Blogs, Warehousing
Optimize your inventory management with journals in 3PL Dynamics
Date
10 October, 2024
Reading time
5min. reading time
When managing a warehouse, accurate inventory management is essential. Journals play a crucial role in this. They ensure that all stock movements are recorded correctly and give you complete control over what is happening in the warehouse. But how does a journal work and how does it affect your inventory management? In this blog, we will explain how to create a journal, the different types of journals, and how they help to correct errors and optimize inventory.
Two ways to create a journal
There are two ways to create a journal: automatically through stock movements or manually when you want to make specific changes.
1. Automatically through inventory movements
Journals are created automatically when inventory changes occur. For example, during inbound, outbound or when items are moved. These changes are recorded in the item ledger entries, which you can think of as the “hard drive” of your system. When tracking a change, it is therefore important to consult the item ledger entries.
Tip: Item ledger entries provide a complete overview of all inventory changes. Want to know what happened to your inventory? Always check the item records for a detailed view.
How do I recognize item ledger entries?
When viewing items, it is important to note the sequence number (order of entries), the entry date, and the document number. The document number indicates in which document or journal the mutation took place. You can enter the document number yourself in a manual journal entry. Often journals are not immediately recognized because the numbering is unknown. This numbering can be found in the “3PL Warehouse Settings”. These settings provide a default numbering if no document number is specified in the journal.
2. Creating a journal manually
Sometimes it is necessary to create a journal manually. For example, you may want to change a field in the lot content or carrier content, perform a physical inventory, or record an administrative movement.
When do I use a journal?
There are several types of journals, each with a specific function.
Physical Inventory Carrier Journal (3PL)
You use this journal when you want to keep track of the weight or number of items in your inventory. For example, if you discover that there are more boxes or pieces on a pallet than administratively recorded, you can use the “Number (Inventory)” field to correct the numbers.
If you want to use an inventory journal correctly, you can use the “Phys. Inventory Carrier Journal (3PL)” instruction.
Item Transfer Journal
This journal is useful when you want to physically move inventory or change fields in inventory data. For example, if a mistake was made when entering a container number, you can correct it through the Item Transfer Journal by adjusting the “New Container No.” field.
When you use a item transfer journal, you do this through a transfer proposal. For complete instructions, see the Item Transfer Journal Learn page.
Item Journal
The Item Journal allows you to easily add new inventory to the system. You can do this by importing inventory from Excel or by entering it directly from the item journal. Be sure to create a carrier in the system before posting inventory.
In addition, the Item Journal provides the ability to correct previously charged off inventory. For example, if you accidentally charged off a carrier, you can easily correct it by making the appropriate adjustment in the Item Journal.
Before entering corrections in an item journal, be sure to fill in all the fields accurately. Extra attention to detail is crucial here to avoid making accounting errors. Complete instructions can be found on the Item Journal 3PL Learn page.
How are Lot Content Rules created?
A lot can consist of several pallets (carriers). When you change fields in a journal and the system does not find existing inventory that matches the change, a new lot content rule is created. By default, the system looks at the following fields:
- Customer Item No.
- Retention Loan No.
- Production date
- Expiration date
- External lot number
- Carrier Type Code
- Customs Code
- All characteristics
- Item condition
- Quantity per carrier
- Vessel number
- Container number
- Date of freezing
- Country of origin
- DG Feature set ID
- Document Feature set ID
- Assignment Feature set ID
- Branch Code
- Unit Code
For example, if you change a field such as container number in the transaction journal and it does not match the existing lot, a new row is created.
Note: If you change characteristic fields, a new lot will be created if you have the customer item match method enabled. Do you want to avoid this? Then set the New Lot No. field to the existing lot. If you post the same lot again and all fields match, the lot content lines will be automatically merged.
The configuration and examples shown in this post are provided “AS IS”. Therefore, no guarantees and no further rights can be derived from this. (Read our disclaimer)