Mastering Stock Locations in Helm

Set up where each product lives in your warehouse in Helm WMS, which location pickers go to first, and how pick faces stay topped up from storage.

What Stock Locations Do

Every product in Helm has a Stock Locations panel on its item page. It lists each location that holds the product, how much stock sits there, which location pickers are sent to first, and which locations feed the others when stock runs low.

Most products need two kinds of location: a pick face that pickers can reach quickly, and a storage location that holds the bulk. Set them up well and pickers always find stock where they expect it, while Helm works out when the pick face needs topping up from storage.

Example scenario: a wireless charger sells around 40 units a day. Pickers take it from a shelf at A-02-03, which holds up to 60 units, while a pallet of 480 sits in bulk storage at B-14-01. With the shelf first in the pick order and set to be replenished from the pallet, a morning replenishment run tops the shelf back up before the first wave of picking starts.

Before You Start

Your warehouse needs full stock control. The Stock Locations panel only appears when your warehouse runs in Full mode. You can see this as Warehouse Mode on your warehouse's settings page. On Basic, a product carries one stock figure with no locations.
The locations must already exist in Helm. On a product you choose locations from a list rather than typing new ones. Create them first, as described in the next section.
Whether a location is pickable is set on the location, not the product. A Non-Pickable location only ever supplies stock to other locations, so plan your bulk storage as Non-Pickable and your pick faces as Pickable.
Batch-tracked products work slightly differently. Their panel is called Batch Stock Locations and has no replenishment settings. See Batches & Expiry Dates.
You need inventory permissions. If you cannot edit the panel, ask whoever administers Helm for your business to check your permission group.

Creating Locations for Your Warehouse

Every shelf, bay or floor space that holds stock needs a location in Helm before you can assign products to it.

Go to Settings and, under Company Settings, open your warehouse.
Choose Go To Location List to see every location in the warehouse. The list is shown in Visit Order, and you can drag locations up or down it at any time to change the route pickers follow.
Click Create Location.
Fill in the location's details:
1. Location Code: the code printed on the shelf label. Once a code is entered, Location Code Preview shows its barcode, which you can Download to print a label.
2. Zone: the area of the warehouse the location belongs to, such as a fast-pick zone.
3. Location Type: what the location is used for, using the table below.
4. Visit Order: the order pickers walk the warehouse in. Helm sends pickers from location to location in Visit Order, including on the mobile app, so number your locations in the order you want them walked.
5. Storage Type: Pickable, split into PCS for single units and Containers for cartons or cases, or Non-Pickable for bulk storage that pickers are never sent to.
6. Storage Cost Group (optional): the group used to charge for storage, if you bill clients for it.
Open Advanced if you need more detail, such as a Colour, Location Category, Max Items or the location's dimensions.
Click Create Location.

Location Type	Use it for
Storage	Shelves, bays and pallet spaces that hold stock. Pick faces and bulk storage are both Storage locations.
Goods-In	Where deliveries are booked in before being put away.
Goods-Out	Where picked stock waits to be packed and despatched.
Sort Wall	A sort wall used to split picked stock into orders.
Returns	Where returned stock is held until it is checked.
Assembly	Where products are assembled.

For more than a handful of locations, create them in one go from a spreadsheet instead. See Importing & Exporting Location Codes with a Spreadsheet.

Reading a Product's Stock Locations Panel

This is the panel on a product's item page, not the warehouse Location List. Each row is one location holding this product.

Column	What it tells you
Action Priority	The order in which locations are used for picking. The top row is used first.
Location Code	The location's code, with its zone underneath.
Location Type	The location's Location Type and Storage Type, for example Storage and Pickable. Replenishment only draws stock from Storage locations.
Replenishment	The location's part in replenishment: Source, Replenish or Ignore. Click the cell to change it.
Stock	Unallocated stock against physical stock in that location. 60 / 66 means 66 units are there and six of them are already allocated to orders.
Max Level	The most this location should hold. Helm warns you if a move would take it over this figure.
Actions	The ... menu, with Edit Stock, Create Stock Movement and Delete.

How to Set Up a Product's Stock Locations in Helm

Open the product. Go to Inventory, open the product, then expand Stock Locations.
Add each location that holds the product.
1. Click + to open Add Location.
2. Start typing in Location and choose the location from the list.
3. Enter the quantity in Location Stock and choose a Reason.
4. Click Add Location. Repeat for every location that holds this product.
Set the Visit Order. Drag the rows so your main pick face is at the top, then any backup pick faces, then storage. Click Save Changes.

