Complete guide to setting up your warehouse in Pleelo — from creating locations and product catalog to recording initial stock, receiving merchandise, and monitoring inventory.
Good Inventory Management Starts Before the First Sale
Most businesses set up their warehouse system after problems start: they oversell a product they don't have, they can't find where something is stored, or they discover missing stock during a physical count with no record of where it went.
A properly configured warehouse system prevents all of these problems. And unlike what most people expect, the setup isn't complicated — it just needs to happen in the right order.
This guide walks you through every step of warehouse configuration in Pleelo, from physical locations down to monitoring stock alerts.
Before You Start
Before touching any configuration, spend 10 minutes answering these questions:
- How many physical locations do you have? One warehouse, multiple, or just shelves in one room?
- Do you track storage by location within a warehouse? (e.g., Shelf A1, Shelf B3, Cold Storage)
- How is your product catalog organized? Do you have product categories? Variants (sizes, colors)?
- What unit of measure do you use? Units, kilograms, liters, boxes?
- Do you have existing stock? If yes, you'll need to record opening quantities.
- Who are your main suppliers? You'll want them in the system before creating purchase orders.
The answers shape how you configure Pleelo. Most small businesses have one warehouse, product categories, and units — which makes the setup straightforward.
Step 1: Create Your Warehouse(s)
Navigate to Inventory → Warehouses → New Warehouse.
Required fields:
- Warehouse name — Something descriptive: "Main Warehouse," "Showroom," "Cold Storage"
- Address — Physical location (important if you have multiple sites)
- Manager — Who is responsible for this location
If you have one physical location where all your stock is stored, you only need one warehouse record. If you operate from multiple physical locations — a main warehouse and a satellite store, for example — create one record per physical location.
Warehouse Locations (Sub-locations)
Within each warehouse, you can define sub-locations: aisles, shelves, bins, or storage zones. This is optional but powerful if you need to know exactly where within a warehouse a specific product is stored.
To add sub-locations, open the warehouse record and click Add Location:
- Location code — A short identifier like "A1," "SHELF-B3," or "COLD-1"
- Location name — A descriptive label
- Location type — Storage, receiving area, dispatch, etc.
For small businesses with a single room or open floor plan, you can skip sub-locations entirely and just use the warehouse level.
Step 2: Build Your Product Catalog
A well-organized product catalog is the backbone of inventory management. Navigate to Inventory → Products → New Product.
Setting Up Product Categories First
Before adding products, create your categories. Navigate to Inventory → Product Categories → New Category.
Categories help you:
- Filter stock reports by product type
- Apply consistent settings (tax rates, units) to a group
- Generate purchase reports by category
For a retail business, typical categories might be: Electronics, Clothing, Food & Beverage, Office Supplies. For a manufacturing business: Raw Materials, Packaging, Finished Goods.
Adding Products
Required fields:
- Product name — Clear and specific. "Office Chair, Black, Adjustable" not just "Chair."
- SKU / product code — Your internal identifier. If you don't have one, Pleelo can auto-generate. Keep it short and meaningful (e.g., "CHR-BLK-ADJ-001").
- Category — Select from the categories you just created
- Unit of measure — Unit, kg, liter, box, meter, etc.
- Purchase price — What you pay to acquire this product (cost price)
- Sale price — Your standard selling price (can be overridden per invoice/order)
- Tax rate — Sales tax rate (varies by state) or exempt, depending on the product and jurisdiction
Inventory-specific fields:
- Minimum stock level — When stock drops below this, Pleelo triggers a low-stock alert. Set this thoughtfully — it should reflect your reorder lead time. If it takes 2 weeks to receive a restock, set the minimum at your 2-week consumption rate.
- Reorder quantity — How much to order when you restock. This pre-populates purchase orders.
- Track inventory — Toggle this on for physical products. If it's a service, turn it off (services don't have stock).
- Default warehouse — Where this product is typically stored
Optional but useful:
- Barcode — If you use a barcode scanner at point of sale or receiving
- Supplier — Link this product to its usual supplier for one-click purchase order generation
- Product images — Helps with identification, especially if you have products that look similar
- Description — Detailed description that appears on invoices and quotes
Save the product. Repeat for every SKU in your catalog.
Managing Product Variants
If you sell products that come in variants (a t-shirt in S/M/L/XL, or a cable in 1m/2m/5m), use the Variants feature. Add the base product, then define variant attributes (Size, Length, Color) and values. Pleelo creates a separate inventory record for each variant combination, so you track S/M/L/XL stock independently.
Step 3: Record Initial Stock
You have your warehouse and product catalog. Now you need to tell Pleelo how much stock you currently have.
