Abridged user's manual for LoMag Warehouse Management

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DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS

1. Installation of the program

The current version of the program may be downloaded from the Internet from www.LoMag.pl. LoMag is installed automatically with all the necessary components. By default the program operates on 1 computer. For the program to operate in a network, the computers need to be connected by a local network. You need to install the program on each of the computers, then select the "This computer is a server" option from the "Program/Settings/Network operations" menu and remember the name of the server which is displayed below. Select the "This computer is a client and it connects with the server" option on the remaining computers and enter the name of the server.

2. Basic configuration of the program

In order to start working with the program properly, you should configure the options in the "Program/Settings" menu. The most important settings are described below. Advanced configuration options are described at the end of these instructions.

• "Settings/Calculations/Displaying numbers/Display prices and values" - if you unmark this option, the program will not support the prices of items and you will only be able to conduct a quantitative register of the items. The program will only ask about the quantity when receiving or issuing items.
• "Settings/Calculations/Displaying numbers/Selling price is set in quota terms in the item list in the 'Suggested selling price' field" - it means that the program will propose at what price the item is to be issued, basing on the default prices from the item list. If you set the selling price in the item list, the program will suggest that price whenever the item is to be issued, independently from the purchase price.
• "Settings/Calculations/Displaying numbers/Selling price is calculated as a sum of the purchase price and the mark-up (or margin) from the price list" - it means that the program will propose the issue prices basing on the mark-up from the purchase price, e.g. an item is received at the warehouse at PLN10/pcs, and it is issued from the warehouse with a 20% mark-up, i.e. at PLN12/pcs. You set the mark-up in the item list.
• "Settings/Accounts/Suppliers" - if you unmark this option the program will not support the suppliers and will not request a name of the supplier when creating documents.
• "Settings/Accounts/Customers, Employees” – similarly as above, the program will disable the support of accounts.
• "Settings/Company” - the data of your company will be visible on the documents.
• "Settings/Dedicated columns/” - names for additional fields with text content (attributes/characteristics of the item, e.g. colour), numbers (e.g. weight) or hyperlinks (e.g. the Internet site of the manufacturer).

3. Commencement of work with the program

The program can support any number of warehouses. After you launch it, a window comes up, in which you need to select the warehouse you wish to work on. You may also add a new warehouse in the warehouse selection window, as well as change the name and the code of a warehouse, or remove a warehouse together with all the documents. Once you click 'Open' or press "ENTER”, the program will open the marked warehouse and from that moment you may operate in this warehouse. If you wish to change the active warehouse, go to "Program/Open warehouse" on the menu.

Before you start creating documents, it's worth defining the item list and the accounts. You can also import item lists from an Excel file. Go to "Items/Import from Excel” menu, where you have a simple import module available. To import data, simply select an Excel file, and adjust columns from the Excel file to the columns in LoMag by selecting the name of the field from the drop-down list. Next, click "Import of items - adds or updates if already in the database" and the program will add or update data. The key to updating items is "Item name" and "Unit" - i.e. if a given item name and unit already exists in the database, the program will update the remaining data. You may also import items to many warehouses.

Importing accounts works on the same basis. You may select a file with a list of accounts, customers or employees in the "Accounts/Import from Excel" menu. Insert columns with 'yes' and 'no' values in them, so that the program may ascribe every account their status. An example of an Excel file content:
"Name customer supplier”
"Client1 yes no”
"Distributor1 no yes”

4. Item list

To go to the item list, you must select "Items/Item list” option on the menu, or press the Ctrl+T shortcut key, or click the item list icon on the tool bar. All the methods are equivalent and they have been added to facilitate your work with the program. Once the item list is launched, the list of items from the current warehouse and the current stock level will be displayed. The list may be narrowed down, if a filter or a group is chosen on the item list tool bar. The list of columns in the item list may be adjusted by right-clicking any column and selecting the "Manage columns" option. The "History" button allows you to take a quick look at the warehouse movements for a given item. In order to add an item to the item list, you may also use the Alt-D shortcut.

