Stock & Equipment

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Stock vs Equipment

There are two terms used in the system to describe items which can be used on jobs: Stock items and Equipment items.

Stock - these are consumable items, typically small parts, which are sold or used on jobs, eg screws, pipes or bolts.

Equipment - these are typically either items which are allocated to your staff, eg drills or tools, or items owned by the customer which you are maintaining, eg boiler, alarm system.

NB For device-specific information on this area, please read the Stock & Equipment on a Device article.

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Creating Product Categories

Before Stock or Equipment can be used, you must first create Product Categories in the back office. Product Categories are a simple indexing method which allows you to filter and sort your Stock and Equipment and make it easier to find the items you are looking for.

• Navigate to: [Top menu] Profile (icon) → Admin Settings → [side menu] → Stock & equipment → Product categories:

Above you will see some sample categories and an Add option which will open the popup below:

Enter the name of the Product Category you wish to add and press Ok. It is advisable that the number of product categories are kept as small as possible, as this makes it easier to manage Custom Fields.

On occasion, you might need to remove a category's contents. This can be achieved as follows:

• Navigate to: [Top menu] Profile (icon) → Admin Settings → [side menu] → Stock & equipment → Product categories and click on the icon 'Empty category':

You will be given a warning advising that this data will not be recoverable and asking you to confirm by completing a simple maths equation:

Use with caution. This action will remove all stock/equipment in this category from the system, even if it is in use.

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Creating Makes and Models

Once you have created your Product Categories, you then need to create the Makes and Models for the different products you wish to input into the system.

At this point, no actual Stock or Equipment is entered into the system, you are simply adding the information which will be assigned to the products (e.g. Make and model of a boiler).

• To begin, navigate to: [Top menu] Profile (icon) → Admin Settings → [side menu] Stock & equipment → Manage makes & models:

 This screen is split into two parts:

• The upper part of the screen is the Filter.  Here you can look at all of your Product categories or use the filter to select a single Category. When filtering by Product category, you will also have the opportunity to Add, Edit or Delete the category names.
• The lower half displays the products which appear in each category. Press Add to add the new Make and Model. As in all instances in BigChange, only the fields with an * are mandatory but the more information you input, particularly around the financial areas, the more benefit you will get from the system.

1. Select the relevant category of Stock or Equipment for this item.
2. This is the Nominal code which this item relates to.  It is used in your financial package in order to charge for the items when sold or purchased.
3. This is the default Department code for this item, which is used in your financial package in order to charge for the items when sold or purchased.
4. This is the make (E.g. Bosch, HP, CAT etc…) of the item.
5. This is the model of the item concerned (e.g. Latitude, Cooler, Combi Max).
6. The model number for the item. Depending upon your business, being specific here may be essential.  For instance, if there are a number of Bosch Series 8 Washing Machines, the model number WAYH8790GB is needed to identify the exact model you are adding to the system.
7. The Consumable box identifies whether this a consumable item or not. If the item is not uniquely identifiable, such as a bag of bolts, then this would be consumable. If this was a piece of machinery, then it would not be consumable. If this box is ticked, options 10 and 11 below will disappear.
8. This is the volume of the item in M^3.
9. This is the weight of the item in Kg.
10. Since non-consumable items, eg pieces of equipment, tend to be more valuable it may be useful to add a worksheet when they are used to confirm that the job was completed successfully.  For example, if a machine needs servicing, it can be added as a piece of equipment, assigned to a job, and when the item has been successfully serviced, a service sheet will need to be completed before the job can be signed off.
11. Here Worksheets are used in the opposite way, ensuring that the Resource completes a Worksheet explaining why a non-consumable item which was supposed to be used on a job, wasn't or was unsuccessful, eg it could be in need of a service.
12. If the item has a batch or pallet number, this can be added here.
13. If the item has a SKU  this can be added here.
14. If this is an item which customers will purchase, whenever this item is added to a job, the price input here will pull through as a line item on the Financial Documents.
15. The currency you are using.
16. The default VAT percentage applicable to this item
17. If you have any notes you need to add against this item, they can be added here eg 'reorder lead time 30 days'.

Click to Save and you will see that the item has now appeared on your list view. Click on the item again (Edit) to open it and then click on the Suppliers tab (1) on the top right, followed by the (2) Add:

Complete your Supplier popup:

1. The name of the vendor from whom you purchased this item. NB this contact must already be in your Contacts section of the CRM.
2. This is the warranty period in months given by this supplier.
3. This is the cost and currency for this item from this supplier. When this item is added into a job, the cost input here will appear against the line item.  If you added a selling price on the Details tab, then BigChange will also add a margin %. If you have more than one supplier, when adding the item to a job/financial document, the system will prompt you to pick which supplier this was purchased from.

