Configure warehouse reasons and locations in SamBooks

Learn how the reasons that drive every warehouse movement work, and how to create, edit and delete your company's warehouses.

What this is for

Every warehouse movement — a load, an unload, a transfer, an adjustment — is governed by a reason: it's the reason that decides whether the quantity goes up or down, and whether the item's average cost gets recomputed. Reasons are managed under Company settings → Warehouse reasons (/impostazioni/azienda/causali-magazzino). In the same Warehouse area you'll also find the Warehouses tab, where you create and manage locations: the physical sites where goods are actually moved. This guide covers both, because they're the two "foundation" settings the rest of the Warehouse module relies on.

Before you start

Both reasons and warehouses can be read by any company role; to create, edit or delete them you need a role with write access to the Warehouse and logistics area: Manager, Administrative or Logistics. If your company is on the flat-rate tax regime (forfettario), the whole Warehouse block — including reasons and warehouses — isn't available.

How to do it, step by step

1. Open Warehouse reasons

Go to Company settings → Warehouse reasons. On first access SamBooks automatically creates 10 standard reasons, already set up to cover every core flow (see the table in step 2): you don't need to create them yourself. The table shows Code, Description, Sign (badge "Load (+)", "Unload (-)" or "Neutral"), Valuation ("Weighted average cost", "Manual" or "None"), Status (Active/Inactive) and the edit/delete actions.

2. Understand the 10 standard reasons

Each reason has a precise effect. In plain, non-technical terms:

An 11th reason, RES ("Customer return"), is created automatically the first time you generate a return delivery note from a customer: you'll only see it in this table after the first return, not before.

3. Create or edit a reason

Press "New reason" (or the edit icon on an existing row) to open the dialog. The fields are:

• Code* — required, forced to uppercase as you type.
• Description* — required.
• Sign — a dropdown with three options: "Load (+)" (increases stock), "Unload (-)" (decreases it) or "Neutral" (doesn't touch it). A neutral reason doesn't appear as a selectable option in the "Record movement" dialog: it's only used internally by transfer and adjustment, or by the committed/ordered reasons.
• Valuation — a second dropdown: "Weighted average cost" (recomputes the average cost on every load), "Manual" (doesn't recompute automatically) or "None" (no effect on cost).
• Four switches, all off by default except the first: "Update on-hand" (touches the physical available stock, on by default on a new reason), "Update committed" (touches the committed quantity, not physical stock), "Update ordered" (touches the ordered quantity, not physical stock) and "Active" (if off, the reason stays in the list but can no longer be selected for new movements).

Press "Create reason" (or "Save" if editing). A duplicate code shows "A reason with this code already exists."; any other error shows "Operation failed. Retry.".

Careful: editing a standard reason that's already in use — for example changing the sign of VEN — changes the behaviour of every future movement that uses it (for example every subsequent sales delivery note). SamBooks doesn't show a warning about this impact: think it through carefully before touching standard reasons, especially the ones used by documents (VEN, ACQ).

4. Delete a reason

Press the trash icon on the row, then confirm in the "Delete reason" dialog ("Delete reason «…»?"). If deletion fails you'll see "Could not delete the reason.".

5. Open the Warehouses tab (locations)

Go to Warehouse → Warehouse, then the "Warehouses" tab (the third, after Stock and Below minimum). The table shows Code, Name, City, Main (badge if it's the main warehouse), Status and Actions. If you don't have any warehouse yet, you'll see "No warehouses" with a prompt to create one.

6. Import warehouses from your company offices

The fastest way to get started is the "Import from offices" button: it automatically creates a warehouse for every company office that has an address and isn't already linked to an existing warehouse, with a sequential code (MAG1, MAG2…). If your registered office doesn't have a main warehouse linked yet, it becomes the main warehouse itself. You can press it more than once: it's idempotent, it won't create duplicates — if there's nothing new to import you'll see "No new warehouse to import".