Creating a full list of items is not necessary, but it will considerably facilitate and accelerate the creation of documents. We recommend creating an item list before you begin adding documents. In the item list, you may describe the characteristics of the item, the barcode, the unit of measurement, the group, the opening balance (initial values), the suggested prices and the low and high quantity thresholds. The meaning and the employment of each of those fields is explained below:

• A barcode may be any string of signs, it does not have to be necessarily a concrete code type. The field may also be used for another purpose, e.g. as a unique index, which facilitates finding an item. If a barcode reader is to be used with the program, you should scan the code with the reader in the "barcode" field in order to ascribe a given code to an item. You may also generate the barcodes automatically.
• A unit of measurement may be chosen from a list, or entered with a keyboard. If a given unit is outstanding, it will be entered into the database.
• The item group enables you to group the assortment, e.g. the "Fruit" group may include Pears, Apples, etc. Groups facilitate finding items and are used in the reports.
• The opening balance enables you to determine initial values (levels, prices) for an item, which is already on stock.
• Suggested prices: suggested purchase price, suggested margin (or suggested selling price with the "Selling price is taken from the price list" setting) are not mandatory entry fields, but they accelerate the process of creating documents. Once you have selected a given item for a new document, the program shall suggest prices in accordance with the settings in the item list. If you keep a register of items without sales with profit, the margin should stay zero, as the program suggests by default.
• Low Qty Threshold determines the minimum (emergency) stock level at the warehouse. The field is used to find items which are running low at the warehouse (menu "Items/Find/Low Qty Threshold").
• High Qty Threshold determines the maximum (emergency) stock level at the warehouse. The field is used to find items the quantities of which are excessive at warehouse (menu "Items/Find/High Qty Threshold").
• The removal of items from the item list is possible, if the item has not been used in the documents.

Please note that the items list at each warehouse may be completely different. To copy an item list from another warehouse, select the "Items/Copy from another warehouse" option. Then, select the warehouse from which you want to copy the items and mark several or all items in the left panel. The ">" button copies the items to the current warehouse.

5. List of accounts

To go to the account list, select the "Accounts" option from the menu, and then select a list for a given type of account: "Customer", "Supplier", "Employee". Once you select, a list accounts of a given type will be displayed. The list may be narrowed down, if a filter is selected on the tool bar of the account list. The column list may be adjusted by right-clicking any column and selecting "Manage columns". The "History" button enables a quick preview of warehouse transfers for a given account. You may also use the Alt-D shortcut, to add an account to the list.

Accounts have been divided into 3 groups

• Suppliers - used in GRNs, and GRN corrections
• Customers - used in GINs, GIN corrections, Interbranch Transfers
• Employees - used in internal GRNs, internal GINs, Interbranch Transfers

Each account may belong to one or more group, e.g. Jan Kowalski may be both a supplier and a customer. A removal of an account from the list is possible only if it has not been used in documents. The accounts are visible in all warehouses, i.e. if you add an account to one warehouse, you may use it in all other warehouses.

6. Warehouse documents

All documents in the programme are added in the same manner. To accelerate work, apart form the icons, you may also use the keyboard shortcuts available:

• F2 - GRN (Goods Received Note), e.g. receipt of new items on stock;
• F3 - GIN (Goods Issued Note), e.g. sale of goods;
• F4 - GRN correction (Return to supplier), e.g. return of a faulty batch of items;
• F5 - GIN correction (Return from recipient), e.g. return from customer due to a complaint;
• F6 - stock level correction note, e.g. goods lost in the warehouse;
• F7 - Interbranch transfer, e.g. transfer of some of the items to another building;
• F8 - discount note (Change of item value), e.g. lowering of prices caused by the decrease in the value of items;
• F9 - Internal GRN (Internal Goods Received Note), e.g. receipt of items coming from own production;
• F10 - Internal GIN (Internal Goods issued Note), e.g. issue of items to an employee;
• F11 - Assembly note e.g. the manufacturing of products from raw materials in the manufacturing process.

Similarly, Shift+F2 adds another GRN, Shift+F3 adds another GIN, etc.

After opening the document creator window, you may select an account form the list, or find it by pressing the [..] button, or entering the first letters of the account's name, and then pressing the down arrow. The account selection field may be invisible, if you turn off the account support in settings.

The program automatically enters the current date and time of creation of the document and proposes a consecutive number. You may change the number to any sequence of signs. You may also change the date, however, you have to remember to maintain the chronology of documents. When entering archival documents, you should begin with the oldest and continue to the newest. Changing the date of an existing document may seriously impact the stock levels and the value of the warehouse.

