One warehouse management tool that NetSuite provides is bins. Bins are designated locations within a warehouse. Being able to track items by their location is an immense asset to warehouses. Let’s take a look at how NetSuite bin management works.
Setting Up NetSuite Bin Management
First, you need to ensure that the features you need are turned on in your NetSuite account. There are two features that are connected with bin management. Both of these features can be enabled under the Inventory section of the Items & Inventory tab in Enable Features.
- Bin Management: This feature is the most basic of the two features. With it, you will be able to associate item records with bins and track item locations based on the bins they are connected to.
- Advanced Bin/Numbered Inventory Management: This feature allows you to apply bin management to lot and serial numbered items. You can associate bins on transactions without needing to connect bins to the individual item records first.
Through the rest of this article, we’ll be focusing on the basic Bin Management feature. For more information on Advanced Bin/Numbered Inventory Management, check out this Help Center article on the topic.
Set Bin Preferences
Before using bins, you’ll want to make sure that NetSuite is set to the right preferences. To set your bin preferences, navigate to Setup > Accounting > Preferences > Accounting Preferences and go to the Items/Transactions tab. In the Inventory section, there are two bin preferences that you can set. First, you can make bins a requirement for all transactions except for item receipts. And second, you can ensure that the bin field on item receipts will auto-populate with the preferred bin rather than being left blank by default.
Create Bin Records
Next, you need to create bin records. These are simple records that just define the specific bins that you need to be available in your warehouse. You can create as many bins as you need. For each bin, you will be able to know exactly what the quantity on hand is for any given items connected to that bin. To create a new bin record, navigate to Lists > Supply Chain > Bins > New.
On this page, you will assign an identifying bin number to this bin and (assuming you use the Multi-Location inventory feature) choose the warehouse where the bin is located. In the Memo field, you can write a brief description of the bin, including things like the specific items that go in this bin. If you use zones in your warehouse, you can associate the bin with a zone. After filling out the form, save the record.
Assign Bins to Item Records
Once you have bin records, you will need to assign bins to item records. To do that, navigate to the list of item records and select Edit next to an item. First, you need to identify that the item will be using bins. Under the Inventory tab, toggle on the Use Bins checkbox. Then, scroll down to the Bin Numbers subtab and choose the location and bin number for this item. You can add multiple bins that will be associated with this item. If you have multiple bins and one of them should be the default, then you’ll need to select the checkbox in the Preferred (Per Location) column next to that bin. Once a bin has been associated with an item record, then you can use bins on transactions that involve that item.
Using NetSuite Bin Management
Once everything for bins has been set up in your account, what does using bins look like practically? Bins can be selected on the standard transactions involved in both the sales and purchasing processes. For example, transactions like cash refunds, vendor bills, inventory transfers, picking tickets, item fulfillments, and invoices would include bin numbers. This keeps the on hand quantities of the items up to date as the different types of transactions move the inventory in, around, and out of your warehouses.
Conclusion
The NetSuite bin management feature is an excellent way to organize and track inventory in your warehouses. To learn more about NetSuite inventory management, subscribe to our newsletter below! You’ll receive our weekly blogs right in your inbox.