Inventory

The Inventory module tracks what gets used up: filament, sheet stock, fasteners, bits and the rest.

Add an item

1. Open Stock & Purchasing › Inventory & Stock and click New Item.
2. Enter the Name, SKU and Category, and the units you store and order it in.
3. Under Reorder Condition, choose Minimum quantity and set Reorder At, or choose Fixed capacity storage for bins you refill to a fixed level.
4. Enter the Current Qty and click Create item.

Needs the Create items permission.

Items, variants, and categories

Items live in categories you control. You start from a ready-made set (including a full fastener taxonomy) rather than a blank page. An item can have variants, such as the same screw in five lengths or the same filament in eight colors, with per-variant SKUs and stock. Attributes (material, size, thread pitch…) are scoped per category, and drive faceted filtering when browsing.

Locations and stock

Items at or below their reorder point show on the dashboard’s Low Stock widget and in the staff digest email (its default send time, days and sections are set in Settings › Email Digests). Members on the floor can scan an item’s QR label to flag it low.

An item lives in one or more areas (rooms). Inside an area you can build storage locations: the shelving units, cabinets, cubbies, tool chests, drawers, bins and boxes where things are kept. An item can be in several storage locations, with a count in each, and its quantity is the sum of those counts.

Build storage locations

You need the Edit items permission. Storage locations are built on the web; the app shows them.

1. Go to Facility › Areas and click the Storage locations tab, then click the area in the list. Or open the area and click its Storage tab.
2. Click Add storage, choose a Kind (Shelving unit, Cabinet, Cubbies, Tool chest, Workbench, Coat rack, and others), and enter a Name. Leave the name empty to number it, like “Cabinet 1”.
3. To fill it, click the layers icon on its row (Add several inside), or Add several for the whole area. Add a level for each layer, for example 4 shelves, each with 3 bins, and click Add. Up to 500 at a time.

Each storage location gets a Label code made from its place in the tree, like SU1-3-4 (shelving unit 1, shelf 3, bin 4). Edit it from the row’s pencil. A location that still holds stock can’t be deleted.

Labels for storage locations

Click the printer on a row, or Print all labels, to print a sheet of labels with the location’s name, code and QR code. Scanning a location’s label opens what it holds and what is inside it. A label on a box works the same way.

On a location’s page, Print item labels prints a label for each item kept there. Its QR code opens the item at that location: staff who scan it land on the location with the item picked out, ready to count.

Put items in storage locations and count them

• From the location: open it and click Add an item here. An item that isn’t in any storage location yet moves its whole count there.
• From the item: on its Areas tab, under Storage locations, click Add a storage location.

To choose a location, enter part of its name or its label code in the search box, or click an area and then each shelf, drawer or bin in turn. Clicking a location chooses it, and the full path shows under the list.

Each row has Count (enter what is there now), Move (to another location; the item’s total doesn’t change), Make main and Remove (only when it is empty). Once an item is in storage locations, its quantity on the item form can’t be typed: count each location instead.

An item’s page shows its Stock and, under Where it is, each storage location with its area, label code and count. The main location has a star.

The items list shows an Area column and a Storage location column. An item kept in several locations shows “2 locations” there; click it to see each location and its count.

Which location stock comes from

• Receiving: after you pick an area, choose a Storage location. Receive & store puts the stock there. Marking an item stored later moves what was received there.
• Store desk: for an item kept in several locations, each cart line has a From choice. Payment takes the stock from that location, and a void puts it back.
• Anything that doesn’t say, such as a member’s own checkout, uses the item’s main location first, then the fullest.
• Update Quantities on the items list and a task’s stock check skip an item kept in several locations and tell you to count each one.

App: an item’s page shows Where it’s kept with each location and its count. Tap a location to see what it holds. Scanning a location’s label opens it.

Labels and images

Item and location QR labels are designed in the platform’s label editor and printed on standard label sheets. Item images can be uploaded, cropped in place, or fetched from supplier pages.

Usage guidance

Common consumables carry a usage card (what the material is for, when to choose it over the alternatives, when to avoid it, prep, safety, handling) from a library MakerOps maintains for adhesives (CA, wood glue, epoxy, contact cement, hot melt…), finishes, tapes, abrasives, 3D-printing filaments, laser materials, common fastener classes, solder, and PPE. When you add an item it is matched to a card automatically: exact identifiers link on their own, and a close name match is shown as a suggestion that staff confirm in one click. The card appears on the item’s page under Usage guidance, which you can fold away, and on its public catalog page and in the mobile app. So “can I use this on acrylic” is answered at the shelf, not by whoever is on shift. Staff review the cards in use at your space under Stock & Purchasing › Knowledge Library.

Each shop can add its own shop notes on top of a card: house rules, where the accelerator is kept, which brand you actually stock. Notes stay private to your shop and never change the shared card. The library itself grows over time, and every shop gets the improvements.

Ask the shop

A member describes the situation in plain language (“I need to glue a 3D-printed bracket to plywood and it lives outdoors”) and gets an answer drawn only from what your shop actually stocks: up to three picks, why, how to use them, what to watch for, and which shelf they are on. Structural, pressure, food-contact, and other risky joins get a check with staff flag rather than a confident answer. Answers run on Claude.

Every answer can be rated thumbs up or down, so staff see what to correct, usually by fixing a shop note or a card match. Choose who can ask under Settings › Public Catalog: Off, Members (signed in, on the web and in the app, answered from every active item), or Members + public page (also an Ask the shop page on your public catalog, answered only from public items).

Suppliers and import

Items link to suppliers with part numbers, so reordering starts from the item, not a hunt through old emails. To bring in existing inventory:

1. On Inventory & Stock, click Import.
2. Download the template (.xlsx or CSV) and fill it in. Attribute columns are included.
3. Upload it and choose Create only, or Create & update to change items you already have.

The importer checks every row and reports what it skipped and why. Import covers inventory items only for now.