The "remarks" filed may be used for notes regarding the whole document. Please note that there is also a "remarks" field for each line of the document.

At the bottom of the window there is an empty list of items for the document. To add a new item press "Alt-D" or use the "Add" button. An item may be selected in several various ways:

• by using s barcode reader to scan the code in the "barcode" field;
• by typing in the first letters of the name of the item and pressing the down arrow;
• by choosing an item from the drop-down list;
• by clicking the [..] button and using the item search engine. The search engine remembers the latest search settings and if you click [..] again, the recently selected criteria will be kept;
• you may also use the Ctrl+F shortcut, which will activate the search engine;
• by typing the name of the item and pressing Enter. If there is no such item, the program will ask if you want to add that item to the item list;
• by adding an item to the document from an external Excel file (use the "Import" button on the tool bar of the document window).

All the above ways of selecting an item are equivalent and result in the filling in of the rest of the fields of the form: the barcode, the unit, the suggested price, and the current stock level. The next step should always be typing in the quantity. It is worth using the TAB button to pass from one field to another. The form for adding order lines varies between individual document types:

• in a GRN you can change the "purchase price" and add "remarks" to each line of the order;
• in a GIN you can change the "selling price" or the "margin (%)" or the "margin (sum)"; once you have entered the quantity, the program also calculates the purchase price and there is a possibility of previewing the purchase price, as well as the possibility of adding discounts - by enabling additional functions in "Settings/Documents".
• in an Internal GRN you can change the "price" and add "remarks" for each line of the order;
• in an Internal GIN you can only add "remarks". The price is calculated automatically basing on the value of the item;
• in an Interbranch Transfer the program shows current stock levels of the chosen item in the source and target warehouses. You can perform a transfer to several different warehouses on one Interbranch Transfer document, by choosing a different target warehouse for each line. If the item is not on the item list at the target warehouse, the program suggests copying it from the source warehouse. The value of the item is not altered as a result of being moved to another warehouse; You may also transfer an item within the same warehouse - by using the "Warehouse locations" option.
• in a stock level correction you can type in a new stock level and any remarks you might have;
• in Discounts, you may enter a new quantity or value, and you can also change the name of the item. Discounts introduce modifications not only of prices, but also of quantities of individual items. Therefore, the application can take into account the following example situation: 10 multi-packs of water were received. 2 multi-packs were unpacked and individual bottles were sold with a new price. After entering this discount, the stock level of "multipack of mineral water" will decrease by 2, while the stock level of the item "bottle of mineral water" shall be increased by 12;

In the windows for adding items to a document (apart from GRN and GIN correction) in the "Preview and selection of receipts" part, you may determine precisely a concrete receipt from which the item is to be issued.

Editing and removing documents

The program enables you to modify the existing documents. You may find a document which needs to be repaired or corrected. You should be particularly cautious when changing the quantity of items on archival documents - you cannot remove an item which has been issued on subsequent documents. Similarly, the program will not allow the removal of documents, from which at least one item has been issued.

An open document allows you to check the history of warehouse transfers for each of the items on the document (the "History" button on the tool bar over the list of items or "Alt-H"). The "To Excel" button enables the transfer of the list of items from the document to a chosen Excel file. The table may be freely adjusted by right-clicking any column and selecting the "Manage columns” option. The program remembers the chosen settings, and it will recreate the column layout when generating a new document.

7.Inventory

The information entered into the program may differ from the actual stock level for various reasons. Therefore, from time to time you should make an inventory of the warehouse. It often happens that making an inventory is a long process which blocks the operation of the warehouse. In view of facilitating and accelerating inventory-making, LoMag features "Inventory sheets".

Inventory sheets

To create a new inventory sheet, go to "Documents/Inventory/Inventory Sheets". The program will display a list of the already existing inventory sheets. To add a new sheet, click "Add" or use the "Alt+D" shortcut. You may also edit the existing sheets or remove them completely.

You create inventory sheets just like all other documents, by adding items and their current quantity on stock. The possibility of generating several sheets at the same time, which may be later joined into one big inventory, constitutes a great advantage of the inventory sheets. If the same goods may be found in two locations at the warehouse and they are featured on two inventory sheets, the program shall sum up the quantities from those sheets.

