Units of Measure

A unit of measure (UoM) defines how a product is quantified — by weight, length, volume, count, or any other dimension. Units are used throughout Beelocity: inventory tracking, purchasing, sales, and shipping all rely on units to express quantities accurately.

Getting units right is important because the same product is often measured differently in different contexts. You might buy flour in 50 kg bags from a supplier, track it in kilograms in your warehouse, sell it in 1 kg packets to clients, and ship it on pallets — Beelocity handles all the conversions automatically, as long as you have defined the right units and conversion factors.

Unit Categories

Every unit belongs to a category that defines its dimension — the physical quantity it measures. Units within the same category can be converted between each other; units in different categories cannot (you cannot convert kilograms to meters).

Global vs. Organization Units

Beelocity provides two levels of units:

Global Units

A standard set of metric and imperial units is available to all organizations out of the box. These cover the most common measurements (meters, kilograms, liters, pieces, etc.) and are read-only — you cannot modify or delete them, ensuring consistency across the platform. Their names are Beelocity’s own, so they are written in whatever language you read the app in; a unit you add yourself is your text and appears exactly as you typed it.

Organization-Specific Units

You can create custom units tailored to your industry. For example:

• A textile business might define “Bolt” as a custom Count unit (one bolt = a roll of fabric).
• A beverage company might define “Crate” as 24 bottles.
• A construction supplier might define “Truck Load” for bulk deliveries.

Custom units are scoped to your organization — they are not visible to other organizations.

Conversions

A conversion defines the mathematical relationship between two units in the same category. Conversions are what allow Beelocity to automatically translate quantities between different units.

Examples

One step at a time

A conversion converts directly between its two units, in either direction: with 1 kg = 1,000 g defined, Beelocity converts kilograms into grams and grams into kilograms. It does not chain two conversions through a third unit, so to convert kilograms into milligrams, define that pair as well. Keeping each conversion explicit means a figure on a document is always one multiplication away from the stock it moves.

Product Unit Assignments

A single product can use different units for different operational contexts. This is critical for real-world workflows where the way you buy, store, sell, and ship a product are all different:

Example Workflow

A soft drink distributor might set up a product like this:

• Purchase unit: Pallet (you buy full pallets from the manufacturer)
• Stock unit: Bottle (you track individual bottles in the warehouse)
• Sales unit: Crate of 24 (you sell by the crate to shops)
• Shipping unit: Pallet (you ship full pallets to clients)

Each assignment carries a conversion factor: how many of the stock unit one of its unit holds. Here the crate’s factor is 24 and the pallet’s is 1,200, both counted in bottles. With those in place, Beelocity converts every document automatically: receiving a pallet adds 1,200 bottles to stock, and selling 3 crates takes 72 bottles out.

How a document’s unit reaches stock

Each product’s stock is counted in one unit, its stocking unit (Stock Levels). A receipt, a delivery, a sale at the till, a transfer, a count or a part issued to a repair, written in any other unit, is converted before it reaches the stock:

1. The product’s own factors first. Where both units are on the product’s Units tab, their factors decide: a crate is 24 bottles of this drink, whatever another drink’s crate holds.
2. Then the standard conversions between two units of the same category: a kilogram is 1,000 grams.
3. Otherwise the document is refused before anything moves, with a message saying what to do: add the conversion on the product’s Units tab, or write the line in the stocking unit.

A factor left at 1 on a unit that is not the stocking unit says the two are the same size. Set it when you add the unit.

The assignments live on the product’s Units tab. On a product with many of them, the tab’s filter button narrows the rows by Unit, by Usage (stock, purchase, sales…), or to the Default and Active ones (see Working with lists).

A line’s unit is one of the product’s units

On every line that names a product — a quotation, an order, an invoice, a purchase order, a receipt, a movement, a transfer, a count, a bill of materials, a spare part — the Unit picker offers the units on the product’s Units tab, whatever their usage, and nothing else. It waits for the product: until one is picked, it offers no unit. A unit typed in through another route is refused with a message saying to pick one of the product’s units, or to add it on the Units tab first. A product with no unit on its Units tab takes any unit.

Precision and Rounding

Each unit has configurable settings for how numbers are handled:

Decimal Precision

How many decimal places to use when displaying quantities in this unit. Examples:

• Pieces: 0 decimal places (you cannot have 2.5 pieces)
• Kilograms: 2 decimal places (2.50 kg is common)
• Liters: 3 decimal places (for precision measurements)

Rounding Method

Managing Units

Navigate to Inventory → Setup and its Units of Measure tab to manage everything:

• Unit categories — view existing categories and create custom ones for your industry. The list searches by code or name, sorts by any column, and its filter button narrows it by Dimension, to the Global (shipped) or your own categories, or to Active ones (see Working with lists). A new category’s Code is already filled in with the next one (UCAT-000001). Keep it, clear it to be given the next one when you save, or type your own (PACKAGING) and it is kept, in capitals. The shipped categories keep their own codes (WEIGHT, LENGTH, …).
• Units — create, edit, and manage units within each category. Global units are shown as read-only; your custom units are fully editable. A unit’s code is yours to type, and is kept in capitals: pk is saved as PK, in the category’s grid as on its page. The tab searches by code, name or symbol, and its filter button narrows by Rounding, a Decimals band, or the Base Unit, Global and Active flags.
• Conversions — define how units in the same category relate to each other. Both unit cells offer only the category’s own units, and a pair across categories (kilograms into pieces) or a unit into itself is refused with a message saying so. The tab searches by either unit’s code and narrows by From Unit, To Unit, a Factor band, or Active.

Tips

• Set up units before creating products — products reference units, so having your unit structure in place first makes product creation smoother.
• Define conversions from larger to smaller — it is more intuitive and less error-prone. “1 Box = 24 Pieces” is clearer than “1 Piece = 0.0417 Boxes”.
• Use custom units for industry-specific measures — do not try to fit everything into standard units. If your team talks about “bolts” or “crates”, create those units so the system speaks the same language as your warehouse floor.
• Be precise with decimal settings — too few decimal places can cause rounding errors in conversions. Too many create false precision. Match the precision to how your industry actually measures things.