Locations explained
What Locations are, the difference between your own and global Locations, owning parties, and how Locations are used on Products, Documents and Mappings.
A Location is a physical place, such as a warehouse, store, depot or delivery point, together with the codes each system uses for it. Locations help streamline your operations by making sure messages are routed correctly and Products are fulfilled from the right place.
What Locations are used for
| Use | Example |
|---|---|
| Recognise the place named on a Document | A retailer's depot code on an EDI order, or a warehouse ID on a 3PL message. |
| Send the right code | The warehouse code Unleashed expects on a sales order. |
| Default where a Product ships from | A Product's default fulfilment Location is used when an order doesn't say. |
| Route Documents | A Mapping filtered by Ship to location or Ship from location. |
Your own and global Locations
You can create your own Locations, or assign your own codes and identifiers to existing global Locations. Global Locations are available for selection across all organisations, and only Supply Lens system administrators can create them, using the Sharing option on the Add new location window. A Location you create is available to your organisation only.
Owning party
Every Location has an owning party: the Party it belongs to. A retailer's depots are owned by the retailer's Party. That is why Parties are added before Locations.
Fields on a Location
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Mandatory. |
| Owning Party | Mandatory. The Party that owns the Location. |
| Description | Optional. |
| Type | The Location type. Can be left as None for most Locations. |
| Address | Lines 1 to 3, City, Region, Postcode and Country. |
| Sharing | System administrators only: share the Location with all organisations. |
Location identifiers
A Location carries identifiers such as a GLN, a Customer Assigned Location or a warehouse code for a particular system. Two Advanced settings narrow when an identifier applies:
- Integration: only when that Integration sends or receives.
- Customer: only on Documents for that customer. This lets one Location carry a different ship-to code for each customer; on the way out, a code linked to another customer is never sent. Customer-linked codes show in the Customer column of the identifiers list.
If an identifier refers to an Integration that can no longer be found, the Integration shows as Unknown. For every type, see Location identifier types.
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. See Parties on Documents.