There is also a possibility of stretching the inventory-making over time. If the warehouse contains inactive items, you may create an inventory or inventories including the inactive items several days earlier, and then merge the sheets into one inventory. If, however, one of the inactive items has been issued form the warehouse, you may make a correction on the sheet before creating the inventory (the "Edit" button on the inventory sheet list).

The inventory in LoMag does not have to pertain to the whole assortment - if some of the items are omitted, the program will not change the stock levels for items not included in the inventory sheets. Therefore, you may execute a partial inventory, including only a part of the assortment. In case of a partial inventory, the omitted items and their stock levels may also be accounted for on the documents and set to zero balance.

Making an inventory

To make an inventory basing on inventory sheets, go to "Documents/Inventory/Create new inventory". Mark the sheets on the basis of which you intend to make the inventory. Then click "Create inventory from the marked sheets". After this operation the program shall correct the stock levels and display a report with the results of the inventory. The report includes information about the stock before and after the inventory, as well as information about the value of the warehouse before and after the inventory. The final result is presented at the bottom of the window - a total of values before and after the inventory. The final report may be printed or exported to Excel.

An inventory may also be created on an empty document, by adding items to it one by one (while omitting inventory sheets); and basing on the current stock level, where you can change item value by clicking "Edit".

The Inventory removes all the differences between the stock level in the program and the actual stock level on the sheets. It is achieved by adding the stock correction document. The correction may be previewed in "Documents/Stock level corrections". The program inserts "Correction generated automatically through inventory" in the remarks field. You can find a list of items for which the stock levels have been changed below.

Inventory correction

An inventory may be corrected or removed completely. To remove an inventory go to "Documents/Inventory/Backed up inventories". Select the inventory you wish to remove and click "Remove". The removal of the inventory causes the removal of the stock level correction and results in the restoration of the warehouse levels from before the inventory. The removal of the inventory does not affect the inventory sheets - you may create an inventory again basing on the same inventory sheets.

If you've marked the wrong sheets while making the inventory, the easiest thing to do is to remove the inventory and redo it marking the correct inventory sheets.

If you wish to correct only one or several items from the inventory, you may do it by editing the appropriate stock level correction. ("Documents/Stock level corrections"). To print the final inventory report again, go to "Documents/Inventory/Backed up inventories". Next, select the inventory from the list and click "Edit".

Opening Balance

If an item sheet which hasn't been on stock before is added, the program activates the "Price" and the "Value of item" fields. It happens because the program does not know what price to ascribe to the item. You should fill in these fields or leave a zero, if you wish to receive this item on stock with the purchase price amounting to zero. You introduce the "opening balance" in this manner, when commencing work with the program.

8. Item library

Item libraries were added to the program to accelerate the creation of similar documents. They are templates used for quickly preparing documents basing on a previously defied list of items with quantities. To create library, go to "Items/Item libraries". After clicking "Add", define the library name and its code (it may be a barcode). Next, you may add the library components - the list of items with quantity. For instance, a library may be called "daily fruit delivery" and include 30 kg of apples, 10 kg pears, 10 kg of bananas. With a library defined in this manner you are able to very quickly prepare a goods received note by selecting a ready template from the list. There is no need to list the same items and quantities everyday. Of course, you have the possibility of correcting the automatically added entries - you may, e.g. remove the bananas or change the quantity of pears.

The libraries may be used in the following types of documents: GRN, GIN, Internal GRN, Internal GIN, GRN correction, GIN correction. The library may be chosen from "Items", a drop-down list which can be found in the window for creating order elements The names of the libraries are on the top of the list over the items. If you select quantity [1], all items and quantities from the library will be added. Selecting quantity [2] will double the contents of the library - so continuing with the above example - it would be 60 kg of apples, 20 kg of pears, 20 kg of bananas.

