Issues (GIN)

An Issue (also called a GIN, goods issue note) records stock leaving a warehouse to fulfil a request. Creating one only records what's wanted; a separate picking step is what actually takes the stock, and issuing it finalises the movement.

#Before you start

• Set up at least one Warehouse before creating an issue — the create form's Warehouse field is required.
• Access to Issues is controlled by the View, Create, Edit and Delete permissions for Issues (each as all records or own records — own records means issues you created). You need View to see the list and a profile, Create to raise an issue, Edit to change, pick and dispatch it, and Delete to delete a draft.
• Issues › Override picking is a separate permission. It lets a person pick stock that the picking rules would otherwise refuse: stock taken out of the product's picking order when your organization's picking rule is Enforce, and stock that has expired or has less shelf life left than the product's customers need. A reason is required each time, and it is kept with the pick. It never allows picking more than a line needs: a serial unit, which is picked whole, that holds more than the line still needs is listed under Not offered and cannot be picked for that line. Nor does it allow stock that can't be picked safely: a unit whose quantity an earlier version stored in an old format, or whose records don't add up (what is left doesn't match what it received less what was taken), is listed under Not offered with the reason and is never picked here, whole or in part. Stock whose quantity was saved as text but reads as a number is picked whole or in part like any other.

#The Issues list

Open Warehouse > Issues. The list shows the issues you have permission to view, newest first. 3PL issues are not listed here; they are managed in 3PL.

Select the filter icon in the toolbar to narrow the list by Warehouse, Stage, Customer and a date range, then select Apply filters. When your organization has business units, the filter also offers Business unit: All business units, your main business only, or a unit with its sub-units. Without a choice, the list starts with the unit chosen in the header. The card title shows the filters in use, including the business unit. The list shows the newest 2,000 issues that match; when there are more, it says so — narrow the filters.

The buttons above the table copy, download (CSV, Excel, PDF) or print the rows shown, and choose which columns to show.

#Issues from sales orders

A sales order sent for fulfilment arrives here as a draft issue for its customer, with the order's name as the description and the order's business unit. You pick and dispatch it like any other; the sales order shows what was delivered as you go.

When your organization lets the warehouse decide when sales orders are issued, they wait on Sales requests instead. While any are waiting, the Issues list shows "N sales orders are waiting for a GIN." with a Sales requests button. The Sales requests list shows each order's number (select it to open the order, if you can view it), customer, warehouse, number of lines, total quantity, when it was requested and, with business units, the order's unit. Select Create GIN to raise the draft issue for that order; it opens straight away. You need Issues › View to see the list and Issues › Create to create the issue.

#Raise an issue

1. From the Issues list, select the Create icon.
2. Complete the header fields below.
3. Add a line for each product: search for it by SKU, code or name, then enter the Quantity and an optional Memo. The product list shows how much saleable stock the chosen warehouse holds. Select Add line for another product, up to 200 lines.
4. Select Save in the toolbar.

#What happens when you save

The issue is saved as a Draft at stage Open, and its profile opens. No stock moves until it is picked. 3PL products can't be added to an issue here; they are issued in 3PL.

An issue of a business unit that is, or sits under, a separate legal entity is numbered in that entity's own sequence and shows its prefix, for example PH-812; every other issue continues your organization's numbers.

#Change or delete an issue

While an issue is a draft and nothing on it has been picked, its profile offers Edit and Delete:

• Edit opens the same form. If someone else saved the issue after you opened it, your save is refused — reload the page to see their changes, then make yours again.
• Delete removes the issue.

You can move a draft to another business unit in the same legal entity. Once picking has started, its business unit can't change either.

Once picking has started, the issue can no longer be edited or deleted. Undo the picks first if it must change (see Pick an issue).

#The issue profile

Open an issue from the list. The toolbar shows the issue number and the actions you can take now: Edit and Delete while nothing is picked, Pick (the Pick scan screen for this issue) and Pick sheet while it is open, Dispatch once something is picked, and Print.

The panel on the left shows the customer, warehouse, dispatch bin (warehouses with location management), date, status (Draft or Dispatched), stage, when and by whom it was dispatched, the vehicle and note, who created it and where it came from: Warehouse (raised here), Sales order (raised by Sales) or Other. With business units, it also shows the Business unit, with its legal entity in brackets when that is another unit.

