Overview
How the inventory catalog, article planning, and material issues work together
The inventory system connects article records with time-based planning. It answers three different questions:
- What do we own? – articles, quantities, statuses, properties, and individually tracked items in the catalog.
- When is it available? – internal and external reservations in article planning.
- Who or which project received it? – internal material issues and external loan slips.
A material issue does not reduce the recorded total stock. It reserves the selected quantity for its period, allowing the same article to be planned before and after it while overlapping demand becomes visible as overbooking.
The “Inventory system” menu
| Menu entry | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Inventory | Search, filter, view, create, and edit articles |
| Article planning | Review quantities per day and see material issues on a timeline |
| Material issues | Create, edit, and trace internal project issues and external loan slips |
Under System, Inventory configures categories, properties, statuses, tags, and display rules, while Material sets manages reusable article combinations.
Core concepts
| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Article | A type of material with a shared description and total quantity, such as “wireless system model X”. |
| Individually trackable | Every physical unit can have its own properties, status, and inventory number. |
| Status | Splits stock by condition or usability, such as ready, permanently installed, or retired. |
| Property | A configured field such as purchase date, power, serial number, file, room, or manufacturer. |
| Material issue | A time-limited reservation of catalog articles and custom items. |
| Internal issue | Material for a project, room, or internal responsible people. |
| External issue | A loan slip with recipient details, material value, and return information. |
| Material set | Reusable list of articles and standard quantities; not yet a reservation. |
| Product basket | Personal temporary collection from which a material issue can be created. |
Typical workflow
Pages in this section
Inventory Catalog & Articles
Search, filter, create articles, maintain quantities and statuses, individual items, and the product basket.
Article Planning
Read timeline availability, compare internal and external issues, and resolve overbooking.
Material Issues
Create internal issues and external loan slips, select articles, document returns, and use the log.
Inventory settings
Configure categories, properties, statuses, tags, and inventory numbers.
Material sets
Prepare recurring article collections and use them in issues.
Permissions
| Permission | Typical effect |
|---|---|
| Create & edit inventory | Maintain articles and their data |
| Delete inventory | Move articles to the trash |
| Inventory disposition | Manage article planning and material issues |
| Manage inventory settings | Manage categories, properties, statuses, tags, and general settings |
| Create & edit sets | Create and change material sets |
| Delete sets | Remove material sets |
| View material issue log | Open the cross-project change history |
Individual tags can additionally be restricted to selected users or departments. Permission to edit an article does not automatically permit assigning or removing every protected tag.
What this is not
Artwork plans availability and documents issues. An issue is not a purchase, depreciation, or accounting stock movement. Status and return information must be updated deliberately when the real condition of an article changes.