The employment of libraries in the issue notes (GINs, Internal GINs) requires a comment. Let's say you want to issue the whole of the library, but one of the items is not on stock. The program will not allow such an issue. In this situation you may check which item is missing from the library and what the current stock level of the library is in the "Items/Item libraries" menu. Below, you will find examples which will facilitate the understanding of library stock levels basing on the example above:

• 30 kg of apples, 10 kg of pears, 10 kg of bananas, LIBRARY STOCK LEVEL = 1
• 60 kg of apples, 20 kg of pears, 20 kg of bananas, LIBRARY STOCK LEVEL = 2
• 60 kg of apples, 20 kg of pears, 0 kg of bananas, LIBRARY STOCK LEVEL = 0 , because the bananas are outstanding
• 60 kg of apples, 20 kg of pears, 10 kg of bananas, LIBRARY STOCK LEVEL = 1, quantity of bananas decides about the library stock level

Please note the possibility of employing the "Item library" module in the process of assembly. Creating a library with properly defined components needed for the production of the final product will streamline the whole process. Furthermore, the library will allow you to easily determine how many ready products can be made from the existing raw materials.

9. Find option

The find option may be launched at any given time with the CRTL+F shortcut. You may also select the "Items/Find" option or click the button on the tool bar. The find window comprises of 3 tabs "Items/Documents/Accounts":

Finding Items

In order to find a given item you need a fragment or a few fragments of its name. If you have an item called "LCD PLE2607WSD-B1 2ms" on stock, you can find it by typing in "LCD 26 2ms".

All search criteria narrow down the results (conjunction). For example, if you type in only a fragment of a name, e.g. "car", the program will find all items which have "car" in their names: "carrot, carp, caramel". If you additionally mark "vegetables", the result of the search will be only "carrot". The remaining fields also narrow down the results - if you additionally select "Stock level>0", "carrot" will only come up, if it is on stock.

The search engine also allows you to search for items in all warehouses. If you mark the "find in all warehouses" and item = "carrot" and "Stock level > 0" the program will display a list of warehouses in which you have carrots on stock. The table will show the stock level in each of the warehouse, the price of purchase and the value of the stock.

If you mark the "Items/Find/Low Qty Threshold" field, the program will find all the items the current stock levels of which have reached the minimum values set in the item list. The minimum value for each item is defined separately - e.g. it may be 100 kg for potatoes, and 10 kg for bananas. If there are only 9 kg or less bananas left, the item will be placed on the list of products which reached the low quantity threshold.

If you mark the fields "Items/Find/High Qty Threshold", the program will find all the items the current stock levels of which have reached maximum values set in the item list. The maximum value for each item is defined separately - e.g. it may be 10 000 kg for potatoes, and 1000 kg for bananas. If there are 1001kg or more bananas left, the item will be placed on the list of products which reached the high quantity threshold.

On the tool bar, over the results list, you have the possibility of viewing the history of warehouse movements, adding or editing items, exporting the result "to Excel", printing the labels, and setting the mark-up simultaneously for several items - by clicking "Change" .

Finding documents

The document search engine also works on the basis of narrowing down the results with various criteria. You can enter a fragment of a name into the text fields, e.g. if you enter "123", you will find in your results: "GRN 123/2010", "GIN 123/2010". If you additionally select "GIN" as a criterion, only "GIN 123/2010" will come up as a search result.

The default setting of the search engine displays only documents form the current warehouse, but you may also search in all warehouses, simply mark "Find in all warehouses".

There is also an option of finding documents in which a given item with a given name has been used. To do that, you must select the name from the list or scan the code of the item in the "with the barcode" field.

Please note that the field "Remarks include" will help you find documents in which the searched text may be found either in the remarks to the whole document, or in the remarks to one of the lines of the document.

Finding Accounts

You can find accounts in the same way - enter a fragment of the account's name, the name of the contact person, the Tax Identification Number, or the phone number and press Enter or click "Find". When entering the Tax Identification Number you do not have to worry about spaces and dashes - the program will find the account irrespectively of how you enter the number.

10. Reports

All reports are supported in a similar way. You mark the period to which the report is to pertain, or set the exact dates below . You may select filters from the drop-down lists, which narrow down the results (conjunction).The results of each of the reports may be printed or exported to Excel. Below are the most important reports and examples of their employment:

"Reports/Documents in active warehouse” – examples of reports you may obtain:

• A list of all GRNs from a given year / quarter / month from a given warehouse. A total value of the documents can also be found at the bottom of the report
• A list of GINs for a given customer in a chosen period and the total value of sales
• Documents for the largest and the smallest sum in a given period (you may sort through the results by clicking the "value" column).