Set each location's replenishment role.
1. Click the Replenishment cell on the location to open Edit Replenish Level.
2. Choose the Type, using the table below.
3. For a Replenish location, enter the Replenishment Level, the point at which the location counts as low, and choose the Replenish Multiple, the pack size stock moves in. PCS moves single units; any container sizes set up in the product's Dimensions section also appear here.
4. Click Save Changes.
Set a Max Level on each pick face. Enter the figure in the Max Level column, then click Save Changes at the foot of the panel. Max Level saves with the panel, not with the Edit Replenish Level dialog.
Check the Stock column. Make sure each location shows what is physically on the shelf before anyone starts picking the product.

Replenishment type	Use it for
Source	Bulk storage that supplies stock to pick faces. Every Non-Pickable location is set to Source automatically.
Replenish	Pick faces that should be topped up whenever their unallocated stock falls below the Replenishment Level.
Ignore	Locations you manage by hand, such as quarantine, returns or display stock. They neither give nor receive stock during replenishment.

Once replenishment is set up, Helm does the arithmetic. A Replenish Movement, created under Warehousing > Movements, finds every Replenish location below its level and builds the job to top it up from Source locations. For how the quantities are worked out, see Stock Levels & Replenishment; for running the job itself, see Movements.

Changing Stock in a Location

Use the ... menu on a row for day-to-day changes:

Edit Stock opens Stock Count. Enter the New Qty and a Reason to correct the count in that location.
Create Stock Movement moves stock from this location to another one. See Movements.
Delete removes the location from this product.

Move or count out any stock before you delete a location from a product, so the product's total stock stays correct.

Every change made here is recorded with the reason you chose. To see who changed what and when, open Stock Logs from the product.

Example: Setting Up a Fast Seller

A wireless charger, WPC-BLK, arrives on a pallet of 480 units.
You add two locations on its Stock Locations panel: A-02-03, a pickable shelf, with 48 units, and B-14-01, a Non-Pickable bulk location, with the remaining 432.
You drag A-02-03 to the top of the panel so pickers always go there first.
B-14-01 is already set to Source. You set A-02-03 to Replenish, with a Replenishment Level of 20 and a Replenish Multiple of 12, because the charger comes in cartons of 12.
The shelf holds five cartons, so you set its Max Level to 60 and save.
By the end of the day A-02-03 is down to 14 unallocated units, below its Replenishment Level of 20, so the next morning's Replenish Movement tops it up from B-14-01 in whole cartons of 12.

Best Practices & Notes

Keep One Main Pick Face per Product

A single primary pick face keeps picking fast and predictable. Add a second pickable location only for very high-volume products, and keep it directly below the main one in the pick order.

Size Max Level to the Shelf

Set Max Level to what the shelf can physically hold, so Helm warns you before more stock is moved in than will fit.

Set the Replenishment Level Above a Busy Morning

The Replenishment Level should cover the stock picked between replenishment runs. If a pick face regularly empties before the next run, raise the level rather than adding extra runs.

Keep Location Codes Readable

Codes that follow a consistent aisle, bay and shelf pattern double as directions on the floor. If you use the Warehouse Mapping Tool, see Assigning Helm Location Codes to Your Map.

Decide Whether Empty Locations Should Clear Themselves

Your warehouse's settings page has a Remove Empty Stock Locations option, which removes a location from a product once no stock is left there. Turn it on to keep panels tidy where stock moves around often. Leave it off if a pick face should stay assigned to its product even while it is empty, so replenishment can refill it.

Review Locations After a Layout Change

When racking moves or a zone is repurposed, move the stock and remove old locations from products, then drag the Location List back into the order pickers should now walk. That way pickers are never sent to a shelf that no longer exists, or across the building and back.

FAQ

Why won't the Replenishment cell open?

The location's Storage Type is Non-Pickable, so it can only be Source. On a batch-tracked product, the panel is Batch Stock Locations and has no Replenishment column.

Why does the Stock column show two numbers?

The first is unallocated stock and the second is physical stock. The difference is stock already allocated to open orders.

Are Max Level and Maximum Level the same thing?

No. Max Level on a stock location is the most that one location should hold. Maximum Level in Purchase Order Controls caps the product's total stock, so it limits buying. See Stock Levels & Replenishment.

Manual Inventory Creation: setting up the rest of a product's item page.
Stock Levels & Replenishment: reorder levels and how replenishment quantities are worked out.
Movements: creating and working Replenish, Instant and Delivery movements.
Importing & Exporting Location Codes with a Spreadsheet: creating locations in bulk.
Stock Logs: checking every change to a product's stock.

If a product's locations still behave unexpectedly, contact support with the product code and the location codes involved, and the team can check the settings behind them.

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