Warehouse Settings

How to set up your warehouse in Helm WMS: its name and structure, default locations, auto-archiving, address and the rules your team follows in the Warehouse App.

What This Page Controls

Your warehouse page tells Helm how your building works: what the site is called, where picked items, returns and deliveries land, how long finished jobs stay on screen, and what your team has to scan in the Warehouse App before Helm accepts their work.

Most of it is set once when you go live and then left alone. The scanning rules are the part worth coming back to, because they are how you tighten accuracy on the floor without retraining anyone.

Example: a warehouse picking 400 orders a day keeps finding the wrong size in parcels. The manager opens the warehouse page, turns on Require Location Scan and Require Item Scan in Warehouse App Settings, and sets Count Injection Percentage to five. From the next pick onwards, pickers must scan the shelf and every item, and a small share of items is counted as part of normal picking, so stock errors surface within days rather than at the next full count.

Before You Start

Where to find it: go to Settings and, under Company Settings, click Warehouse. The page heading shows your warehouse's name, which is My Warehouse until you rename it.
Your warehouse needs to run in Full mode for most of this page. In Basic mode the page holds only the name, description, address, mode, stock control and barcode settings; those are covered in Warehouse Settings in Basic Mode.
Create your locations first. The default locations are chosen from the locations already in your warehouse, so set up your picked, sort, delivery, assembly and returns locations before you fill in Location Information. Mastering Stock Locations in Helm shows how.
Changing the Warehouse Mode is for an owner or an administrator. Everything else on the page depends on your permission group.

Note: each site you run is its own Helm company with its own warehouse page. To set up a second site, read Adding a Warehouse, then switch into the new company and come back to this article.

Reading the Page

The page is split into two columns. The left column holds the settings you edit and save in blocks; the right column holds the mode, a summary of your locations and the panels for the Warehouse App and tracking rules.

Panel	What it holds
Warehouse Information	The warehouse's Name, Location Structure and Description.
Location Information	The five default locations, plus Location Settings with the Remove Empty Stock Locations switch.
Auto-Archive	A switch for each job type (Picks, Delivery and Movement) and when its completed jobs are archived.
Warehouse Mode	Shows Full or Basic, with a pencil icon to change it.
Empty Locations	The percentage of your locations holding no stock, the total number of Locations, and Go To Location List.
Address	The Warehouse Address and its contact details, with a pencil icon to edit them.
Warehouse App Settings	The rules pickers and operatives follow in the Mobile App. Click Show More to see them all.
Serial Validation, Batch Settings & Barcode Settings	How strictly Helm checks serial numbers, batches and barcodes.

How to Set Up Your Warehouse in Helm

Work down the left column first, saving each block as you go, then set the panels on the right.

Go to Settings and, under Company Settings, click Warehouse.
In Warehouse Information:
1. Enter a Name your team already uses for the site.
2. Choose a Location Structure: Locations if your stock sits in one open space, or Locations and Zones if the building is split into areas such as a chilled room, a mezzanine or a bulk store.
3. Add a Description if it helps new starters or anyone switching between sites.
4. Click Save Changes.
In Location Information, choose a location for each default (see Default Locations below), decide whether to switch on Remove Empty Stock Locations, then click Save Changes.
In Auto-Archive, switch on each job type you want tidied away automatically, choose when its completed jobs are archived, then click Save Changes.
In Address, click the pencil icon on Warehouse Address and check the contact name, email, phone number and full address. Couriers collect from this address, and it is what prints on a transfer sent to this site.
In Warehouse App Settings, click Show More and set the rules your team should follow on the floor.
Set Serial Validation Mode, Enforce Single Batch Per Location and Allow Barcode Reuse to match how you track stock.

Heads up: Clear beside each Save Changes button discards what you have typed in that block since you last saved. Save each block before moving to the next.

Default Locations

Default locations are where Helm puts stock automatically at each stage, so nobody has to choose a location every time. Each one is picked from the locations already set up in your warehouse.

