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Before you start

Getting started

Install Bitta Consignment, run the assisted setup with locations, vendors, license and optional demo data, and assign the Read, Edit and Setup permission sets.

updated: applies-to: 1.0.0.0

Set up Bitta Consignment in three short steps: install the app, run the assisted setup and give people the right permission sets. Plan about 15 minutes. The assisted setup marks the locations that hold vendor stock, sets up your vendors, starts the license and, in an evaluation company (in a sandbox when you use Business Central online), can create demo data so you can try every flow straight away.

Before you start

  • You need Business Central online, version 28 or later.
  • You need the SUPER permission set, or BAA CONS SETUP together with the permissions to create number series, purchasing codes, source codes and locations.
  • Decide which location holds the vendors' stock. It can be a location you already use: vendor stock and your own stock can sit side by side.
  • Decide how the warehouse handles vendor stock. At a normal vendor consignment location the stock stays out of your inventory and is sold through drop shipment. At a location in Warehouse Mode it is native inventory at zero value, so warehouse receipts, picks and scanners work as usual. You can set up Warehouse Mode later; see Warehouse Mode.

Install the app

  1. Request a 30-day trial for 3 seats on the Bitta Apps website. Bitta Apps sends you an activation code and tells you how to get the app into your environment. The app is not on AppSource yet.
  2. When the app is installed, Extension Management lists Bitta Consignment by Bitta Apps, LLC.
  3. Keep the activation code at hand: you enter it on the License step of the assisted setup.

Run the assisted setup

Open the guide in one of three ways: search for Set Up Bitta Consignment, open Assisted Setup and choose Set up Bitta Consignment, or choose Consignment > Setup > Set Up Bitta Consignment on the Order Processor, Purchasing Agent or Business Manager role center. Nothing is saved until you choose Finish.

  1. Welcome to Bitta Consignment. Read the summary and choose Next.
  2. Defaults. Keep the proposed Document Nos. (CONS-DOC), Posted Document Nos. (CONS-POST), Purchasing Code (CONSIGN) and Source Code (CONSIGN), or choose your own. Document Nos. and Posted Document Nos. are the general series, used by every document type without a series of its own. The purchasing code is the one new thing your sales team learns: a sales line with this code sells vendor stock as a drop shipment.
Set Up Bitta Consignment guide on the Defaults step with the general number series, purchasing code and source code
Keep the proposed general number series, purchasing code and source code, or choose your own.
  1. Number series per document type. The list proposes a Series and a Posted Series for each of the eight document types, for example CONS-RCPT and CONS-PRCPT for receipts. Clear a code to let that type use the general series of the previous step. Series and codes that do not exist yet are created when you finish, together with CONS-JNL, the number series of the DEFAULT consignment journal batch.
  2. Consignment locations. Switch on Vendor Consignment for each location that holds vendor stock. You can change this later on the Location Card.
  3. Consignment vendors. Switch on Consignment Vendor for each vendor that places stock with you, and choose its Consignment Location Code. A location you choose here also becomes a consignment location. You can change this later on the vendor card.
Set Up Bitta Consignment guide on the Consignment vendors step with two vendors selected
Choose the consignment vendors and their default location.
  1. Consignment sales. Choose Create Purchase Orders: On Release (default) creates the vendor's purchase order when you release the sales order, On Posting when you post the shipment, and Manual only when you choose the action yourself. Choose Availability Check: Error (default) stops a sales line that asks for more than the vendor's available stock, Warning shows a notification, and None checks nothing while you enter the line. Posting always stops when stock is missing.
Set Up Bitta Consignment guide on the Consignment sales step with Create Purchase Orders and Availability Check
Choose when purchase orders are created and how strictly availability is checked.
  1. Demo data. In an evaluation company (in a sandbox when you use Business Central online), switch on Create Demo Data to try the flows. In other companies the step says why demo data cannot be created. See Demo data.
Set Up Bitta Consignment guide on the Demo data step with the Create Demo Data switch
In an evaluation company, switch on Create Demo Data to try every flow with stock already received.
  1. License. Start a trial or activate your license, and keep Give Me a Seat on so you can post consignment documents yourself. See License and seats.
  2. All set. The step explains the two ways to hold vendor stock. Choose Finish, or one of its two links, which save the setup as Finish does and then open the next page: Finish, then Set Up Consignment Warehouse Mode, or Finish, then Create Consignment Site (on a customer card), which opens the customer list.
Location Card with the Consignment group and Vendor Consignment switched on
The guide marks the locations you choose; the Location Card shows Vendor Consignment.

