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Glossary

Warehouse and fulfillment terms, written as operators use them. Each entry defines the word, says why it matters, and links to the product page that does the work.

  • ATP

    The quantity a business can still commit to a new order right now: what is physically sellable, minus what earlier orders already own.

  • Backorder

    A backorder is an order line the warehouse accepted but cannot fill yet. The honest version names the shortage on the order and fills it when stock arrives; the dishonest version hides it in a total.

  • Base unit

    The base unit is the one unit of account a product is counted in, usually pieces. Every other unit converts into it, and stock, movements, and reports settle in it.

  • Bin location

    A bin location is the smallest addressable place in a warehouse: one slot with one code that a scanner can read. Everything the system says about where stock is depends on these codes being real, unique and on the shelf.

  • Cost basis

    Cost basis is the cost value the system carries for one unit of a product. Margin is price minus cost basis, and inventory value is quantity times cost basis.

  • Cycle counting

    Counting a small part of the warehouse every day instead of the whole warehouse once a year, so errors are found while the trail is still warm.

  • Document numbering

    Document numbering is how sales orders, purchase orders, and pallets get their numbers. Leave the number blank and the server assigns it on save, distinct even when two documents are saved at the same time.

  • Dozen

    A dozen is 12 pieces. It is a selling unit: customers order by the dozen, and the line prices and converts in dozens while the ledger counts in pieces.

  • FEFO

    A picking rule for goods with an expiry date: the lot that expires soonest ships first, regardless of when it arrived.

  • FIFO

    A rotation rule: the stock that was received first is the stock that ships first, so nothing sits at the back of the shelf for a year.

  • FNSKU

    The barcode a marketplace assigns to a product for its own fulfillment network. It is printed on the unit, it is not your SKU, and it comes back to your dock on every return.

  • Fulfillment intelligence

    Fulfillment intelligence is what a warehouse system can tell you beyond the current balance: why stock is where it is, which orders are holding it, what is about to run out, and how the operation itself is behaving. It is only as good as the ledger under it.

  • Inventory allocation

    Reserving specific stock for a specific order before it is picked, so two orders cannot promise the same unit and the store stops selling what is already spoken for.

  • Landed cost

    Landed cost is the full cost of getting one unit into stock: the product cost plus freight, duties, and fees, resolved to a true unit cost per SKU.

  • LPN

    A barcode that identifies one physical container, a pallet or a tote, so the warehouse can move the container and let its contents follow.

  • Master case

    A master case is the largest pack: a sealed carton holding several cases. Its factor is the number of base pieces in one master case, and changing it folds the stock at the old factor first.

  • Min/max replenishment

    Min/max replenishment keeps a pick face between two numbers: when stock drops to the minimum, a task moves enough from bulk to bring it back to the maximum. The picker never finds an empty slot that the building could have filled.

  • On hand vs available

    On hand is what is physically in the building. Available is what you can still promise. The gap between them is everything already spoken for, damaged, held or not yet put away.

  • Order orchestration

    Order orchestration is the set of decisions that take an order from the moment it arrives to the moment it leaves: can it be filled, from what stock, on which part of the floor, and when to tell the channel. Good orchestration writes each decision down.

  • Pack factor

    A pack factor converts one pack into base pieces. A case with a factor of 24 holds 24 pieces. Change the factor and stored cases read as a different number of pieces, so the change folds the stock at the old factor first.

  • Pack price

    A pack price is a price stored for one pack unit: a unit, a minimum quantity, and an amount per that unit. A line in that unit resolves against the pack rows before it falls back to the catalog.

  • Pallet

    A pallet is the unit the forklift moves. In a warehouse system it is a container with an identity, a location and a list of what sits on it, not a count somebody remembers.

  • Physical inventory

    A physical inventory counts everything at once, usually with the doors closed. Cycle counting counts a little every day. One is an event; the other is a habit, and the habit is what keeps the record honest.

  • Pick face

    The forward location where a product is picked from, kept small and close, and refilled from bulk storage so the picker never climbs a rack for one unit.

  • Putaway

    The step between receiving and storage: moving goods from the dock to a named location, and the moment they become sellable.

  • Putaway strategy

    A putaway strategy is the rule that decides where received goods go: to a pick face that is low, to bulk near their pick face, or to a hold bay because something is wrong with them.

  • Received on dock

    Received on dock is stock that has been counted in but not yet put away. It is in the building and it is not sellable, and a system that cannot tell the two apart will promise it to a customer before a forklift has touched it.

  • Safety stock

    Safety stock is the quantity you choose not to sell so that a late delivery, a miscount or a rush does not turn into an empty shelf. It is a decision per product, not a feeling.

  • Sales tax by ship-to

    Sales tax by ship-to means the tax on an order depends on where it ships to, not where the warehouse sits. In QuickBooks mode, QuickBooks calculates the tax and returns it, and DockingWare stores what QuickBooks returned.

  • Short ship

    A short ship is an order that leaves the building with less than it asked for. The good version records what was found, why, and what happens to the rest. The bad version is a number that quietly disagrees with the packing list.

  • Unit of measure (UOM)

    A unit of measure is the unit a quantity is counted or handled in: pieces, dozen, case, master case, pallet. One of them is the base unit; the rest convert into it through pack factors.

  • WMS

    Software that runs the physical work of a warehouse: receiving, putaway, picking, packing, shipping and counting, and keeps the record of where every unit is and how it got there.