"Reports/Documents in all warehouses":

• A list of all GRNs from a given year / quarter / month from all warehouses
• With the common numbering for all warehouses you get a sorted through list of all documents and their values
• Internal receipts and issues in all warehouses

"Reports/Stock levels in the active warehouse":

• Stock level on a given day for all items. Total value of items on stock
• Stock level and value of the warehouse on a given day for a chosen group of items and/or item unit
• Total amount of items for individual units: e.g. 123 kg worth X , 234 pcs worth Y

"Reports/Stock levels in the active warehouse":

• Stock level on a given day for all items with a detailed register of advanced options (e.g. document no., lot no., location).
• Stock levels on a given day for a chosen group of items.

"Reports/Stock levels in all warehouses":

• Stock level on a given day for all items in all warehouses . Total value of items in all warehouses.

"Reports/Expiration date":

• Expiration dates for all items on stock at all warehouses.

"Reports/Items for an account":

• A list of items issued to an account in a given year / quarter/ month. A total amount and value is shown for each item. If the same goods have been issued several times on different documents to the same account, the program sums up the amount and the value. A total of the value of all of the items may be found at the bottom of the report.
• Total amount and value of the items ordered from a given supplier during a given period (total at the bottom of the report)

"Reports/Item turnover":

• Report on initial values and final values for a given period, account and item group.

"Report/Items by type and group":

• Total amount and value of items ordered in a given year / quarter / month
• Detailed list of all ordered items with total amount and value for each item (if you select "all groups")
• Total amount and value of the items sold in a given period (if you select "all groups" at the bottom of the report)

"Reports/Profit from sales - list of items":

• Profit (i.e. the difference between the selling price and the purchase price) for each sold item (if you select "all accounts")
• Profit on individual items sold to a given account and total profit for a chosen account (total sum at the bottom of the report)
• Total profit in a given year / quarter / month (total at the bottom of the report if you select "all accounts")

"Reports/Profit from sales - list of documents”:

• Profit (i.e. the difference between the value of sales and the purchase value) from individual warehouse transfers (documents).
• Total profit in a given year / quarter / month (total at the bottom)

"Reports/Warehouse transfer detailed report”:

• Total sales (quantity and value) for a chosen item in a given year / quarter / month (sum at the bottom of the report)
• List of warehouse transfers for a given item, barcode, account or group of items in a given period
• Detailed list of all discounts for the chosen criteria and total balance of value of discounts
• Total amount and value of the sold items from all the warehouses for the chosen criteria

"Reports/Time spent on assembly”:

• Active (manufacturing) time for individual items comprising of many components. You may also check the time devoted by a given employee to a given assembly process.

„Reports/Detailed serial numbers report”:

• Serial number database for all items on stock.
• A list of serial numbers for a given item or barcode, account, or item group in a given period.

„Reports/Report on serial numbers on stock":

• Database for serial numbers for all items on stock in all warehouses.

The list of reports is being constantly broadened, and the existing reports are being frequently streamlined. The program may already include reports not described in the instructions.

11. Users and authorisations

LoMag offers the following possibilities of restricting authorisations:

• Access only to chosen warehouses, e.g. you have three warehouses, but a given user may access only 2 of them
• Access to only some of the functions, e.g. a given user does not have access to reports
• Access only to chosen operations e.g. a given user may add documents, but they cannot change or edit them

The only default user in the program is the Administrator, who is authorised to enter all warehouses and all options in the program. The login and password of this user are empty. The Administrator is a special user and you cannot restrict his authorisations or remove him. You may, however, change the login and the password of the Administrator. ATTENTION: Please note down the changed Administrator's password. If you forget this password, the only way to retrieve access to the program is by sending the database to the manufacturer.

If several people use the computer and you want to secure access to LoMag Inventory Management, simply add a new user in the "Users/Add new user" menu. When adding a new user, you specify their name, e.g. "Jan Kowalski”, then their login and password. The login and password will be entered each time the program is opened. The program allows you to define a login and passwords of any length (including blank). Log in is only possible once you have saved the new user and restarted the program.

