The screenshot at right is an example of a case containing eleven items. Items eight and nine have been disposed. Item seven is checked out. The remaining items are in the physical storage location. The user can view the specific location of those items in the 'property room location' column and retrieve them immediately.

Examples of good and bad location setup categorization.

The most common mistake we have observed in storage locations setup is an overall lack of specificity. In the following graphic, a user who tracks an item to shelf 1 (S1) may have to rummage through containers on the entire shelving unit before finding the item in question. However, if all four of the rows on Shelf 1 have been properly categorized, the user can track the item to it's exact physical location and retrieve it much quicker.

The level of specificity in the organization of your storage facilities is entirely up to you. Your ultimate goal is to categorize your locations in a way that allows you to find items quickly. If your locations are too broad, your tracking results will require you to search a larger area to find an item. If your locations are too detailed, more of your time will be required in storage location setup and item placement. Consider your organization's specific needs when setting up your storage locations to find the appropriate balance between the two extremes.

By default, new installs of Tracker Products software have no pre-built storage locations. Determining the available physical storage locations and creating those locations in the tracking system are the responsibility of the customer. This screenshot shows the default location page with no locations yet created.

The locations setup allows you to create a tree structure with unlimited depth. As shown in the screenshots below, many of our customers find it helpful to draw up possible structures before creating the locations in the sysem. We highly recommend this strategy. Create your preliminary storage structure sketches in a word processor to make easy revisions — or simply draw them by hand.

The top of your tree structure should reflect the broadest levels of your item storage. As you move down in levels the scope of your storage facilities and locations should become more specific.

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This is an example of a chart outlining the storage structure at an agency with just one storage location.

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This is an example of a chart outlining the storage structure at an agency with multiple storage locations.