Bin Locations

Bin locations tell your staff where each prop lives in your warehouse: a shelf, rack, bay, tray or room. Once your items have bin locations, your staff can:

• Scan a bin's QR code label to see every item stored in it
• Scan item QR codes to store them in a bin
• Pull orders faster, because "Stored at" appears on pull sheets, packing lists and checkout sheets
• Sort and filter items and line items by bin location

You can manage your bin locations on your Dashboard's Inventory Bin Locations page.

Plan your bin IDs

Every bin location has an ID, and the ID is what gets saved on your items and printed on labels. Take a few minutes to plan a naming scheme before you create bins, because a bin's ID can't be changed after you create it.

Rules for bin IDs:

• 2 to 20 characters
• Letters, numbers and hyphens only. Spaces and other characters are removed. An import rejects them instead, so two IDs can't turn into one.
• Always uppercase. a-01 is saved as A-01.

A common scheme follows the physical layout of your warehouse, from the largest area to the smallest:

Bin ID	Meaning
A-01-03	Aisle A, rack 01, shelf 03
MEZZ-12	Mezzanine, bay 12
TRAY-0045	Small-props tray 45

tip

Use the same number of digits in every number (A-01, A-02 … A-10, not A-1 … A-10).

Bin lookups match on the start of the ID. With unpadded numbers, looking up bin A-1 also shows the items in A-10 through A-19. With padded numbers, A-01 only matches A-01 and the bins inside it, such as A-01-03.

This also makes your bins sort in the right order. IDs sort alphabetically, so A-10 comes before A-2, but A-02 comes before A-10.

Because lookups match the start of the ID, a nested scheme gives you drill-down for free: scanning or filtering by A-01 lists every item on every shelf of rack A-01.

Create a bin location

1. Go to the Inventory Bin Locations page.
2. Click New Bin Location.
3. Enter:
   • ID (required): the bin's permanent ID. See Plan your bin IDs.
   • Title: optional, up to 64 characters. For example, Aisle A, Rack 1, Shelf 3.
   • Description: optional, up to 128 characters. For example, Glassware only.
   • The title are only used on the QR Code labels.
4. Click Save.

If the ID is already taken, you'll see "This ID already exists."

The title and description are printed on the bin's QR code label, so keep them short and useful to someone standing in the aisle.

You can also create a bin location while editing an item. See Assign items to a bin location.

Find, edit and delete bin locations

The Bin Locations page lists every bin with its ID, Title, Description and Created date.

• Search: filter by ID or Title, either an exact match or "starts with".
• Filter by date: use the Created date range. A date range can't be combined with an ID or Title search.
• View a bin's items: click the bin's ID to open your Items list filtered to that bin.
• Edit: click anywhere else on the row. You can change the Title and Description, but not the ID.
• Delete: open the bin, click the … menu, then Delete Bin Location.

caution

There is no undo. After you delete a bin location, you'll be asked whether to clear it from the items stored in it:

• Clear Bin Locations: those items are left with no bin location. Find them later with the Items list's Missing bin location filter.
• No: those items keep the deleted bin's ID.

To move the items to another bin instead, click the bin's ID to see its items and move them before you delete it.

Export your bin locations

Click the down arrow next to New Bin Location, then Export Spreadsheet. You'll get a CSV file with the ID, Title, Description, Created At and Updated At of every bin that matches your current filters.

Developers can also fetch bin locations from the Propcart API.

If you have more than 10,000 bin locations, the export downloads as several files of up to 10,000 rows each.

Import bin locations

Create bin locations in bulk, or update the titles and descriptions of the ones you have, from a CSV file.

1. On the Bin Locations page, click the down arrow next to New Bin Location, then Import Bin Locations.
2. Upload your CSV file. To start from your current bin locations, click download your bin locations, edit that file, then upload it.
3. Map your columns to the ID, Title and Description fields. Your Dashboard remembers your mapping on that device for the next import.
4. Click Next. Propcart checks every row and lists any errors by column and row number. Fix them in your file, then click Re-upload CSV file.
5. Review the summary, then click Complete Import.

How each row is imported:

• The ID decides what happens. If a bin location with that ID already exists, the row updates it. If not, the row creates a new one. IDs are matched in capitals, so a-01 updates A-01.
• New IDs follow the ID rules: 2 to 20 characters, using letters, numbers and hyphens. A row that breaks them is listed as an error, not changed.
• An ID can only appear once in a file.
• Titles can be up to 64 characters and descriptions up to 128.
• Leave out a column to keep what's there. If your file has no Description column, or you don't map it, every existing bin location keeps its description. A blank cell in a mapped column clears that field, and the summary warns you how many bin locations it will clear.
• Bin locations that aren't in your file are left as they are. An import never deletes a bin location.
• Rows that already match their bin location are skipped.

A file can have up to 10,000 rows. If your export downloaded as several files, import each one.

tip

Before an import that changes existing bin locations, click downloading a backup bin locations CSV on the summary step. If something goes wrong, import the backup to put the titles and descriptions back.

Print bin QR code labels

Put a QR code label on each shelf, rack or tray so staff can scan it to see what should be there.

