Inventory items and warehouse areas, which represent real physical areas and items in your warehouse, must be established in the NCAS before inventory transactions can be processed in the Inventory module. After these elements have been defined, a specific item can be associated with a specific warehouse in the system. Linking items to warehouses in the NCAS allows the warehouse manager to track, control, and count inventory.

The item/warehouse association also provides the system with the ability to control inventory replenishment. The NCAS uses inventory control methods to calculate when inventory items should be replenished. The four inventory control methods available to NCAS users, order point, computed order point, minimum/maximum, and external, will be presented later in this section.

The Inventory module provides inquiry screens to inquire about individual items as well as item/warehouse associations established online. Inquiry screens also offer item usage history and item balance information.