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How putaway works

Putaway is the step between stock landing and being sellable. On a site using advanced locations, posting a goods receipt raises one putaway task for that receipt, with a line for each received line on it — and receiving a transfer at a site using advanced locations raises one the same way. The tasks are worked from Inventory → Putaway, which is a web screen only — there is no offline or phone version.

Where the stock sits until it's placed​

Received stock waits in the site's receiving location — a location that's created automatically the first time it's needed and needs no setup of its own. The receiving location is receivable but not pickable, so the stock is on hand as soon as the receipt posts, but it isn't sellable until it's placed somewhere else.

Sites using simple locations have no putaway step at all: received stock lands straight in the variant's usual location, with nothing staged in between. See receiving deliveries for what posting a receipt does more generally.

Two kinds of line never reach the task​

Not every received line ends up on a putaway task:

  • Lines received onto a licence plate are excluded. This is decided per line, not per receipt, so a single receipt can raise a task covering only its loose lines while its plated lines wait to be moved as a whole plate instead.
  • Damaged quantity is never put away. It goes to quarantine at receipt and stays there.

The suggested destination​

Opening a putaway task computes a suggested destination for each outstanding line fresh, every time — the suggestion isn't stored, so it can change if stock moves elsewhere between one look and the next. The ranking, in order:

  1. Locations that already hold this variant — and this lot, when the line carries one — come first.
  2. Among the rest, reserve locations are offered before general storage, and pick faces last.
  3. Locations where the whole quantity fits are offered before ones where it doesn't.
  4. Ties are broken by walk order through the site.

The reason shown alongside a suggestion is always one of: "already holds this SKU/lot", "already holds this SKU", "reserve bin", "pick face", or "general bin".

You can place stock somewhere other than the suggestion, but only into a location the same ranking would itself have offered — an override still has to be a legitimate destination for this variant, it just doesn't have to be the top one.

A location's maximum-units setting is enforced when stock is placed, not just when destinations are ranked. Placing more than the location has room for is refused, and the message says how much room is left. A location with no maximum set holds an unlimited quantity.

Because the check is against the quantity being placed rather than the whole line, a location with some room left is still offered — you can place what fits there and put the remainder somewhere else. Splitting a line across several locations is normal.

For how the destination location fits into your wider warehouse setup, see simple and advanced locations. To work a task, see put away a goods receipt.