Navigate to Inventory → Stock Count → New Stock Count.
Configure the initial count:
- Type — Select "Initial Setup" or "Full Count"
- Warehouse — Select the warehouse you're counting
- Date — Today's date (or the date your counts are valid from)
The system generates a count sheet listing all your products with a "Current Qty" column (showing 0 for new products) and a "Count Qty" column for you to fill in.
Enter the actual quantity you have for each product. Use a physical count — walk your warehouse and count what you see. Don't estimate from old spreadsheets; this initial count becomes your baseline record.
When all quantities are entered, click Submit Count. Pleelo creates the initial stock transactions, and your products now have actual quantities.
From this point forward, every purchase order received, every sale, every manual adjustment updates these quantities automatically.
Step 4: Create Your First Purchase Order
When you need to restock, navigate to Inventory → Purchase Orders → New Purchase Order.
Required fields:
- Supplier — Select the supplier you're ordering from. If they're not in the system yet, add them under Contacts → Suppliers → New Supplier.
- Expected delivery date — When you expect the order to arrive. Pleelo uses this for planning.
- Warehouse — Where the goods will be received
Adding line items:
Click Add Product, select the product from your catalog, and enter:
- Quantity ordered
- Purchase price per unit (auto-populated from the product record, override if negotiated differently)
Add all the products you're ordering. The purchase order total calculates automatically.
Optional:
- Reference number — Your supplier's quote or pro-forma invoice number
- Notes — Special delivery instructions, customs info, etc.
Click Save to create the purchase order as a draft. When you're ready to formally place the order, click Confirm Order — the PO is locked and the supplier can receive a PDF copy.
Step 5: Receive Merchandise
When the goods arrive, you receive them in Pleelo. Open the purchase order and click Receive Merchandise.
You'll see a receiving form with each product on the order:
- Ordered quantity (from the PO)
- Received quantity (enter what actually arrived)
These don't have to match. If you ordered 100 units and only 80 arrived, enter 80. Pleelo marks the remaining 20 as pending and keeps the PO open for a partial receipt.
For each item, also optionally record:
- Lot number / batch — Important for food, pharma, or any product with traceability requirements
- Expiration date — For perishables
- Storage location — Which specific sub-location in the warehouse these goods are going to
Click Confirm Receipt. Pleelo:
- Adds the received quantities to your inventory
- Updates the purchase order status
- Creates a supplier payable (accounts payable record) for the invoice amount
- Logs the receiving transaction for audit purposes
Your stock levels are now updated.
Step 6: Monitor Stock Levels and Low-Stock Alerts
With inventory flowing — products selling, stock being received — monitoring becomes routine.
Stock Level Dashboard
Navigate to Inventory → Overview for a real-time view:
- Products below minimum stock level (highlighted in red)
- Products approaching minimum level (highlighted in amber)
- Top-selling products this period
- Products with no movement (slow-movers)
Low-Stock Alerts
When a product's quantity drops below the minimum you configured, Pleelo sends a notification to the warehouse manager and the product appears in the Reorder Alerts queue.
Click Create PO directly from an alert to auto-generate a purchase order for that product with the pre-configured reorder quantity. It saves you from having to rebuild the order from scratch every time.
Stock Movement Reports
Navigate to Reports → Inventory for detailed stock movement history:
- Every inbound transaction (purchase order receipts, manual adjustments)
- Every outbound transaction (sales orders, manual removals)
- Valuation at cost price and sale price
- Stock rotation reports (useful for identifying dead stock)
Best Practices for Ongoing Inventory Management
Conduct periodic stock counts. Even with a perfect system, physical counts should happen regularly. Monthly for high-value items, quarterly for the full catalog. Discrepancies become smaller and easier to investigate when you count often.
Investigate every adjustment. When you need to manually adjust inventory outside of a purchase order or sale, always record a reason. "Found 3 extra units in back storeroom" or "2 units damaged during delivery" creates an audit trail.
Keep product catalog clean. Archive products you no longer sell instead of leaving them active. A cluttered catalog makes purchase orders, stock counts, and reports harder to use.
Link products to preferred suppliers. Connecting each product to its usual supplier means Pleelo can automatically route restock suggestions to the right purchase order. It also makes it easy to compare supplier pricing over time.
Ready to Set Up Your Warehouse?
A properly configured warehouse in Pleelo takes about an hour for a catalog of 50–100 products. After that, every transaction — sale, purchase, return, adjustment — updates your stock automatically. No more manual spreadsheets, no more inventory surprises.
Set Up Your Inventory Module →
Need help with advanced scenarios like multi-location transfers, lot traceability, or integrating inventory with your point of sale? Our documentation covers all of these, or reach out to support from inside the app.
