Warehouses and Locations

A warehouse is a facility — physical or virtual — where your organization stores inventory.

A warehouse is a facility — physical or virtual — where your organization stores inventory. Within each warehouse, zones define functional areas and locations pinpoint exactly where products sit, down to individual shelves and bins.

This three-level hierarchy (warehouse > zone > location) gives you precise control over where every item is stored, enabling efficient picking, receiving, and inventory management.

Warehouse Types

Type	What it represents	When to use
Physical	A real building — a warehouse, fulfillment center, factory stockroom, or retail back room.	Your standard storage facility where goods physically exist.
Virtual	Inventory you do not physically hold — drop-ship stock, consignment goods at a partner’s location, or stock in transit.	When you need to track inventory that exists but is not in your physical possession.
Returns	A dedicated facility (or area) for receiving and processing customer returns.	When returned goods go through inspection and sorting before being re-shelved or disposed of.
Transit	Represents goods currently moving between locations.	When you need to track in-transit inventory during transfers between warehouses.
Supplier site	The supplier’s own premises, holding stock that is still yours.	When a subcontractor works your material on their site and you need to see it as stock you own.

Most organizations start with one or two Physical warehouses and add other types as their operations grow.

Creating a Warehouse

Go to Warehouses in the sidebar under Inventory and click New.
Fill in:
- Name — a descriptive name (e.g., “Main Warehouse — Algiers”, “Returns Center — Oran”).
- Code — a unique short identifier (e.g., WH-ALG, RET-ORN).
- Type — Physical, Virtual, Returns, Transit, or Supplier site.
- Address — the physical location: address lines, city, state/wilaya, postal code, and country.
- Contact information — name, email, and phone for the warehouse’s primary contact person.
Save.

After creation, you can set up zones and locations within the warehouse.

The Warehouses list searches by code, name, city or contact, and its filter button narrows it by Type, to the Default warehouse, or to Active / retired ones (see Working with lists).

Zones

A zone is a functional area within a warehouse. Zones model the workflow of goods through your facility — from the moment a shipment arrives to the moment it leaves.

Zone Type	What happens here	Example location
Receiving	Incoming shipments are unloaded, inspected, and checked against purchase orders.	The loading dock and adjacent staging area.
Storage	Long-term storage of inventory that is not immediately needed.	The main racking area of the warehouse.
Picking	Items are collected from their storage positions to fulfill orders.	A forward-pick area close to packing, stocked with fast-moving items.
Packing	Picked items are packaged, labeled, and prepared for shipment.	A packing bench area near the shipping dock.
Shipping	Packed orders wait here for carrier pickup or dispatch.	The outbound staging area.
Quarantine	Items held for quality inspection, regulatory checks, or investigation.	A locked or restricted section of the warehouse.
Returns	Returned goods are received, inspected, and routed — back to stock, to disposal, or to the vendor.	A dedicated area near receiving.

Managing Zones

From the warehouse list, click on a warehouse to open its page, then go to the Zones tab. It searches by code or name, and its filter button narrows by Type or Active. You can:

Create zones — add functional areas and specify their type.
Edit zones — rename them or change their type as your workflow evolves, either inline or on the zone’s own page, which shows every zone property in one place.
Deactivate zones — remove zones no longer in use without deleting historical data.

Not every warehouse needs every zone type. A small stockroom might only have Storage and Shipping. A large distribution center might use all seven.

Locations

A location is a specific position inside a warehouse where products are stored. Locations follow a physical hierarchy that mirrors the real layout of your facility:

Location Type	What it is	Example
Aisle	A corridor or passageway between storage structures.	Aisle A, Aisle B, Aisle C
Rack	A shelving structure or pallet racking unit within an aisle.	Rack A-01, Rack A-02
Shelf	A horizontal level on a rack.	Shelf A-01-3 (third shelf on rack A-01)
Bin	An individual slot, container, or compartment on a shelf.	Bin A-01-3-B (second bin on shelf A-01-3)
Floor	Open floor storage for pallets, large items, or bulk goods.	Floor-F1, Floor-F2

Location Properties

Each location tracks detailed information for warehouse management:

Property	Description
Code	A unique identifier within the warehouse (e.g., `A-01-3-B`).
Barcode	An optional barcode value for scanning with handheld devices.
Position coordinates (X, Y, Z)	Physical coordinates for warehouse mapping and pick-path optimization. X is the aisle position, Y is the shelf height, Z is the depth.
Maximum weight	The weight capacity of this location (e.g., 500 kg for a shelf, 2,000 kg for a floor position).
Maximum volume	The volume capacity (e.g., 2 cubic meters).
Status	The current state of the location: Available, Full, Reserved, Blocked, or In maintenance.
Pickable flag	Whether items can be picked from this location for order fulfillment.
Receivable flag	Whether incoming goods can be placed into this location during putaway.