When adding a user, you define their role and authorisations to access warehouses. You mark the authorisations to warehouses by the names of the warehouses. Marking the field next to the name of the warehouse will mean that the user is entitled to access a given warehouse in accordance with the ascribed role, unmarking the filed will disable their access.

You may define a different interface language for each user. The language for a given user may be changed by using the "Users/List of users/Edit" function.

User roles

The idea behind the roles is that once a role is defined, it may be used for many employees, e.g. LoMag may be used by 5 warehouse keepers, 2 accountants and an Administrator. You define the authorisations of a warehouse keeper only once, and then ascribe the "warehouse keeper" role to 5 users; similarly you define authorisations for the "accountant" role only once and you ascribe it to 2 users. You can define any number of roles and add as many users as you like. The number of people working simultaneously is, however, limited by a number of purchased licences.

A role is defined in the "Users/Roles" menu. By default there are two roles added to the program: the Administrator and the Warehouse Keeper. The Warehouse Keeper role may be removed or changed by marking and unmaking authorisations on the tree. Similarly, by pressing "Add" you can define a new role: in the "name of role" field you add a name, and mark/unmark authorisations on the tree below. If you click [+] on the tree, you unfold details, e.g. by unfolding the branch "Documents/Goods Received Note GRN" you can mark or unmark authorisations to add/edit/remove GRN documents.

12. Templates editor

Users of LoMag Inventory Management LoMag get ready templates for documents and warehouse labels by default. However, the program also enables you to easily design and edit label templates and warehouse documents.

Label designer

To go to the label designer, select "Items/Label designer" from the top menu. You can also open the designer from the level of the "Find in warehouse" window and from the level of any warehouse document. The application enables you to design warehouse labels by applying any fields from the database, permanent texts, graphical elements, barcodes, photos and it also gives you the possibility of printing on various types of printers and paper sizes - including divided labels, e.g. 10 labels 2x5 on an A4 sheet.

Documents editor

The documents editor may be opened from any warehouse document window. The editor enables you to design document templates by applying any data from the database, permanent inscriptions, photos, barcodes for all data in the database and permanent inscriptions.

13. Database management

Backup copies

All data, including program settings are saved in the database. It is very important to make regular copies to an external carrier, e.g. a USB stick. In case your computer is damaged, you can quickly recover the whole of the database on another computer. Make the copy by selecting the "Program/Backup" option and selecting a folder to which you wish to back up the database.

Carrying the database over to another computer.

To carry the database over to another computer, you must install a full version of the program on the new computer (e.g. the demo version from LoMag.pl), back up the database on the old computer (save the database to a USB stick), and restore the database on the new computer (upload the database from a USB stick).

Working with the program from a USB stick

You can launch the program from a USB stick. It may be useful, if only one person works with the program, but they use several computers. For the data to be saved directly on a USB stick, you should copy the whole folder of the program onto the USB stick, or choose the USB stick as the place for installation. For the program to operate properly on other computers you will need SQL libraries, so the easiest thing to do is to install a full version of the program on each computer, but to launch program from the USB stick. All data will be saved on the USB stick in the "Database" folder. You should make safety copies of the database to another carrier, so as not to lose the data in case the USB key is lost or damaged.

14. Advanced configuration options:

"Settings/Calculations/Calculation of stock value: LIFO/FIFO” This parameter determines the order of issue, in case you have the same product on stock from different receipts. For FIFO (First In First Out) the first item to be issued will be from the oldest receipt. For LIFO (Last In First Out) the item from the last receipt will be issued first.

"Settings/Documents/Support for packaging” - if you mark that option, you will be able to define packaging in the item list and ascribe it to products. Items with ascribed packaging are automatically supported on documents. Upon adding an item to a document, the program will also automatically add packaging.

"Settings/Documents/Selection of transport type on documents” - possibility of entering information about transport for a given warehouse transfer. You can define any number of types of transport in "Item/Type of transport".

"Settings/Documents/Support of cost groups for documents” - a function developed for grouping items by cost (e.g. "Investment", "Office Supplies") of a given warehouse document. You can define any number of groups in "Item/Cost group".

"Settings/Documents/Support for grouping of items on documents” - summing up of quantities for the same products on document print-outs. You may disable the summing up option manually for one document from the level of the document window.

