Inventory

If you stock machines or shelves from a warehouse, Inventory keeps track of what you have and what you need. It shows what's on hand, what your machines need, and what's on order. It also handles purchase orders from vendors, pick lists for drivers, and stock counts. Every change to stock is recorded with who made it and why, so the numbers always add up.

Inventory is an add-on. Once your company has it, the left menu gets a Sales & Inventory section (see Sales & Inventory), with stock, pick lists, counts and machines under its items. Admins choose who sees it in Settings → Roles & access, in the chart's Users column: All users, Only users I choose or Hidden. To try it first, an Admin can start a free trial (see Add-on free trials).

Set up

1. Open Sales & Inventory → Setup (the Machines tab if you also have Lightspeed) and add your warehouses.
2. Add the routes your drivers run. Each route is restocked from one warehouse.
3. Add tax types if your machines charge sales tax, for example Snack 8.25% and Water 0%.
4. Import your machines' stock (below). Each machine and product in the file is added for you.
5. Back in Setup, give each machine a route and a nickname people recognize. A machine with no route can't be restocked, because TicketStacker doesn't know which warehouse it comes from.

Your own warehouse and route details

Want to keep more about a warehouse or route, like a gate code, a lease end date or the driver's day? Admins add the fields once in Settings → Custom fields (Warehouses or Routes), or with the link under each list on Setup. Then each warehouse and route on Setup shows its details under its name. Click More details to fill them in and click Save details. When you add a new warehouse or route, click + More details to fill them in as you add it.

Import files

Sales & Inventory → Setup → Import takes three kinds of file, as CSV or Excel:

• Machine stock: what's in each machine and what it needs, from your vending system.
• Products and stock: a product list or stock sheet. Pick a warehouse to also set reorder levels and on-hand counts. Blank cells leave what's there alone.
• Packs and bundles: the packs you buy. List what's inside as "UPC:qty, UPC:qty", or use one row per product.

TicketStacker finds the row with the column names and guesses which column is which. Check the guesses, change any that are wrong, and look at the first rows as TicketStacker reads them. Tick Save these columns as a format named and give it a name. The next file with the same columns uses that format automatically.

For SandStar, the easiest way is the SandStar connector, which brings machine stock (and sales) in every night. To do it by hand instead, go to Report Management → Inventory Report in SandStar VMS, search with no filters, export it, and download the file from Notifications. Its columns (Name, Barcode, Freezer Name, Max Capacity, Current Inventory, To Be Replenished) are recognized for you. Each machine in the file is replaced by what the file says. Items no longer in a machine are marked removed, so nobody restocks them. The Overview shows each machine's fill level and when the stock was last imported.

Sales

Sales shows what the coolers sold by product, machine and day, reconciled to SandStar's own reports. See Vending sales.

Stock

Sales & Inventory → Inventory → Stock lists every product in a warehouse:

• On hand: what's in the warehouse. It turns red and says Low when it's at or below the reorder point.
• Machines need: what the machines this warehouse restocks are waiting for, from the last import.
• On order: units on purchase orders that haven't come in yet.
• Reorder at / up to: the reorder point and the level to order back up to, in units. Type them right in the table.

Click a product to change its details: UPC, size, vendor, units per box, box price, price in machines and tax type. Look up fills in the name and size from free product databases. When products came in with only a barcode for a name, Fill in names on the Stock page looks them all up. Both also bring the product's picture when the database has one, so you can see the item on Stock, purchase orders, pick lists and counts. A wrong picture can be taken off with Remove picture. The free lookups have limits; if they say to slow down, the rest are filled in later or after the next sync. The product page also shows each warehouse's count and every stock change, with who made it and why. To fix a count by hand, use Correct the count and say why.

Products

Sales & Inventory → Products → Products lists everything you sell, with its picture, size, UPC, price, cost and margin, how many machines carry it, how many are in those machines against their capacity, the warehouse count, and what sold in the last 30 days. Search by name, UPC, size or vendor, or show only products with No picture, those with No sales in 30 days, or Archived ones. Click a product to open it.

SandStar sends only names and barcodes, so after each sync and each import TicketStacker looks the barcodes up in free product databases and adds any missing picture and size. Your product names never change. To look them up right away, click Find missing pictures. Short 8-digit barcodes on cans are also tried as their full 12-digit UPC.

Packs and bundles

A pack is how you buy something: a 24-pack of one drink, or a variety pack with several products. On Sales & Inventory → Products → Packs, click + New pack and give it a name, vendor and price. Add what's inside by searching or scanning, with how many of each. The vendor's item number is optional; it helps match receipts. Ordering a pack and receiving it stocks every product inside. A pack's cost is spread evenly over its units.

Order from vendors

1. On Stock, pick a warehouse and click Order stock, or open Purchase orders and click New purchase order.
2. Everything that's low is already added, with enough to get back up to its reorder level, counting what's already on order. For each item, choose how it's bought under "Buy as": its own box, or a pack that holds it. Low items that share a pack become one pack line, with enough packs for the item that needs the most. Search or scan to add more items or packs, change the amounts, or remove lines.
3. Click Create purchase order. You get one order per vendor, each starting as a draft.
4. On the draft, check box prices and fill in shipping, tax, the vendor's order number and how you paid. Then click Mark as ordered.
5. When the delivery arrives, type how many boxes came in on each line and click Receive, or scan each item under "Receive by scanning". Stock goes up right away. If more boxes came than you ordered, TicketStacker asks why. If the boxes have a best-by date, fill in Best by next to the count before you click Receive. When scanning, set the date once next to "best by" and every scan after that gets it, until you change it. The date is optional (see Best-by dates).
6. Click Close order when nothing more is coming. Each item that came up short needs a reason.