7. Create or edit a warehouse manually

Press "New warehouse" (or the edit icon on a row) to open the dialog. The fields are:

• Code* and Name* — required.
• "Search address" — an address search field (Google Places) that, when you pick a result, auto-fills Address, Postcode, City and Province.
• Address, Postcode, City, Province (2 letters, forced to uppercase) — also editable by hand after the search.
• "Main warehouse" switch — only one warehouse per company can be the main one: if you set a new one, the previous one is automatically unset.
• "Active" switch.

Press "Create warehouse" (or "Save"). A duplicate code shows "A warehouse with this code already exists.".

8. Delete a warehouse

Press the trash icon, then confirm ("Delete warehouse «…»? Only possible if it has no stock."). If the warehouse still has non-zero stock on any item, deletion fails and you'll see "Could not delete the warehouse (it may have stock).": you need to empty it first (for example with a transfer to another warehouse) or bring its stock to zero.

Ask Sam

You can manage reasons and warehouses by talking to Sam too, following the same logic as the form:

• "Create a warehouse reason for free samples, inbound, with no valuation"
• "Deactivate reason [code]"
• "List active warehouse reasons"
• "Create a new warehouse in [city]" / "Import warehouses from the company offices"
• "What are my warehouses?"

Both paths — the form and the chat — are equivalent and use the same service: you can start one way and continue the other.

If something goes wrong

• "I can't find the reason I need in the Record movement dialog" — that dialog only shows reasons with sign "Load (+)" or "Unload (-)": neutral reasons (like TRAS, IMPE, ORDI) don't appear there, because they serve other flows (transfer, committed, ordered) or are handled internally.
• "I can't delete a warehouse" — it's protected if it still has non-zero stock on any item: move or zero out the stock before deleting it.
• "I changed a standard reason and now movements behave differently" — that's the expected effect: standard reasons are shared by every document and movement that uses them. If you didn't mean to change the general behaviour, consider restoring the original values or creating a new reason instead of editing the standard one.
• Duplicate code on a reason or warehouse — SamBooks doesn't allow two reasons or two warehouses with the same code in the same company: pick a different one.

Frequently asked questions

What are warehouse reasons? They're the rules every movement (load, unload, transfer, adjustment, or a movement generated by a document) must follow: they decide whether stock goes up, down or stays put, and whether the average cost gets recomputed.

Can I create a custom reason? Yes, from the "New reason" button in Company settings → Warehouse reasons, in addition to the 10 standard ones already there.

What does it mean for a reason to be of type load or unload? "Load (+)" increases available stock, "Unload (-)" decreases it; "Neutral" doesn't touch it at all and is reserved for transfer, adjustment, committed and ordered.

What does manual valuation on a reason mean? It means the movement doesn't automatically recompute the weighted average cost: the value stays whatever you set (or the current one, if you don't set one).

What does the update-committed flag do? It makes the reason touch the committed quantity (the sales-order reservation) instead of physical stock.

How do I create a new warehouse? From Warehouse → Warehouse, Warehouses tab, "New warehouse" button: fill in code, name and address.

How do I import warehouses from the company offices? From the same Warehouses tab, "Import from offices" button: it creates a warehouse for every company office with an address that isn't linked yet.

Why can't I delete a warehouse? Because it still has non-zero stock: SamBooks blocks deletion so you don't lose track of that stock's value.

Can I have more than one main warehouse? No, only one per company: setting a new one as main automatically unsets the previous one.

If I deactivate a reason, what happens to movements already made? Nothing: they stay recorded as they are. Deactivation only prevents that reason from being used for new movements.

How many reasons are there by default when I first open the warehouse? Ten, created automatically on first access: CAR, SCA, INIZ, INV_PIU, INV_MENO, TRAS, VEN, ACQ, IMPE, ORDI. An eleventh (RES) appears on its own after the first customer return.

Related guides

• Record warehouse movements — how to record a manual movement by choosing a reason, and how the average cost changes.
• Check stock, low-stock items and warehouse valuation — how to read stock by warehouse and the total warehouse value.
• Record the year-end physical inventory — the other way, separate from reasons, to align stock at year-end.