The rest of the settings, such as Quotes Commit Stock, Auto-Assign Tracking, Value Vendor Stock and the customer consignment fields, are on the Consignment Setup page. See Setup reference.

NOTE

An in-transit location or a location that is a customer's consignment site cannot hold vendor stock.

License and seats

Bitta Consignment is licensed per seat and month, with at least 3 seats. A seat is a user who creates, releases or posts consignment documents (usage reports and site counts included), posts the consignment journal, creates settlement documents, runs aging, creates customer sites or suggests site replenishment. Sales orders, drop shipments, returns, pages and reports always work, with or without a license.

  1. On the License step, choose Request a free trial to open the Bitta Apps website and ask for a 30-day trial for 3 seats. Bitta Apps sends you an activation code.
  2. Choose Enter activation code and enter the code. License Status shows the result. Open Bitta Consignment License opens the license page, for example to paste a license text.
  3. Keep Give Me a Seat on, so the guide gives you a seat when you finish. It is switched on by itself as soon as the license is active.
  4. Later, give the other consignment users a seat on the Bitta Consignment License page with Assign Seat. See License.

Demo data

Create Demo Data adds, with consignment stock already received:

Record Code What it is
Vendor CONSDEMO-V Consignment Demo Vendor, a consignment vendor with location CONSDEMO
Location CONSDEMO Consignment Demo Warehouse, with bins A-01 and A-02 and Vendor Consignment on
Item CONSDEMO-PLAIN Untracked item, 10 units in bin A-01
Item CONSDEMO-SERIAL Serial-tracked item, serial numbers CONSDEMO-SN-1 to CONSDEMO-SN-3 in bin A-01
Item CONSDEMO-LOT Lot-tracked item with expiration dates: lot CONSDEMO-LOT-1 (20 units, expires in 60 days) and lot CONSDEMO-LOT-2 (10 units, expires in 20 days) in bin A-02
Item CONSDEMO-VARIANT Item with variants RED (5 units in A-01) and BLUE (5 units in A-02)

The items have a unit price of 25 and a cost of 10. Demo data is skipped when vendor CONSDEMO-V already exists, so run it once per company.

NOTE

Demo data can be created only in an evaluation company such as CRONUS, and in Business Central online only in a sandbox environment. The receipt of the demo stock takes its number from the posted receipt series. The company needs at least one inventory item with an inventory posting group and a base unit of measure, and one vendor with posting groups, to copy settings from. The CRONUS demo company has both.

Permission sets

Bitta Consignment adds three permission sets. Assign them on the Users or User Groups page in addition to the standard Business Central sets a person already needs for sales, purchasing or inventory work.

Permission set Caption For whom What it allows
BAA CONS READ Bitta Consignment - Read Anyone who looks up consignment stock View consignment documents, posted documents, ledger entries, the stock overview, FactBoxes and reports
BAA CONS EDIT Bitta Consignment - Edit Warehouse, sales and purchasing staff Everything in Read, plus create, release and post consignment documents and journal lines, and sell consignment stock
BAA CONS SETUP Bitta Consignment - Setup Administrators Everything in Edit, plus Consignment Setup, the consignment journal batches and the seats of the license

TIP

The first time the Consignment Journal is opened and no batch exists, a DEFAULT batch is created with the number series CONS-JNL, so Document No. is proposed on new lines. The assisted setup creates CONS-JNL. If it does not exist and the user who opens the journal may not create number series, DEFAULT has no number series: set one on the Consignment Journal Batches page.

What's next

Receive your first vendor stock: Receive vendor stock.

Next step

Ready to try Bitta Consignment?

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