Equipment and Inventory Manual

Owned by Mahnoor Khan (Deactivated)
Last updated: Sept 22, 2021 by Greg Walsh
8 min read

Module Required

The functionality described below requires that you have the Inventory module enabled in the EngageIP AdminPortal, if the module is not active the options detailed in this article will not be present in your EngageIP installation. Contact your LogiSense [glossary_exclude]account[/glossary_exclude] representative if you wish to discuss adding this module to your installation.

Please see the PDF Equipment Manual for a complete reference on the equipment and inventory system.

Adding Equipment to Users

Once the inventory is in stock in your retail location (i.e. its cleared and all at that location), you can now add a package with equipment attached.

  1. Add a package to a customer account (for instructions see the 'package creation guide')

  2. Select the equipment you wish
    Note: if you do not have the option to select equipment, it means either the equipment component was not added to the package on the setup tab or you have selected NONE in the equipment options. Be sure to select one of the check boxes on the equipment component on the package for 'rent', purchase or lease. This will ensure you have a dropdown of available pieces of equipment when you add the package to a customer account

  3. Click the Save button

Looking up Details on User Equipment

To look up details on equipment associated with a service:

  1. Load the customers account (Overview tab)

  2. Under the Packages heading click on the package name

  3. Under the Services heading click on the service related to the equipment in question

  4. Under the Components heading you will see the Equipment item, with details to the left (including any profile question information if profile questions have been setup for the equipment. See the profile questions configuration guide for information on setting up profile questions)

Looking up Shipping Details

If an item is shipped and shipping is configured on your system, a new report will be available on the Tools tab called 'Shipments'. This will display all current shipments associated to the user. A VOID button is available that will cancel the shipment in EngageIP as well as sending a VOID call out to the courier via their API methods to complete the cancelation of shipment. Associated error messages are provided in the event log should there be any issues processing this with the courier.

Inventory History

Items now include a history of events relating to the inventory item. This is similar to resource item history.

Inventory Status Definitions

The statuses as shown below are ones that apply to inventory items at various times as they progress through the inventory chain. Some are selectable in some cases and not in others where the status change would be considered an invalid change.

Note: As of EngageIP 8.5.10.0 you can control how statuses transition, see the Configuring Inventory Status Transitions section below for details

  • In Stock - this describes an item as being in stock at the warehouse or retail location

  • In Transit - this describes an item as being in transit whether ordered from a supplier to a warehouse or from a warehouse to a retail outlet.

  • CPE - Customer / Client Premise Equipment - This describes a piece of inventory which is marked as being on the customer site. This would be a leased, rented or lent out piece of hardware. The customer has not purchased this outright

  • Lost - This describes the status of a shipment. If you click 'missing' button on a shipment, all items in that shipment will be tagged as 'Lost'.

    • You can follow up with that shipment and 'Receive' the items again which will flip their status again to allow you to proceed and clear them.

    • If you 'Cancel' the shipment, they are tagged as 'Lost' as well and the order will disappear from the screen and is not able to be updated again

  • Sold - this describes an item that was sold to an end customer. Different from CPE status where a CPE would still be owned by the retailer (rental equipment)

  • Defective - This marks an item as defective so that it cannot be sold or processed. Items can only be marked as defective when the item is returned from a customer (on their user package). The reason selected is in this case defective. The status cannot otherwise be changed to defective. Should the item be repaired, you can go to the retail location; click on the item marked as defective and set it to 'in stock' again to be available to user package assignment

  • Obsolete - This marks items as obsolete, i.e. items that will no longer be used. Items 'In Stock' under a warehouse or retailer can be edited and marked as Obsolete. This is used by an admin user when an item is not repairable, i.e.was marked as defective and cannot be fixed. Once Obsolete, the status cannot be changed back

CPE Description

  1. What does CPE stand for?

  • Customer Premise Equipment

2. What does it mean in relation to inventory overall?

  • It means Customer received this equipment in person, retailer didn't ship this equipment, no need worry about this equipment, when it is returned as "Defective" then "Item Status Type" becomes "Defective", you can change the status of this Inventory Item to "In stock". Otherwise it stays as "CPE"

3. Why can you not ship it to the customer after the fact?

  • That is how Inventory Item is designed, you must select "Ship to Customer" at the time you are adding the equipment to user

4. if you don't ship it and you click the return button on it, how do you get its status to change in the retailer location from CPE to in stock again?

