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Track Inventory on Service Vehicles

Set up your service trucks as service vehicles so the parts on board are counted, assigned to a technician, and deducted as they're used.

For: Inventory managers and admins · Permission: Manage inventory (cycle counts need the cycle-count permission) · Time: ~5 minutes

Quick summary

  1. Go to Parts & Inventory › Service Vehicles and click + New Vehicle.
  2. Enter a name and choose the technician under Assign to.
  3. Go to Parts & Inventory › Inventory Locations and add a Service vehicle location for the truck.
  4. Click the ⋮ menu on the truck's page and choose Receive Stock to put parts on board.

Before you start

  • You need inventory-management access.
  • A service vehicle has two parts. The vehicle record holds the name, plate and technician. The Service vehicle location holds the stock. You create both.

Add the service vehicle

Go to Parts & Inventory › Service Vehicles. The list shows each truck's Description, Assigned to, Inventory and Status. Click + New Vehicle.

  1. Name: required. For example Truck 12.
  2. Description, License Plate (with its state) and Unit Number: optional.
  3. Assign to: the technician who is responsible for the truck's stock. This is the custodian. It's optional; leave it blank if nobody holds the truck yet.
  4. Click Save.

New Service Vehicle window with name, description, license plate, unit number and Assign to filled in

The New Service Vehicle window.

The new truck shows No Location in the Inventory column until you add its stock location in the next step.

Add the truck's stock location

  1. Go to Parts & Inventory › Inventory Locations and click + New Location.
  2. Set Type to Service vehicle.
  3. Pick the truck under Vehicle. Only active trucks that don't have a location yet are listed.
  4. Keep the Name that fills in, or change it. Click Save.

New Inventory Location window with Type set to Service vehicle and Truck 12 selected

Receive parts onto the truck

Open the truck from the Inventory Locations list, or click its count in the Inventory column on Service Vehicles. Its page shows the custodian and the date they took over, with a Cycle Count button and tabs for Stock, History and Settings.

  1. Click the ⋮ menu and choose Receive Stock.
  2. Search for a part and click Add.
  3. Enter the Quantity. Add a note if you want one.
  4. Click Add again to confirm the line, then click Receive 1 Item (the button counts your lines).

Receive Parts window for Truck 12 with one oil filter line, quantity 6, ready to receive

The part now shows on the Stock tab with its Available and On Hand counts. You can also set thresholds, issue, adjust, transfer out and run cycle counts here, the same as for a warehouse.

Truck 12 page with the custodian and a Stock tab listing one oil filter with 6 on hand

Back on Service Vehicles, the Inventory column now shows the item count. It reads No stock when the truck is empty and adds a badge with the number of low parts, for example 2 Low, when parts fall below their threshold.

Change the custodian or other details

On Service Vehicles, click the pencil on the truck's row. You can also open the ⋮ menu on the truck's page and choose Edit Vehicle. Change the Assign to technician, the plate or the unit number, then click Save. Assignment changes are recorded in the assignment history.

Edit Service Vehicle window with Assign to, an assignment history note and the Active switch

Turn off the Active switch to retire a truck. The list then shows it as Inactive.

Parts used on the road are deducted automatically. When a technician uses a part from the truck on a service order, it's taken from that truck's stock when the job completes. When the office hands a part to a technician and the technician accepts it, the part moves onto their truck. See Source & Hand Off Parts to a Technician.

Troubleshooting

SymptomLikely causeFix
The Inventory column says No LocationThe truck has no Service vehicle stock location yet.Add the location under Inventory Locations (see "Add the truck's stock location").
The truck isn't in the Vehicle list on New LocationIt already has a location, or it's inactive.Open that location from Inventory Locations instead.
The truck's parts aren't deductingThe parts were never received onto that truck.Open the truck's page, click the ⋮ menu and choose Receive Stock.
The person I want isn't in the Assign to listThe list offers active users who work on vehicles. Dispatcher-only accounts don't appear.Ask an admin to check the user's role and that the user is active, then reopen the picker.

FAQs

Is a service vehicle different from a regular inventory location?

The stock features are the same. A service vehicle location is tied to a truck record and a custodian, and it travels to jobs.

Who is the custodian?

The technician under Assign to. They're accountable for the parts on board.

Can I move parts between a truck and the warehouse?

Yes. Open the ⋮ menu on the truck's page and choose Transfer Out. See Inventory Transactions & Transfers.

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