will have its own barcode. If set to “No”, the inventory model will be considered a “Non Serialized Model,” which means that each unit of the model will not have its own barcode. Quantity is tracked by typing in a number when scanning items in and out.
A unit doesn’t necessarily need a serial number to be considered serialized. In Flex terminology, “serialized” just means that each unit is tracked separately with a unique barcode.
See Flex5: Serialized vs Non-Serialized for more information.
Model Container
Determines whether or not the inventory model can contain “Contents” or “Accessories”. If this is set to Yes, then you will see a Contents tab on the inventory model page. Items contained in the Contents tab will automatically add to the Quote when the parent model is added.
On the Quote, Flex will add the “Accessories” (or “Contents”) as a child item to the parent inventory model. For example, a speaker might have some XLR cables as accessories, so you would put the XLR cables into the model Contents tab (note: this is not the Contents tab of a serialized unit, but the Contents tab of the parent inventory model). When you add the speaker to a Quote, it will look like this:
Unit Container
Determines whether or not the inventory model’s units can contain other units. This is different than Model Container in that you are actually scanning individual units into a container. Unit Container only works if the item is serialized.
For example, if you have a road case that contains some speakers and accessories, then the case would have its own unique barcode (because it is serialized), and you can “open” that case within Flex and scan things into it. It will look like this in Flex:
When you scan the case out, all of the contents will scan out with it.
Contents Available
Determines whether or not the contents of a unit container are available to rent individually.
Consider the example shared in the Unit Container section (speakers being scanned into a case). If Contents Available is set to Yes in the inventory settings for the case, then the barcodes (the speakers and cables) that are contained inside of one of the case units will still show as available in the schedule. If Contents Available is set to No in the inventory settings for the case, then the barcodes that are contained inside of one of the case units will not show as available in the schedule.
In this example, you likely want Contents Available set to Yes so you can put the lights on the Quote and have availability calculated correctly. But there might be other scenarios when you don’t want the contents of a container to show as available (like an amp rack where you don’t want to rent the amps individually, but as an entire rack).
Contents Permanent
Determines whether or not the contents of a unit container are considered permanent. As mentioned in the example for Unit Container, if a case has items scanned into it, those items will automatically scan out when you scan the case barcode. But it works differently when scanning the case back in.
For example, if you scan out 10 cases and each contains 2 lights, are the same lights going to come back in the same case? Probably not. So you would set the Contents Permanent setting in the case inventory model to No. That way, you would have to scan in each case individually and each light to ensure that you are scanning the correct ones.
For cases that have units bolted in (like an amp rack or video processing rack), you might set the case Contents Permanent setting to Yes. Any unit that is marked as permanent in the case will automatically scan back in when it returns from a job. There is no need to scan each unit individually if it was marked as permanent.
Free Pick Container
Determines whether or not the unit container can be opened during the prep process to add more units into the container. This is a good option when you want to put items into a container on the fly and have them show on the manifest as being inside the container.
Virtual Item
Determines whether or not the inventory model is virtual, meaning a non-physical inventory item.