Set up your first warehouse

Why warehouse setup matters

Everything in Ops2Sell — inventory counts, picking routes, cross-docking, smart put-away — assumes your physical space is modelled accurately. A few extra minutes here pays back every time a picker hunts for an item or a cycle-count reveals invisible shrinkage.

If your operation is small (< 500 SKUs, one person picking), you can ship with a minimal setup — one warehouse, one "floor" location. If you're running a multi-aisle storage facility or handling cold chain, invest the full 12 minutes below.

Step 1 · Create the warehouse

Go to Warehouse → Warehouses → Add warehouse. Fill in:

• Name — what your team calls it internally (e.g. "Birmingham DC" or "Main"). This shows up in every order routing decision and report, so pick something recognisable.
• Address — real, deliverable address. Used as the default sender on shipping labels and the return address for RMAs.
• Timezone — the clock the warehouse order cut-off and off days are read in when ship-by deadlines are set.
• Cut-off time — the latest an order can be placed and still go same-day. Orders past cut-off get tagged "next dispatch" automatically. Start conservative (e.g. 14:00) and push it later once your pack cycle feels tight.

Step 2 · Model your storage — locations

Ops2Sell locations are a hierarchy: Warehouse → Zone → Aisle → Shelf → Bin. You don't have to use every level. Pick the depth your space actually has.

For a small operation, Warehouse → Bin is enough. Label each shelf or Eurocontainer with a bin code like A-01, A-02, and you're done.

For a proper multi-aisle warehouse, use Warehouse → Aisle → Shelf → Bin. So a bin code might be A-03-B-07 — aisle A, shelf 3B, bin 7. The codes feed into the pick-route optimiser: it walks aisle A once, in sequence, rather than criss-crossing.

Bulk-create locations instead of adding them one by one. On the locations page, click Bulk create and describe the space with patterns like A-{01–40} to generate 40 locations in one click.

Step 3 · Set storage types correctly

Each location gets a type. These drive engine decisions:

• Pick face — the first place pickers look. Keep small quantities of fast-movers here.
• Bulk / reserve — large quantities on pallets or upper shelves. Smart put-away tries to route excess stock here.
• Staging — the zone between goods-in and put-away. Items sit here briefly before being shelved.
• Buffer — short-term holding for cross-docking direct to outbound.
• Dock — goods-out queue waiting for the carrier pickup.
• Quarantine / damaged — excluded from available stock but still tracked.

The one that trips most new setups: staging and buffer. If you don't define these, goods-in has nowhere to land temporarily and the put-away queue doesn't work. Add at least one staging location per dock door.

Step 4 · Print barcode labels

Every location gets a unique barcode that the mobile app scans. On the location list, select all locations → Print barcodes. Ops2Sell generates a PDF of 24×60mm Code-128 labels you stick on each bin.

Labels are Code-128 encoded because it handles alphanumeric bin codes like A-03-B-07 natively. QR codes and Code-39 don't scan reliably in warehouse lighting — stick with the default.

Step 5 · Warehouse settings

Go to Settings → Warehouse. Four settings per warehouse matter most on day one:

• Pick strategy — "Zone pick" is the default and works for most stores. "Wave pick" shines above ~100 daily orders when pickers can be assigned batches.
• Pack QC mode — "scan every SKU" is the strictest and catches most mis-packs at the cost of a few extra seconds per order. "scan-sample" is faster; enable once your pick error rate is under 0.5%.
• Put-away strategy — leave on "smart" unless you have strong rules about where things go. Smart uses consolidation + velocity + dimensions to pick the best home automatically.
• Adjustment approval threshold — above this quantity, stock adjustments require manager approval. Start at 10 units; tighten or loosen based on shrinkage patterns.

Step 6 · Cycle count schedule

Ops2Sell supports ABC cycle counting: fast-movers get counted every month, slow-movers every quarter. To turn it on:

• Go to Warehouse → Cycle counts → Schedule.
• Pick a cadence (weekly is the default — the system picks a subset of locations each week to count).
• Set the ABC thresholds if you know them, otherwise leave as defaults (top 20% by volume → A, next 30% → B, rest → C).

Once enabled, the system queues a count task for pickers on each Monday morning. They complete it alongside normal picks using the mobile app. Discrepancies over the threshold auto-escalate to the manager queue.

Step 7 · Verify

Before connecting a channel, sanity-check:

• You have at least one pick-face and one staging location — otherwise orders won't have routes and goods-in won't land.
• Every location has a printed, stuck-down barcode — scan a handful with the mobile app's scanner to confirm they're readable.
• The warehouse shows up on the dashboard's warehouse selector — if not, you probably need to refresh (or the warehouse is inactive).