Closing saves each product's landed cost: the box price plus its share of shipping, tax and other charges, spread evenly over every box, divided by the units in a box.

Admins can add your own fields to every purchase order, like a delivery window or who approved it, in Settings → Custom fields → Purchase orders. They show in a More details card at the bottom of each order: fill them in and click Save details. Anyone who can work purchase orders can fill them in. Filled-in details also show under each order on Purchase orders.

Turn a receipt into an order

Bought it at the store already? On Purchase orders, click Add a receipt. Pick the warehouse it went to, then take a photo of the receipt or upload a PDF invoice.

TicketStacker reads the vendor, receipt number, date, tax, shipping, discounts and each line, then suggests the product or pack for each line. Check the matches, quantities and prices, untick lines you don't want, and click Make purchase order. If everything is there, leave "receive everything into stock and close the order" ticked. The receipt is kept with the order, and the matches you confirm are remembered for that vendor, so the next receipt matches by itself.

Each company can read up to 25 receipts a day. After that, make the purchase order by hand or add the receipt the next day.

Restock machines with a pick list

1. Click Restock machines on the Overview, or Restock route next to a route. Tick the machines, choose Pre-kit from par and sales (what each machine will sell before its next visit, up to its par, plus what to bring back) or Use SandStar's restock numbers (back to full), then click Make pick list. See Par levels and pre-kit.
2. In the warehouse, scan each unit as you pick it, or type the number picked. Warehouse view adds up each item across machines. By machine shows each machine's items for the driver. When the machine has a planogram, each item also shows the slot it goes in (like Slot A3). Drivers can work the run from their phone with Driver view.
3. Remove lines you won't send.
4. Click Submit pick list. The picked units come out of the warehouse, once. Submitting twice can't happen.

Audit a warehouse

An audit is a count of everything in a warehouse. Click Audit stock on the Stock page, or pick a warehouse under Inventory → Audits. If your company has one warehouse, the audit lists every product, even ones that so far are only in machines; with several warehouses it lists what each warehouse stocks. Type each count or scan units to count them. Scanning a product that isn't on the list adds it. Add a note to any item (for example, two damaged). If you check dates while you count, put the earliest date on the shelf under Best by. When you finish, all the units you counted for that item take that date. Save progress lets you finish later; starting the same warehouse again picks it back up. Finish audit sets each counted item to what you counted. Items left blank stay as they are. Each audit has a number, and finished audits show how many items were counted and what was over and short.

Best-by dates

Food and drinks go out of date, so TicketStacker can keep track of best-by dates. You don't have to: without dates, everything works as before. Dates come from two places:

• Receiving: the Best by date you enter on a purchase order applies to the units that came in.
• Audits: the Best by date you enter on a counted item applies to all the units you counted, and replaces the dates kept for that item in that warehouse.

The oldest stock goes out first. When stock leaves a warehouse (a pick list, a correction or an audit), the units with the earliest dates leave first. A warehouse never shows more dated units than it has on hand. When you submit a pick list, each machine gets the dates of the units picked for it. As a machine sells, its oldest dates go first. Dates go away when an item is taken out of the machine.

Stock shows each item's earliest date under its on-hand count. A machine's page shows the earliest date for each item.

Expiring soon

Inventory → Expiring lists stock that's past its best-by date or will be within two weeks. You can also open it with Expiring soon on Stock, or with Expiring soon in this machine on a machine's page. Show it By warehouse or By machine, and pick All, Expired, This week or Next 2 weeks. Each line shows how many units have that date and how many days are left (or how long ago it expired). Pull those first when you pick or visit.

Alerts

TicketStacker watches your machines and warehouses and tells you when something needs attention:

• No sales: a vending machine that sold something in the last 30 days but hasn't sold anything in the last 24 hours (or the number of hours you choose). It might be off, offline or broken.
• Low stock: a vending machine under 60% full (or the percentage you choose).
• Sold out: an item in a machine with none left.
• Cash low: an ATM at or under its low cash alert (see Machines).
• Below reorder point: a warehouse item at or below its reorder point.
• Expiring: stock in a warehouse or machine that's past its best-by date or will be within a week.

A machine's alerts show on its card on Machines and at the top of its page. Sales & Inventory → Setup → Alerts lists everything that needs attention right now. Click an alert to go where you fix it. The Sales & Inventory Overview counts the same things, so the numbers always agree.

Admins set the thresholds on Setup → Alerts: Hours without a sale and Low stock under (% full). Click Save alert settings. Everyone with Inventory can see them.

Alerts under the bell and by email

Once an hour, each new alert becomes a notice under the bell. You get one notice per machine (or warehouse) and kind of alert, not a new one every hour. If it clears and happens again, you get a new notice. Admins get these notices to start with. Anyone with Inventory can turn them on or off in Settings → Notifications under Machine alerts, with Machine alerts under the bell. Turn on A daily email of open machine alerts to also get one email at 7 AM (company time) listing everything still open. It only goes to your team, never outside the company.

Scanners

Any Bluetooth or USB barcode scanner that types the code and presses Enter works anywhere on the Inventory pages. You don't need to tap into a box first, and your phone's keyboard stays out of the way. If a box like a quantity has focus when you scan, the barcode is taken back out of it, so it never ends up in a count.

• On Stock, scanning opens that product, or starts a new one with the barcode filled in.
• On packs, new orders, receiving, pick lists and counts, scanning adds or counts the item.

On Android phones, Use camera scans with the camera instead.