"Settings/Documents/Support of lot numbers and expiry dates" - you can mark items with an expiry date (e.g. medication, foodstuffs) to prevent them from being kept at the warehouse for too long. When adding an item to a GIN, you may define which item should be issued the earliest, to prevent it from expiring while on stock.

"Settings/Documents/Support for serial numbers” - reception and issue of items with a unique number ascribed to each piece. You may also upload a serial number by importing data from Excel and a collector.

"Settings/Documents/Support of warehouse locations” - defining warehouse locations for a given item on warehouse documents. The same product may be stored in various locations, and there may be many products in one location. The locations may be defined from the level of the window for item receipt or in the "Items/Warehouse locations" module.

"Settings/Documents/Digits after decimal point” - prices are usually quoted with two digits after decimal point. There are, however, cases in which prices and values must be quoted more accurately. By changing this parameter, the user may determine with what accuracy are the individual prices to be displayed and printed on documents and reports.

"Settings/Documents/Sorting of rows on documents" - you have two possibilities "sequence as added" or "name of item". The default setting is "sequence as added" - i.e. the program does not sort the lines of the order. The second possibility, "name of item", means that the program will arrange the lines of the order alphabetically by item name, e.g. if you add "Bananas" and then "Apricots", the sequence will be changed - the line with "Apricots" will be put first, followed by "Bananas".

"Settings/Documents/Templates for automatic numbering of documents” - you can determine the method of automatic numbering for each type of document. By default, documents have separate numeration for each type and warehouse in a given year. In the name template you may only use signs, which to not occur in the list of keys below:

• $$$$$$$ - denotes the document number
• yy - the year to which the document pertains
• mm - month
• dd - day
• MAG - warehouse name

Please note several examples of document numbering below:

• "GRN $$$$$$/yy” - separate numbering for each year, but common for all warehouses, e.g. in warehouse 1: „GRN 00001/2010”, the next GRN in another warehouse will be numbered: „GRN 00002/2010”
• "GRN $$$$$$/yy - MAG” (default numbering) - in each year and in each warehouse the numeration runs from the beginning, e.g. in warehouse 1: „GRN 000001/2010 - M1”, the next GRN in warehouse 2 will be numbered: „GRN 000001/2010 - M2”
• "GRN $$$/mm/yy” - Separate numeration in each month and year, common for all warehouses, 3 spaces for a document number, e.g. in August "GRN 001/08/2010”, "GRN 002/08/2010”... In September „GRN/001/09/2010”, „GRN/002/09/2010”... independently of the warehouse.
• „dok $$$/dd/mm/yy/MAG” - separate numeration each day and for each warehouse with a changed prefix, e.g. January 1: "dok 001/01/01/2010/M1”, January 2 „dok 001/02/01/2010/M1”, but January 2 in warehouse 2 will be "dok 001/02/01/2010/M2”.

14. Technical information

The program has been created in Microsoft Visual Studio and it operates on .Net Framework 2.0 libraries. It has been compiled as one EXE file, which is installed by default in the "c:\Program Files\LoMag\LoMag.exe” folder. LoMag operates with "Microsoft .Net Framework” libraries and "Microsoft SQL Server 2005” libraries, some reports also use "Crystal Reports” libraries. The program requires authorisation to save in the current folder. If you imposed limitations on user authorisations, you should grant full authorisation to the whole "user" group to the "c:\Program Files\LoMag” folder.

All data is saved in the "Microsoft SQL Server (2005 Express Edition version) database. By default, if you work on one computer, the program connects to the database using the user installation; the database files are in the "Baza Danych" sub-folder. The details of the connection string with the database are saved in the "LoMag.exe.config” file in the current folder of the program in the [connectionStrings] section. By changing the value of the „connectionString=” attribute, you can change the way in which the program will be connecting with the database. ATTENTION: If you change the configuration of network operation a .config file is automatically created from the level of the program. The file may also be removed, the program will generate it automatically.

If you work on many computers, the program will employ the „SQL Server” authorisation. The program connects with the SQL server via user 'sa' and password "magazyn2008". The database is visible in "SQL Server Management Studio” when operating in a network. The default name of the database is "ProgramMagazynowy”. You may change the user, password, name and the method of authorisation, but the data has to be entered manually into the "LoMag.exe.config” file.

For more information and answers to frequently asked questions go to http://www.lomag.eu/