1. On the Bin Locations page, click the down arrow next to New Bin Location, then Print QR Code Labels.
2. Choose a Label Template:
   • Tray Label - 70mm x 20mm (default): the ID is printed in bold red, with the title and description beside it.
   • Avery 5160/8160 - 1" x 2-5/8": standard US address labels.
3. Choose how to pick bins under Generate IDs by:
   • A Range of Existing IDs only: enter a Start At and End At ID. Every bin whose ID sorts between them (inclusive) is printed, in order.
   • Specific IDs: under Print only these IDs, type each ID separated by a space. IDs that don't exist are skipped.
4. Optional: enter Skip this many Labels to start printing partway through a label sheet you've already used.
5. Click Export. A PDF opens in a new tab, ready to print.

Both templates print on US Letter paper, three labels per row.

For tips on durable labels, magnetic strips for pallet racks and Bluetooth scanners, see QR Code Labels.

Scan a bin's QR code

Scan a bin label with a phone camera, the Dashboard's QR code scanner, or a Bluetooth scanner. It opens your Dashboard's Items list, filtered to items whose bin location starts with that bin's ID and sorted by bin location.

Your staff must be signed in to the Dashboard with permission to view items. Customers who scan a bin label can't see anything.

This is a quick way to:

• Check what's supposed to be on a shelf
• Find a missing item by checking the bins near where it should be
• Run a physical inventory audit one bin at a time

Assign items to a bin location

An item has one bin location. There are several ways to set it.

Scan items into a bin

This is the fastest way to store a batch of items, such as a cart of returns.

1. Open the bin on the Bin Locations page.
2. Click the … menu, then Store Items via QR Code.
3. Scan each item's QR code label.

Each scanned item is moved into the bin, and you'll see "Item SKU updated with bin location ID." If an item is already in that bin, you'll be told so and nothing changes. If you scan a SKU that doesn't exist yet, you can add it as a new item right away.

Every move is recorded in the item's activity log.

Edit an item

On the item's page, fill in the Bin Location field. Click the icon next to the field to switch between two entry modes:

• Use keyboard: a searchable menu of your bin locations. Type part of an ID or title to find a bin. If you type an ID that doesn't exist yet, a new bin location is created for you.
• Use scanner: a plain text box. Click into it and scan the bin's QR code label with a Bluetooth scanner. Only the bin ID is kept. You can also type the ID.

Your Dashboard remembers which mode you last used on that device.

The Bin Location field is also on the item's Advanced tab.

A new replica starts with its master's bin location. After that, each replica keeps its own bin location, so moving the master doesn't move its replicas. Set a replica's bin location on its Advanced tab.

Bulk import

To set bin locations for many items at once, use the bulk import with Upsert Items or Update Items. On the "Map your column headings" step, map your bin column to the Storage Location field.

An item import doesn't create bin locations. Create the bins first, one at a time or with an import, so they appear on the Bin Locations page and can be printed as labels.

Other ways

• Duplicate an item: the copy starts in the same bin as the original.
• Merge items: choose which item's bin location to keep.

Where bin locations appear

Dashboard

• Items list: each item shows its bin location. Sort by Bin Location: A → Z, or filter by bin location (exact, "starts with", or Missing to find items with no bin).
• Search: the Dashboard search bar finds items by bin location.
• Item QR code labels: print item labels for A Range of Existing Bin Locations. Several item label templates also print the item's bin. See QR Code Labels.
• Line items: the line item's Item Summary shows its bin location. On the Sales Line Items page you can filter and sort by bin location.
• Adding and returning items on an order: type a bin location into the "Add item" or "Return item" box to find items by bin.
• Reports: the Performance Report can be grouped by bin location.

Paperwork

Pull sheets, packing lists, pickup sheets, checkout sheets, return sheets, outstanding items lists, quotes and deposit requests show each item's bin as Stored at. Invoices don't.

To print paperwork in bin order so staff can walk the warehouse in one pass, set Line Item Sort to Bin Location in your order paperwork settings.

note

A line item copies the item's bin location when the item is added to an order. If you move the item to a different bin later, orders it's already on keep showing the old bin.

Your webstore and set lists

On most Propcart Pro Webstores, an item's page shows "Stored at" with its bin location. If you'd rather customers didn't see your bin locations, contact support and we'll hide it on your webstore.

When customers share or export a set list, they can choose to include each item's bin location. It's off by default.

Permissions

Bin locations use your team members' existing item permissions:

To…	Requires
View bin locations and print bin labels	View items
Create a bin location	Create items
Edit a bin location, or store items via QR code	Edit items
Import bin locations	Create items, plus Edit items to update existing bin locations
Delete a bin location	Delete items

FAQs

Can I rename a bin location's ID?

No. Create a new bin location with the new ID, move the items to it, then delete the old one. To move many items, export them with the old bin location, change the bin column in your spreadsheet, and re-import with Update Items.

Why does scanning bin A1 also show items in A10?

Bin lookups match the start of the ID. Use padded numbers like A01. See Plan your bin IDs.

Can an item be in more than one bin?

No, an item has one bin location. If you keep several of an item in different places, use the bin where most of them are, or put the other places in the item's notes.

I deleted a bin, but items still show it

When you deleted it, you chose No when asked to clear it from its items. Filter your Items list by that bin location to find them, then move them to another bin or clear their bin location.