• Lines shows each product with the quantity ordered, picked and short, and a progress bar. While a line still needs stock, Pick opens its desk pick page. After a short dispatch, a short line also shows its reason.
• Picked units shows every stock unit picked so far: its batch, expiry, quantity, the bin it came from, and who picked it when. A unit picked out of the product's picking order shows Off order; one picked with the override shows Override: and the reason given. If you can view stock, the unit's code opens its page. Before dispatch, Unpick puts a unit back on hand (see Undo a pick).

A dispatched issue note also shows a Returns card listing the customer returns recorded against it (you need Customer returns › View), and Record return on the toolbar (needs Customer returns › Create) opens a new return for it with its units listed.

#Pick an issue

Picking takes the goods for each line from stock. Open the issue and select Pick next to a line to pick it at a desk, or print the Pick sheet to pick on paper. How OCTO Ops chooses which stock to offer, what it never offers, and how overrides work are described in Picking.

Picking lowers the stock on hand at once; the goods are recorded as having left only when the issue is dispatched. To undo a pick before dispatch, select Unpick next to the unit under Picked units.

#Dispatch an issue

Dispatching is the issue's final step: the picked goods leave the warehouse.

1. Open the issue and select Dispatch in the toolbar.
2. Optionally enter the Vehicle number (up to 50 characters) and a Note (up to 500 characters).
3. If any line is short — less was picked than ordered — the dialog lists the short lines. Enter a Reason for the short dispatch (up to 500 characters); it is required.
4. Select Dispatch. The button stays greyed out until the dispatch has finished, so selecting it twice sends it only once.

The issue becomes Dispatched, every picked unit is recorded as having left the warehouse, and each short line keeps its short quantity and the reason. A stock unit that is now empty is marked as used up, unless another issue still has a pick on it: it is marked when that pick is dispatched too. A dispatched issue can no longer be changed, picked or unpicked.

While one person is dispatching an issue, nobody else can edit, delete, pick, unpick or dispatch it. If that dispatch stops part-way (for example, the connection drops), the same person can select Dispatch again to finish it; anyone else can after 10 minutes. Stock already recorded as having left is never issued twice.

#Issue from scanned stock

There is a second way to create an issue, used when the stock has already been scanned rather than requested through the form above. It creates the issue and moves the stock out in the same step, matching stock by its scanned identity. A scanned lot with nothing available is skipped rather than stopping the rest of the scan.

#Print an issue and the pick sheet

Both open in the print layout, with Switch to Dot Matrix (or Switch to Regular) and a print icon at the top.

• Print (the toolbar's print icon) opens the delivery note: each line with the quantity ordered and, beneath it, the batch, expiry and quantity of every unit picked for it, with signature lines for the warehouse office and manager.
• Pick sheet opens a printable list of the stock suggested for every line still to pick, in the order of a walk through the warehouse, with a tick box per row and the bin to take the goods to. A line with nothing that can be offered shows "Nothing can be offered". If a product has more than 2,000 units on hand in the warehouse, the sheet says the list is cut short and not everything that can be offered is shown.

Below the list, Not offered shows the units of those products that are not suggested, and why:

• Expired stock, and stock with less shelf life left than the product's customers need, can be picked only with a reason, by someone who holds Issues › Override picking. These rows say "(override with a reason)".
• Every other unit listed — a unit that must be picked whole and holds more than the line needs, a unit whose records don't add up, a unit whose quantity is stored in an old format, or a unit whose expiry date can't be read — can't be picked for the issue, even with the override. These rows say "(can't be picked)".

With business units, both show the issue's Business unit; neither prints a letterhead. The delivery note's signature line names the legal entity of the issue's business unit when it has one, otherwise your organization.

#3PL issues

Issues raised in 3PL open read-only here with the notice "Managed in 3PL" and no actions. Pick and dispatch them in 3PL. They have no pick sheet.

#Errors you may see

#Current limitations

• Picking and issuing stock here does not check whether a Sales order has already reserved that stock — see Stock availability in the Sales guide.
• Only a draft issue with nothing picked can be deleted.
• There is no separate barcode/QR intake screen beyond the ordinary create form and the scanned-stock issue described above.