What is a location in a building, and how should I set locations up for my warehouse?

A location is a named place inside a building where stock sits, such as a shelf, a bin, or a pallet position. Endless keeps a count for each SKU in each location, and a building’s totals are the sum of its locations.

Each location has a Type, a Zone, and Pickable, Mixing, and Status settings. Type (Bin, Carton, Shelf, Pallet, Cart, User Defined, or External) is a label and does not change how Endless treats the stock. Zone and Pickable do. The zone decides whether stock counts as In Stock and the order in which Endless allocates from locations. Endless allocates only from active, pickable locations.

Use locations for bins and aisles when you manage the building’s stock in Endless and want counts by position. Your team decides where stock goes, and every movement between locations is an adjustment in Endless, so choose a level of detail your team will keep up to date.

For a building a 3PL runs, set “Inventory managed by” to the 3PL’s connection and skip extra locations. Imports update only Default Available and Default Unavailable. Stock you record in other locations is not updated by imports and is added to the 3PL’s counts.

Location names must be unique within a building, and Endless rejects a duplicate with “Another location with the same name already exists.” Different buildings can use the same names.

Mixing is a label, and Endless accepts several SKUs in a location with Mixing turned off. Contact Endless support to discuss enforcing Mixing or setting a maximum capacity for a location.

A scanner that types like a keyboard can enter a SKU or barcode into a search box in Endless, and Endless can print product labels with barcodes for your own scanning tools. Contact Endless support to discuss scanning workflows for receiving, picking, or moving stock.