What is an Inventory Put-away and how does it work?

This is what happens in the video

The inventory put-away document in Business Central gives your warehouse staff a clean, dedicated document for placing received goods. But even when you set up a location to use inventory put-away, it is not mandatory. You can still receive a purchase order directly without creating a put-away document. This article explains how the inventory put-away works, when it gets created, and how you can override it.

An inventory put-away is created when a location has Require Put-away and Bin Mandatory enabled, but Require Receive is not enabled. If you also enable Require Receive, you get a warehouse put-away instead.

You can override the inventory put-away by posting the receipt directly on the purchase order, even when the location is set up for inventory put-away. The setup makes the put-away available, not required.

To use the inventory put-away instead, you release the purchase order first, then create the inventory put-away from the warehouse functionality. The warehouse staff get a document that hides prices and other purchase order fields, and they can adjust the bin code and quantity to handle before posting.

When the inventory put-away document is created

The inventory put-away document depends on how you configure the location code. In this example, the location code Distribute has Require Receive left unchecked, while Require Put-away and Bin Mandatory are both checked.

With this combination of settings, an inventory put-away is created. If you instead check Require Receive as well, the system creates a warehouse put-away rather than an inventory put-away.

Receiving a purchase order directly without a put-away

Even though the location requires an inventory pick or put-away, you can still handle the purchase order directly. The setup makes the inventory put-away available to you, but it is not mandatory.

On an open purchase order that has not been released yet, you can add item lines and set quantities. When you add a line, the bin code field may be filled in by default from the item card. You can change this bin code to whatever bin you want.

From here, you can post the purchase order and receive the quantity directly, without creating an inventory put-away at all. This is the override in practice: the location is configured for inventory put-away, but you choose to receive straight from the purchase order.

Creating an inventory put-away from the purchase order

The other scenario, and the one you would normally use when you have set up the location for put-away, is to create an inventory put-away document.

To do this, you first release the purchase order. After releasing it, you go to the warehouse functionality and create the inventory put-away. Select Create Inventory Put-away, press OK, and the system creates a document your warehouse can use.

Instead of using the purchase order directly, you now have a separate document for the warehouse staff with inventory put-away lines on it. You can navigate to this document from the purchase order.

What the warehouse staff see on the put-away document

The inventory put-away document can be printed for the warehouse staff so they have something concrete to work from. As on the purchase order, they can change the bin where they place the item, set the bin code, and enter the quantity to handle.

The advantage is that this document is cleaner than the purchase order. The warehouse staff cannot see prices and the many other fields that appear on the purchase order. They only see what they need to do the job.

Posting the inventory put-away

When you post the inventory put-away document, two things happen at once. The put-away itself is posted and turns into a posted inventory put-away, so the working document disappears. At the same time, the purchase order is posted, and you can see the received quantity filled in on it.

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