What Locations are
Lesson 19 of 24 5 min read
Locations are the physical places goods move between. Learn how Supply Lens uses them, the difference between your own and global Locations, and how they connect to Parties and Products.
Goods always move from somewhere to somewhere: from your 3PL to a customer's depot, from a supplier to your warehouse. In Supply Lens, those places are Locations. This lesson explains what Locations do and how they fit with the rest of your master data.
What a Location does
A Location is a physical place, such as a warehouse, a store, a depot or a delivery point, with the codes each system uses for it. With Locations in place, Supply Lens can:
- Recognise the place named on an incoming Document, such as a retailer's depot code on an EDI order or a warehouse ID on a 3PL message;
- Send each system the code it uses for that place, such as the warehouse code Unleashed expects on a sales order;
- Default where a Product ships from, through the Product's default fulfilment Location;
- Route Documents, with Mapping filters on Ship to location and Ship from location.
Your own Locations and global Locations
You can create your own Locations, or assign your own codes and identifiers to existing global Locations. Global Locations are shared across all organisations and only Supply Lens system administrators can create them. A large retailer's distribution centre might already exist as a global Location; if so, add your codes to it rather than creating your own copy.
Every Location has an owning party
Each Location belongs to a Party, its owning party. A retailer's depots are owned by the retailer's Party; your own warehouse by your organisation party. That link is why you add Parties before Locations.
Parties and Locations on a Document
A Document names its trading Parties (customer and supplier) and, separately, where goods go to and come from (ship to and ship from). A Party answers who; a Location answers where. One customer can have many delivery Locations, and the same order flow can be routed differently by Location.
Hilltop's Locations
Priya needs three Locations to start with:
| Location | Owning party | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Brookside Warehouse | Brookside Fulfilment | Where Hilltop's stock now lives; the default fulfilment Location on Products |
| Greenleaf North Depot | Greenleaf Wholesale | A delivery point named on Greenleaf's EDI orders |
| Greenleaf South Depot | Greenleaf Wholesale | Another delivery point |
The roastery, which no longer ships orders, doesn't need a Location yet.
Recap
- A Location is a physical place plus the codes each system uses for it.
- Locations are used to recognise places, send the right codes, default where Products ship from, and filter Mappings.
- You can create your own Locations or add your codes to global ones; only system administrators create global Locations.
- Every Location has an owning party, so add Parties first.
- On a Document, Parties say who and Locations say where.
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