  •  If you don't ship it and when it is returned as "Defective" then "Item Status Type" becomes "Defective", you can change the status of this Inventory Item to "In stock" from the specific warehouse.

Notice: If you have an inventory item set as CPE and go to warehouse and attempt to select "In Stock" you will the following error: "Inventory Item StatusType cannot be changed from 'CPE' to 'In Stock' ". It is important that you should always "Ship to Customer" and then clear the supply order for this shipment from the Retailer location

Configuring Inventory Status Transitions

Permissions Required

InventoryStatusTransitions role permission rights will need to be granted to users who need to view, add, delete or edit Inventory Status Transition Types. See the Roles – Adding Roles, Setting Role Permissions and Importing guide for instructions on adding permissions.

Inventory Status Transitions allow you to configure what statuses inventory can transition to, for instance configure the 'In Stock' status to transition to the 'Sold' status. Multiple transitions can be configured, for example 'In Stock' could also be configured to transition to 'In Transit' and/or 'Defective'. Inventory Items added in EngageIP can only be transitioned to status's defined in the Inventory Status Transitions table, e.g. you cannot switch an inventory status from 'CPE' to 'RMA' unless a Inventory Status Transition has been configured permitting the CPE status to transition to RMA.

The steps below detail how to configure Inventory Status Transitions:

  1. Click on the Setup tab

  2. Under the Inventory and Shipping heading click on Inventory Status Transitions

  3. To add a new transition click the Add button

  4. In the From Inventory Item Status Type field click the magnifying glass icon and select the initial status type (for example: In Stock)

  5. In the To Inventory Item Status Type field click the magnifying glass icon and select the status type the inventory item should be allowed to transition to. (for example: Sold)

  6. Check the Enabled box to make the transition type available

  7. Click the Save button or Save/New to add another transition type

Returning an Item / Processing an RMA

Note: If you want to return the equipment and not bill the package on the user, you'll need to also cancel the package once you return the equipment

  1. Create a BIN on the inventory location called 'Returned Equipment' as an example (this will be used to return equipment to so that the equipment is not added to a customers account again)

    • Click the Setup tab

    • Under the heading Inventory and Shipping click Inventory Locations

    • Click on the location name 'Returned Equipment'

    • Under the heading Bins click the Add button on the right hand side

    • Name the Bin Defective Bin and click the Save button

  2. Go to the customer account

  3. Under the Packages heading click on the package name

  4. On the package page under the heading Services click on the service name

  5. On the service page under the heading Components click on the Equipment link

  6. On the edit equipment page click on the Return button

  7. On the Return Equipment page:

    • Enter a reason for the return

    • Check Defective if the item is defective

    • Select the appropriate bin  (if you're using this again, it can go into a standard bin, if its defective and you do not want it used again, select the bin you created in step 1

  8. Click the Save button

  9. Click on equipment again to select another piece of equipment

At this point you can create saved list views on the equipment selection page to filter out the defective bins or simply create a process so that CSRs do not select items in that bin.

Note: when cancelling/returning an item an RMA number is generated.  This number comes from the table "inventorysupplyorder" and represents the ID of the order as it's returned back into inventory

Equipment Hold

Equipment in the pick list can not be 'on hold' similar to Resources hold. This allows one to hold equipment to prevent others from taking it while working on adding packages. Items are held for 30 minutes once picked from list. They can be un-held by going to the inventory list on the setup tab, checking the box beside the held item and clicking unhold.

Reorder Templates

Full detail on reorder templates is in the PDF link at the top of this article.

  • Reorder logic requires the Event Service to be running

  • The reorder occurs when the DAY changes on the system clock of the webserver, the point at which the day flips over to the next day at midnight is when the reorder triggers to determine if reordering is required

  • A new order will be added to the inventory location should the logic determine that a reorder is required

  • Reorder is triggered when the number of items with a status type of 'In Stock' falls to the reorder value. Reorder is not driven or affected by the BIN the item is in or any other configuration

Deleting Bins

Bins can be deleted as long as they are not associated to any inventory. First remove the bin setting from any existing inventory, then you can attempt to delete the bin.