Field	What Helm uses it for
Default Picked Location	Where items go once they have been picked, ready for packing.
Default Sort Location	Where picked items wait to be sorted into orders, for example before the sort wall.
Default Delivery Location	Where stock from a delivery is placed when it is booked in, before it is put away.
Default Assembly Location	Where components are brought together to be assembled into a finished product.
Default Returns Location	Where returned items are received and checked.

Remove Empty Stock Locations

With this switched on, when a product has no stock left in a location, Helm removes that location from the product's list of stock locations. The location itself stays in your warehouse, ready for the next stock to go in. It keeps product records tidy in warehouses where stock moves around a lot, such as pallet spaces that hold a different product each week.

Auto-Archive

Auto-Archive moves completed jobs off your working lists after a set time, so your team sees today's work rather than last month's. Archived jobs are not deleted: they stay in Helm for history and reporting.

Switch on Picks, Delivery or Movement and choose when its completed jobs are archived: midnight on the same day, after three days, one week, one month or one year.

Tip: busy sites usually archive picks at midnight so each shift starts with a clean list, and keep deliveries for a week or a month so purchasing can still check what arrived.

Warehouse App Settings

These switches decide what the Warehouse App asks of your team. Click Show More to see the full list.

Setting	What it does when switched on
Hide Unassigned Jobs	Shows only tasks assigned to a user in the outstanding jobs list.
Hide Zone Details	Hides the zone wherever locations are displayed.
Require Tote Scan in Bulk Sort	Pickers must scan the tote barcode during bulk sorting, so items go into the right tote.
Require Location Scan	Pickers must scan the location barcode, so they pick from the right place.
Require Item Scan	Every item must be scanned during picking and moving.
Require Change Reasons	Users must give a reason for every stock adjustment.
Allow "Location Skip"	Lets users skip a location during a stock check.
Allow "Product Not Found"	Lets pickers skip an item they cannot find in its location.
Print After Pick	Prints the shipping label automatically after an order-by-order pick in the Android app.
Count Injection Percentage	A slider setting the percentage of items that must be counted during each picking session.

Tip: a low Count Injection Percentage, such as five, builds counting into everyday picking. Your stock gets checked a little at a time without stopping despatch for a full count.

Serial, Batch & Barcode Settings

Setting	What it does when switched on
Serial Validation Mode	Serial numbers must be validated during shipment processing for products with serial tracking.
Enforce Single Batch Per Location	Only one batch number can be held in each stock location. Switch it off to allow several batches in the same location.
Allow Barcode Reuse	The same barcode can be assigned to more than one product. Switch it off to keep every barcode unique.

For how batches and serial numbers work day to day, read Batches & Expiry Dates and Serial Numbers.

Changing the Warehouse Mode

The Warehouse Mode panel shows whether this warehouse runs in Full or Basic. To change it, click the pencil icon, choose the mode and click Change. Understanding Warehousing Modes in Helm compares the two in full.

Warning: moving from Full to Basic permanently deletes this warehouse's picks, movements, locations and deliveries. Helm lists how many of each will go before you confirm. Agree the change with whoever runs the warehouse first.

Getting the Most Out of Your Warehouse Settings

Name the Site the Way Your Team Says It

The warehouse name appears wherever stock and locations are shown. A name your team already uses out loud saves confusion, especially once you run more than one site.

Add Scanning Rules One at a Time

Switch on one rule, such as Require Location Scan, and give the team a week with it before adding the next. Accuracy improves without the floor slowing down all at once.

Keep the Address Current

Couriers collect from the Warehouse Address, so update it before a move rather than after the first missed collection.

FAQ

Why can't I see Location Information or Warehouse App Settings?

Your warehouse is running in Basic mode. Those settings appear once the mode is set to Full. Warehouse Settings in Basic Mode covers what the page holds in Basic.

Does Auto-Archive delete my jobs?

No. Archived jobs are moved off your working lists but stay in Helm for history and reporting.

Why is a location missing from the default location list?

The list only shows locations that already exist in this warehouse. Create the location first, then come back and choose it.

How do I set up a second site?

Each site runs as its own Helm company with its own warehouse page. Read Adding a Warehouse, then switch into the new company to set up its warehouse.

If something on your warehouse page does not match this article, contact support with your warehouse name and the team can check its settings.

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