Understanding Default and Stock Locations in AssetSonar

AssetSonar’s IT asset tracking software enables you to assign items to specific locations. It offers unlimited location nesting, meaning you can track items from a country to a state, city, street, warehouse, all the way down to a single shelf.

Asset Stock and Inventory may be assigned two location types; Default Locations and Stock Locations. These two item types are tracked in bulk, which is why it is possible for items within the same Inventory or Asset Stock category to be spread out across different locations.

Default Location

A Default Location can be set when you first add an item, say Asset Stock from Items → Asset Stock → Add Asset Stock. It can also be changed through the ‘Edit’ button at a later time from the Item’s details page. You can access this within the ‘Extended Information’ section.

A Default Location gets selected automatically whenever you Add or Remove stock to or from an existing Asset Stock or Inventory item, or if you Reserve stock for future use. This will be especially helpful if most of the activity happens to take place in that location, helping make the process much quicker.

For example, below we’ve reserved an inventory item with the Default Location set to NYC Warehouse. This automatically shows up in the ‘New Reservation’ overlay under ‘Location’ drop-down.

Stock Locations

A Stock Location enables specificity when you log in Asset Stock or Inventory details. Of course, a Default Location is a Stock Location, too. Stock Locations enable you to have an up-to-date bird’s eye view of all the different places your items are located, helping you manage items across locations. These are displayed under ‘Quantity by Location’ on an item’s detail page.

Transferring and Retiring Stock

You can also transfer Inventory and Asset Stock from one Stock Location to another. This can be enabled from Settings → Add Ons:

To transfer stock, open a particular Asset Stock or Inventory item, and go to the More dropdown menu in the top right corner:

Of course, you don’t always have to choose a location when adding or transferring stock, choosing instead to opt for the blank field. In this case, the stock will be added to a general pool of stock, displayed below:

However, if all your stock has been assigned to specific locations, you must choose where you want the stock to be transferred from:

You can also retire stock from specific locations. Do this from the ‘Retire stock’ button on the Item’s details page, opening up this overlay:

Again, if you don’t specify a location and have a generic pool of items, the stock will be deducted from this pool. The same logic applies when checking out Asset Stock.

Low Stock and Location Thresholds

A Low Stock Threshold can be assigned for any Asset Stock or Inventory item. An email alert will be sent to you when the total stock quantity hits a specific number, helping you plan ahead.

A Location Threshold is similar but is assigned to alert you to the total stock quantity at any location hitting a certain value. These can be changed from Edit → Extended Information:

In the example above, you will be alerted when the total stock quantity is 10, or when the stock in any of the three locations hits 5.

Visual Data

All Stock Locations created can be seen on a map from the Locations tab. Clicking a map pin will make it expand into the next set of nested locations. Hovering over this will give you a quick summary of all the items and stock quantities present at that location.