How To Setup Your Facility

Your facility configuration in Finale is specific to your workflow requirements and dependent on if you elect to use the barcode scanner.

The location is the top-level of the hierarchy chain. This level is usually synonymous with a physical warehouse location, or it can be used as a virtual location to segment stock. For example, most users maintain their stock in a warehouse, and then they may have additional locations for unsellable inventory or Amazon FBA.

The sublocation is below the location level in the hierarchy chain. This is where the stock for your items is stored. Sublocations are housed inside a location. This is the position of the organizational and storage hierarchy where the user’s decision to-use or not-to-use the barcode scanner application becomes relevant.

If the user doesn’t use the barcode scanner, then it is common to have one main sublocation to store you stock within a location versus having many sublocations due to the automated stock flow requirements of the pull sales integration task. Most users that use this path do not adjust their facility settings, leaving the default main sublocation and warehouse location active.

If you are implementing Finale’s barcode scanner application in your workflow, however, then you have more flexibility with your organization and process. In this workflow, it is more common to have many sublocations, helping organize your shelves throughout your warehouse.

Please note that the standard bin ID field is found on the product detail screen of your product catalog, not in your facility settings.

Workflow Requirements & Settings

In the example above, the user could elect to push stock from the warehouse to the marketplace, not pushing stock from the unsellable location or Amazon FBA location. This is a great example of segementing stock information. In addition, users can push stock from more than one location.

When pulling sales in from the marketplace, you have two stock update options: updating from a specified sublocation or using the barcode scanner.

If you elect to use the first option without the barcoding tool, then a user must select ONLY one sublocation to automate the process. In this workflow, most users just have all stock stored in one main sublocation. As orders are marked shipped through the integration, stock is decremented for all items from the specified sublocation.

If you implement the barcode scanner in your workflow, then it allows you the opportunity to be more granular in your organizational approach, like in the above example for the warehouse location, using a sublocation for each shelf in your warehouse. This is possible since the users will pick the items from the sublocations with the scanner during the picking process.

Similarly to adding locations, users can add sublocations in the same way. Please keep in mind that you must add your locations first and, then, save the changes before adding sublocations in those locations.

It is also important to note that sublocations and locations must have unique names, regardless if they are active or inactive.

Unlike locations, though, Finale has a bulk-entry method for sublocation names: spreadsheet import. The user is required to have two columns: location and sublocation.