Materials tracks stock, cost, and usage per store. It requires the Material Management addition to Core.
Items
A reorder point can be set, and items that fall below it are flagged as low stock.
Unit of measure is worth getting right at creation, because every cost figure in Analytics derives from it.
Transactions
Stock changes are recorded as transactions: Usage, Purchase, Adjustment, Return, and Waste.
Route | Use when |
The Materials page | Reviewing or correcting alongside other work |
The quick transaction button in the side navigation | Logging usage the moment it happens |
Adding a reason or reference, such as an order number, makes history far easier to interpret later.
Transaction history
Every item carries a log of its transactions, which is where a discrepancy between counted and recorded stock is diagnosed. The 50 most recent entries are listed, newest first.
Reservations
Reserving material against upcoming work is not available in Etch Express today. Quantity available moves only when a transaction is recorded, so stock committed to a booked job still counts as available until the usage is logged.
Loading a catalogue
An existing catalogue can be loaded in bulk rather than item by item. See Bulk import materials.