An overview of Internal Warehouse processes: Movements, Replenishments and Countings

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Internal warehouse processes in Business Central cover everything that happens with your stock once it is inside the warehouse, separate from the inbound and outbound flows. The main tasks are warehouse movements, bin replenishment, break bulk, inventory counting, and inventory revaluation.

You move items between bins using warehouse movements, internal put-aways, or internal picks. Internal put-away and internal pick generate movement documents, and you can run them without source documents if you have a full warehouse setup.

You use bin replenishment to refill pick bins and bins closer to the high-running zones. Break bulk lets you convert one unit of measure into another on a bin, but it requires the Directed Put-away and Pick setting.

You keep inventory accurate with bin counting, standard inventory adjustments, and controlled physical counts using different strategies. Inventory revaluation is usually handled by finance, but the warehouse can take responsibility for writing down items that have been in stock too long.

Warehouse movements between bins

When you look at the normal processes inside a warehouse, separate from the inbound and outbound side, the most common one is moving items. A warehouse movement means moving an item from one bin to another bin.

You can handle these movements in a few ways. You have warehouse movements of different kinds, but you can also use internal put-away and internal pick if your setup allows you to create them. Internal put-away and internal pick are also a kind of movement document, and you can run them without source documents when you have the full warehouse functionality in place.

Bin replenishment and break bulk

Besides plain movements, you typically want to do bin replenishment. This means refilling pick bins, or refilling bins that sit closer to the high-running zones. The replenishment functionality lets you handle this in different ways.

You can also do break bulk on a bin. Break bulk means breaking one unit of measure down to another unit of measure on a bin in the warehouse. This is only possible when you have the Directed Put-away and Pick checkmark enabled, but it is a common process in many warehouses.

Inventory counting and adjustments

To keep your inventory correct, you run countings. You can do a bin counting to count a single bin, or you can post a normal inventory adjustment when you break something or find that something is missing.

On top of that, you can run controlled inventory countings of different kinds and with different strategies, so you choose the approach that fits your warehouse.

Inventory revaluation in the warehouse

The last task is inventory revaluation. It happens less often than the others, and the finance department usually performs it. But it can also be a warehouse responsibility.

You would revalue items that have been in inventory too long and write off some of their value, so they no longer represent such a high value on the books. In some organisations this responsibility is handed over to the inventory or warehouse people rather than finance.

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