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Adding Stock & Equipment

Creating Items of Stock or Equipment

Once the above steps have been followed, and both Product Categories and Makes and Models have been set up, you can then add items of stock or equipment to the system.

To do this, click the Stock & Equipment tab on the top menu, followed by the 'Add stock or equipment' button:

Now complete the popup window for the item:

1. This is the make and model, as set up in the previous section. If you begin typing the make and model, the system will display all makes and models which match the words you are typing.
2. This is the serial number assigned to item or the barcode.
3. This gives you the opportunity to add, for example, the manufacturer's serial number
4. The serial number used by the Supplier
5. The serial number which the customer attributes to this item. Although numbers 3-5 are non-mandatory, when all are completed they offer complete traceability for the item and make it much easier to find.
6. Select whether you wish to add this item as Stock or Equipment,  bearing in mind that Stock is for items such as nuts and bolts and Equipment is for items such as tools and machines.
7. The Sold or Not Sold status determines whether the cost/selling price is brought through to the Financial Documents when you have added the item to a job.
8. This will help you determine whether the item is New, Used or Refurbished.
9. For items which are chargeable on an hourly, daily or weekly rate, for example, this can be added here; it can also be updated from the tablet.
10. You can select a date that the Stock/Equipment was purchased or created. If you do not enter a date, the system will populate this with today’s date.
11. These are notes for the item. This only appears on serialised items.
12. Here you can select where the Stock/Equipment is located.
13. You can add attachments to the stock from here, eg a photo of the item, or a receipt/delivery note. This is only for non-consumable items.

If a make and model pertaining to consumable items is selected, the options change to the ones pictured below:

 Click to Save.

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Setting a Location for Stock & Equipment

Easily establishing the location of items of Stock or Equipment at any given time is an essential part of stock-keeping. BigChange makes this easy by allowing you to not only keep track of items stored at one of your own sites but also at those of customers, suppliers and on vehicles.

It is even possible to set a location to say that a part has been used on a piece of equipment. Location can either be set at the point of creating an item or added or edited at any point in the item's lifetime.

To edit, select an item of stock or equipment and press Edit.

 You will see that there are 3 options in the Location field:

1. At Contact - this indicates that the item is at a specific Contact location, whether one of your own sites, a customer or a supplier.  You could even choose to set a specific Resource eg engineer as a Contact, indicating that specific tools or equipment are assigned to them
2. On vehicle - rather than at a fixed location, this option allows you to add van stock and can be an alternate method of allocating tools to an individual if they habitually drive the same vehicle. 
3. Allocated to item - Here Stock and Equipment can be allocated to another item eg adding a new part to a machine, by adding the serial number of the machine/equipment it will be added to.  If the part needs replacing, you can raise a job against that item specifically, and if warranty information has been entered, you can view this for the part.

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Assigning Stock & Equipment to Jobs

If you have specific items of Stock &/or Equipment which will be needed on a job, eg for planned maintenance, then these can be easily added by clicking on the 'Stock & Equipment' tab of the 'New Job' popup, toggling between Planned/Actual and Stock/Equipment/Either and then Saved:

Note that 'Actual' will show items which were actually used and will therefore only display items after the job is complete.

Clicking on Add a stock item will open a new popup window:

Additional fields will be displayed depending on the selection you make from the dropdown list. Below are examples of scenarios showing how each option might be used:

1. This could be used for deliveries or installations, where items are taken to the job and left there.
2. This could be used for items used to carry out a job but which are returned to the van/office/depot after the job is complete.
3. This could be used for replaced parts or equipment or collections.
4. This could be used for services or repairs.
5. This can be used for replacement parts or additional installations, eg a new pump on a boiler, or using a diagnostic device on a machine.

The first 4 options follow a similar pattern so we will look at one type as an example:

1. Stock option.
2. The current location of the item, whether it is on a vehicle, or at a Contact.
3. This allows you to identify if this is a single item or a Consignment. If Consignment is selected, the next 3 fields will disappear and you will instead be asked for the Consignment name.
4. If a vehicle was selected in (2), then you should input the make and model here.
5. If you selected Contact in (2) clicking here will show you a list of all items currently at that site so that you can make a selection.
6. For non-consumable items, this is the serial number or barcode of the item. This is not mandatory, and leaving it blank will mean that the specific item to be used is currently ‘unknown’ or could be determined later. For consumable items, this box will change to quantity.
7. If this is selected, the item will appear as a line item for cost and selling price on the Financial Document associated with the Job.

Option 5, Used on equipment, operates slightly differently

1. You must specify here the serial number of the item at the site you will be using the item on (e.g. The boiler).
2. Here you need to specify the make and model of the item you will be using on the piece of equipment (e.g. New pump for a boiler).