Sage 200 includes warehouse management as one part of a wider finance and operations system. It records stock by warehouse and bin, allocates stock to sales orders and produces picking lists that show where each item sits. For a business that runs finance and stock from one database, that can be enough. A busy warehouse with several clients, handheld scanners and per-client billing usually needs a dedicated WMS working alongside Sage 200, with the WMS running the floor and Sage 200 keeping the financial record.<\/p>\n
Sage’s own product page<\/a> lists warehouse management and batch and serial traceability among the Sage 200 features. The question for most buyers is less whether Sage 200 has a stock function and more how far it goes for the way their warehouse actually runs. Sage’s help documentation describes the Stock Control module<\/a> as the place to record what you hold and where each item is located.<\/p>\n Sage 200 tracks stock at two location levels. A warehouse is a whole location, such as a building or a separate area, and a bin is an area inside it, such as a bay, shelf or aisle. Sage’s stock location help<\/a> says picking lists show both levels, so staff can collect each item from the right place.<\/p>\n Multiple locations is a setting you switch on under the stock control options. Once it is on, you create warehouses and bins, then set stocking levels for each item at each location. Sage’s help also describes how to choose between warehouses for a split site, such as an ambient area and a chilled area collected by different teams. The stock control options page<\/a> sets out the switch and the naming options.<\/p>\n Allocation works in two ways. You can allocate stock as orders are entered, or use the Allocate Stock screen to allocate in bulk by order number, order priority or promised date. Sage’s allocation help<\/a> explains both routes. Where one item sits in several bins, Sage 200 allocates by bin priority by default, or by the quantity in each bin.<\/p>\n The gaps tend to show up on the floor, not in the accounts. The tests below are the questions to put to any stock module before you commit, Sage 200 included.<\/p>\n A pick route only saves time if the order of locations matches the way people walk the building. Clarus builds pick routes from a walk sequence set against each location, with numbering that can run from 1 to 10,000. Mathew Buttar, Head of Solutions at Clarus, has described it this way: the warehouse decides which end of the racking comes first, and the system delivers picks in that order once stock is allocated. Plukken<\/a> is the feature to check if your pickers walk the same aisles on every order.<\/p>\n Scanning narrows the error rate, but it does not remove it. A handheld workflow can check the location, the pallet and the product against the order before a pick is confirmed, and it can stop the picker when the barcode does not match the order line. It cannot stop someone who scans the right location and the right pallet, then takes the wrong item from the pallet beside it. Clarus says that openly, and it is a fair test to run against any system. Barcodes scannen<\/a> covers the workflow in more detail.<\/p>\n A 3PL needs one warehouse to hold several clients’ stock without mixing it, and to report on each client separately. Clarus isolates each client’s inventory and reporting within one warehouse, and clients can check their stock through a client portal. Billing depends on the same movement record, so the question to ask any vendor is which events it captures and how it turns them into charges. Our 3PL WMS<\/a> page covers the multi-client set-up.<\/p>\n Date-sensitive stock adds another layer. If you handle lots, sell-by dates or serial numbers, check how the system records each one at receipt and whether it can allocate by date. Batch and lot control<\/a> is where Clarus sets that out.<\/p>\n The table compares the two on the jobs a warehouse manager decides on. Where Sage’s published material does not settle a point, the cell says so.<\/p>\nWhat does Sage 200 do for stock and the warehouse?<\/h2>\n
Where a finance-led stock module starts to strain<\/h2>\n
Can the system tell a picker which way to walk?<\/h3>\n
Does a scan stop the wrong item leaving the warehouse?<\/h3>\n
How do you keep each client’s stock and billing separate?<\/h3>\n
Sage 200 and a WMS side by side<\/h2>\n