Release Support Ends July 31, 2026Release Support Ends July 31, 2026
After July 31, 2026, ECI will no longer support this version of e-automate, and this version of the online help will no longer be updated. ECI recommends upgrading to the current release. Contact your account manager for more information.

Viewing Item Availability

The Inventory Availability window allows the user to look at where an item is physically located in your warehouses, and to view specific item details such as unit of measure, on hand quantity, and the number of allocated items (an allocated item is any item added to an open unfulfilled sales order, open service work order, or inventory work order used in production). You can also use the window to view the sales orders, service calls, production work orders, or transfer orders to which an item has been added.

Additionally, you can view outstanding purchase orders and for serialized items, view a list of serial numbers with their associated costs. If you are using the FIFO or LIFO cost method, e-automate displays a tab with the dated inventory layers and associated costs.

The Inventory Availability window also displays a summary of quantity, cost, and allocation information. However, note that the Available quantity displayed in the summary box does not account for inventory in unavailable or defective bins.

In addition to viewing company-wide summary item information, you can also view allocation, back orders, defectives, etc. for a specific warehouse. This feature allows you to see items that are pending to be drawn from a specific warehouse, items that are expected to be received to a specific warehouse, etc.

Getting to the TransactionGetting to the Transaction

On the e-automate toolbar, click [Items] to open the Items window.

Select in the list the item for which to view availability.

On the Items window toolbar, click [Availability] to open the Inventory Availability window.

Note: One or more of the windows you may use during this process contain an Inventory locations region. If your system takes a significant amount of time to load inventory location data, an option is available for specifying a record count threshold above which the system will not automatically load the data but will instead display a button that you can click to load the data when you need it. This option will allow you to use any windows containing this region without having to wait for the data to load if you do not need to view the data when you first open the window. For more information, see the Specifying an Inventory Locations Region Record Loading Threshold topic.

Viewing the InformationViewing the Information

From the Inventory Availability window, do any of the following:

In the Item field, do any of the following:

To view inventory availability information for the item currently selected, proceed to Step 2.

To view inventory availability for a different item, use the lookup icon to select a different item.

Use the action menu to do any of the following (security permitting):

Click [New] to create a new inventory item.

Click [Edit] to change the item record of the currently selected item.

Click [View] to view the item record of the currently selected item.

Click [Notes] to view and enter internal notes for the currently selected item.

Click [Availability] to open another Inventory Availability window.

Note: If you click this button and do not see an additional Inventory Availability window, move the Inventory Availability window you do see to see if the additional window is directly behind it.

Click [Prices] to view pricing information for the currently selected item.

The OEM number field displays the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) number if available for the currently selected item.

In the Inventory locations region, do any of the following:

If the system displays a Show host equipment box, a Show attached accessories box, or a Show host equipment and attached accessories box at the top right of the Inventory locations region, check this box if you want the system to include the applicable information in the display.

To see all the bin details for all warehouses, right-click in the Inventory locations region and select Expand bins for all warehouses.

To collapse bin detail information for all warehouse, right-click in the Inventory Location region and select Collapse bins for all warehouses.

To view details for items stored in a specific warehouse, right-click on the warehouse name and select View Item Warehouse Details. The Item Warehouse Details window is displayed.

You can view details for the same item in a different warehouse by selecting a different warehouse in the Warehouse field.

You can view details for a different item in the same warehouse by selecting a different item in the Item number field.

In the Summary region you can view:
On hand: Total quantity on hand in available bins in the specified warehouse.
Allocated: The total number of items on sales orders, service calls, and production work orders to be drawn from bins in the specified warehouse.
Transfer Allocated: Total number of items on transfer orders to be drawn from this warehouse.
Allocated (pending): Quantity of items on open window sales order in other e-automate clients in which there is an open sales order window.
Defective: Items stored in defective bins in this warehouse
Unavailable: Items stored in unavailable bins in this warehouse.
Available: On hand minus Allocated minus Transfer allocated – Allocated (pending)
Back ordered: Items back ordered or drop shipped from non-drop ship bins
Ordered: Items on Purchase orders destined for this warehouse
Transfer ordered: Items on transfer orders destined to come in to this warehouse.

In the region below the Warehouse field you can view:

Stocking Code: The stocking code identified on the Warehouses tab for this item.

Note: You can configure an individual warehouse to Stock, Drop-ship, or Special Order an item.

Stock Minimum: The minimum stocking level for this warehouse.

Note: Only applies to items with stocking codes of Stocked.

Stock Maximum: The maximum stocking level for this warehouse.

Note: Only applies to items with stocking codes of Stocked.

Auto Update: Indicates whether the warehouse Stock Minimum can be modified by e-agent.

Note: e-agent is a separate program shipped with e-automate that can be configured to perform automated tasks such as updating the Stock Minimum.

Click [Close] to close the Item Warehouse Details window.

The Summary region displays the following information:

Unit of measure: Default classification of the units that the item is sold in, i.e. each, box, gross, etc.

Average cost: Average cost of the item regardless of the costing method used in the database. If the database is a FIFO or LIFO database, e-automate also displays a LIFO or a FIFO tab.

Total cost: Total value for all of these items on hand.

On hand: Quantity of items in all your warehouses.

Allocated: Quantity of items set aside (as whole or raw materials) for existing orders.

Note: Items can be allocated on sales orders, service calls, and inventory work orders in production.

Back ordered: Total number of this item back ordered in all warehouses.

Note: See the instructions in Step 3 below to view back ordered quantities for a specific warehouse.

Defective: Quantity of items stored in bins with a stock type of Defective.

Unavailable: Quantity of items stored in bins with an Unavailable stock type.

Available: Total number of items available for sale or use as raw materials. Calculated by taking the On hand value and subtracting Allocated, Defective, and Unavailable.

On order: Number of this item on open (unreceived) purchase orders.

To view more information about the item, click on the appropriate tab in the Inventory Availability window.

Note: You can rearrange the column order and the width of each column on the tabs to suit your individual preferences.

Serial Numbers: This tab only displays for items with serial numbers and includes the individual (unit) cost of each item. If using equipment history tracking, this tab also displays the equipment status, the equipment number if assigned, the equipment condition, the last meter reading, the location name, the warehouse, and the bin information. You can edit serial numbers from this tab by simply right-clicking on the serial number you want to edit.

Warehouse Details: Displays the warehouse location(s) of the item, the stock type, and quantity at the location. Also shows much of the same information as the item Summary region, such as average and total costs, and quantities allocated, available, backordered, and ordered.

Purchase Orders: Displays open purchase orders for the selected item.

Note: You can right-click on the Purchase Orders tab to edit or view existing purchase orders.

Sales Orders: Displays open unfulfilled sales orders that contain this item. This tab displays the sales order number, the customer, description, date, due by, warehouse/bin information, quantity ordered, quantity back ordered, quantity shipped, and the quantity not shipped.

Note: You can right-click on the Sales Orders tab to edit or view existing sales orders.

Service Calls: Displays the list of open service calls that have this item identified as a material. You can right-click on this tab or on a call to edit or view the service call.

Production Work Orders: Displays a list of open production work orders that contain this item.

Transfer Orders: Displays a list of open inventory transfer orders that contain this item.

Note: You can right-click to create, edit or view existing transfer orders.

Monthly Usage: Displays item usage records for this item by Month, Year, Amount, and Quantity.

Note: Usage is displayed as a rolling average calculated over multiple years. The system takes the usage for the current month, and then rolls back 12 months to use the value to calculate the year-one average.

Click [Close] to close the Inventory Availability window.