Managing Locations

From the warehouse page, go to the Locations tab. It searches by code, name or barcode, and its filter button narrows by Type, Status, or the Pickable, Receivable and Active flags — “every pickable bin that is full” is two picks. You can:

Create locations — define new storage positions with their type, code, barcode, capacity, and coordinates.
Edit locations — update capacity, status, or flags as the warehouse layout changes. The tab covers the everyday fields; open a location’s own page to manage everything else — its zone assignment, parent location (a bin on a shelf, a shelf on a rack), map coordinates, and capacity limits.
Set status — mark locations as Full, Reserved, or In maintenance to control their availability.

A location cannot be filed inside itself, nor inside a location it already contains — a rack inside one of its own bins. Beelocity refuses that change and says so; pick a parent that sits above the location in the structure.

Warehouse Map

For a visual view of every warehouse, zone, and location in one place, open Inventory > Warehouse Map in the sidebar. Pick a warehouse to drill into its zones and locations — the map uses each location’s position coordinates (X, Y, Z) to draw a layout you can scan at a glance.

Location Naming Conventions

A consistent naming convention makes locations easy to find and communicate:

A-01-3-B = Aisle A, Rack 01, Shelf 3, Bin B
B-05-2-F = Aisle B, Rack 05, Shelf 2, Bin F
FLOOR-01 = Floor position 1 (for pallets or oversized items)

Choose a convention that matches your physical layout and stick with it. When someone radios “pull item from A-01-3-B”, everyone should know exactly where that is.

Product Location Assignments

A product location assignment links a product (or specific variant) to a location, telling the system where that product should be stored, picked from, or received into.

Assignment Type	Purpose	Example
Default	The primary storage location for this product.	“Bluetooth Speakers go in A-03-2-A”
Picking	The preferred location for order fulfillment — often a forward-pick area closer to packing for fast-moving items.	“Fast-moving T-shirts are picked from PICK-01”
Receiving	Where incoming stock should be placed during putaway after a goods receipt.	“New phone deliveries go to RCV-ELEC”
Overflow	A secondary location used when the default location is full.	“When A-03-2-A is full, overflow to A-03-3-A”

Assignment Properties

Each assignment can have:

Priority — when multiple locations are assigned the same type for a product (e.g., two default locations), priority determines which one is preferred.
Validity period — start and end dates for the assignment, useful for seasonal arrangements (e.g., holiday products move to a front-of-warehouse location from November through January).

Managing Assignments

Product location assignments are managed from their own page, accessible from the Products section. You can assign products and variants to specific locations, set the assignment type and priority, and configure validity dates.

Tips

Start simple — you do not need to define every bin on day one. Start with warehouses and zones, then add locations as you refine your warehouse operations. Many small businesses work fine with just warehouse-level tracking initially.
Use location codes that match physical labels — if the shelves in your warehouse are labeled A-01 through A-20, use the same codes in Beelocity. This eliminates confusion and speeds up picking and putaway.
Set capacity limits — defining weight and volume limits on locations prevents overstocking a shelf or bin. The system can warn when a location approaches capacity.
Use the pickable/receivable flags — not every location should be used for every purpose. A high shelf might be for storage only (not pickable), while a receiving dock area is receivable but not a picking location.
Assign products to locations — product location assignments save time during putaway (the system knows where to direct incoming stock) and picking (the system knows where to find items). Without assignments, warehouse staff have to search manually.
Keep zones aligned with your workflow — zones should reflect how goods actually flow through your facility. If your receiving and storage areas are the same space, you might not need separate zones. If they are distinct areas with different staff, separate zones make sense.