Set up warehouse management

Path: Business functionality > Set up Business Central > Set up warehouse management · tier official · system warehouse · narrative reviewed (checked by Opus)

Overview

This section explains how to set up a warehouse in Business Central, from basic bin-based locations to advanced directed put-away and pick. Pages cover creating bins and bin contents, assigning default bins, defining bin types and put-away templates, and assigning users as warehouse employees.

The pages fit together by complexity. Basic setups use Bin Mandatory on a location, default bins, and inventory documents for operations areas such as production and assembly. Advanced setups add zones, bin types, warehouse class codes, put-away templates, and automatic breaking bulk. Further pages cover enabling FEFO picking, converting existing locations to warehouse locations, and restructuring a warehouse by moving items between bins.

Start with “Manage warehouse activities” for the overview and “Configure warehouse processes” for the setup sequence. Then follow “How to Set Up Locations to Use Bins” for basic needs, or “Set Up Directed Put-away and Pick” for advanced needs.

Key points

• Turn on Bin Mandatory on a location and define default bins for receipts, shipments, and warehouse adjustments to start using bins.
• Create bins one at a time from the location card, or in bulk with the Bin Creation Worksheet and Calculate Bins using rack, section, and level templates.
• Bin contents can be created manually or with a worksheet, with fixed or default bin assignment and minimum and maximum quantities.
• Six bin types exist for directed put-away and pick: RECEIVE, SHIP, PUT AWAY, PICK, PUTPICK, and QC.
• Put-away templates use fixed bins, bin rankings, and floating bins, and can be set at item level or as warehouse defaults.
• Warehouse employees are users assigned to locations, with a default location and access to several locations.
• Converting an existing location uses the Create Warehouse Location batch job and requires clearing negative inventory first.
• FEFO picking needs item tracking codes with warehouse tracking and expiration dates, plus Bin Mandatory on the location.

Learn pages

• Assign Default Bins to Items: If you are using bins at a location, assigning default bins to your items can make the process of shipping, receiving, and moving your items much easier.
• Breaking Bulk with Directed Put-away and Pick: Learn how to enable automatic breaking bulk with directed put-away and pick, as well as breakbulking in picks, put-aways, movements, and more.
• Configure warehouse processes: A company’s distribution strategy is reflected in the configuration of its warehouse processes, for example the warehouse locations.
• Convert Existing Locations to Warehouse Locations: You can enable an existing inventory location to use zones and bins and to operate as a warehouse location.
• Create Bin Contents: After you have set up your bins, you can specify the items that you want to store in them, and set up rules that control how often bins are refilled.
• Create bins: Generate groups of similar bins in the bin creation worksheet, create bins individually on the location card, or automatically on the Bin Creation Worksheet.
• How to enable picking by FEFO: First-Expired-First-Out (FEFO) is a sorting method that ensures that items with the earliest expiration dates are picked first.
• How to Set Up Locations to Use Bins: Bins represent the basic warehouse structure and are used to make suggestions about the placement of items.
• Manage warehouse activities: In addition to receipts and shipments, Business Central supports a series of internal warehouse activities.
• Restructure Warehouses: Learn how to restructure your warehouse with new bin codes and new bin characteristics to achieve or maintain a more efficient operation.
• Set up basic warehouses with operations areas: Set up warehouse operations areas and use inventory movements, picks, and put-aways to move goods between them.
• Set Up Bin Types: Assign types and basic flow activities to bins and, in doing so, define the way the bins are used for particular warehouse activities.
• Set Up Directed Put-away and Pick: Directed put-away and pick gives you functionality for running your warehouse efficiently.
• Set Up Put-away Templates: Use Put-away templates to have the most appropriate bins for your items suggested to you at any given time.
• Set Up Warehouse Employees: Each user who performs warehouse activities must be set up as a warehouse employee assigned to one default location and potentially more non-default locations.

Videos, posts and code changes

Linked by a Haiku matcher with a grounding quote from the item’s summary (link/topics.ts); machine-generated.

• #11001 Bug 648577: [IT] Subcontracting migration does not precheck bin-mandatory locations (code change): “prechecks legacy vendor and purchase-header locations for unsupported warehouse settings”
• How to Use the Copy Location Feature in Business Central 2026 Wave 1 (BC28) (community post): “Copy Location duplicates warehouse configuration, settings, and operational setup”
• What’s New: Warehouse Management (2023 release wave 2) (video): “Warehouse Configuration Toggles and Drop-Downs; Put-Away Templates for Bin Assignment”

Business Central pages and reports

The pages, reports and queries this hub’s Learn pages name (ms.search.form, API reference), joined to the code by exact object id (data/index/docs-objects.json); a page shows the table it runs on.

• Page 15 “Location List” · captioned “Locations” · on Table 14 “Location”
• Page 5703 “Location Card” · on Table 14 “Location”
• Page 5775 “Warehouse Setup” · on Table 5769 “Warehouse Setup”
• Page 6774 “Invt. Document Lines” · on Table 5851 “Invt. Document Line”
• Page 6775 “Invt. Document List” · on Table 5850 “Invt. Document Header”
• Page 6776 “Invt. Document Statistics” · captioned “Item Document Statistics” · on Table 5850 “Invt. Document Header”
• Page 7300 “Zones” · on Table 7300 “Zone”
• Page 7301 “Zone List” · on Table 7300 “Zone”
• Page 7302 “Bins” · on Table 7354 “Bin”
• Page 7303 “Bin List” · on Table 7354 “Bin”
• Page 7304 “Bin Content” · on Table 7302 “Bin Content”
• Page 7305 “Bin Contents List” · on Table 7302 “Bin Content”
• Page 7306 “Bin Types” · on Table 7303 “Bin Type”
• Page 7307 “Bin Type List” · on Table 7303 “Bin Type”
• Page 7308 “Warehouse Classes” · on Table 7304 “Warehouse Class”
• Page 7312 “Put-away Template” · on Table 7307 “Put-away Template Header”
• Page 7313 “Put-away Template Subform” · captioned “Lines” · on Table 7308 “Put-away Template Line”
• Page 7314 “Put-away Template List” · captioned “Put-away Templates” · on Table 7307 “Put-away Template Header”
• Page 7321 “Whse. Journal Templates” · captioned “Warehouse Journal Templates” · on Table 7309 “Warehouse Journal Template”
• Page 7322 “Whse. Journal Template List” · on Table 7309 “Warehouse Journal Template”
• Page 7323 “Whse. Journal Batches” · on Table 7310 “Warehouse Journal Batch”
• Page 7325 “Warehouse Registers” · on Table 7313 “Warehouse Register”
• Page 7328 “Warehouse Employees” · on Table 7301 “Warehouse Employee”
• Page 7329 “Whse. Journal Batches List” · on Table 7310 “Warehouse Journal Batch”
• Page 7344 “Whse. Worksheet Names” · on Table 7327 “Whse. Worksheet Name”
• Page 7346 “Worksheet Names List” · on Table 7327 “Whse. Worksheet Name”
• Page 7347 “Locations with Warehouse List” · on Table 14 “Location”
• Page 7348 “Warehouse Employee List” · on Table 7301 “Warehouse Employee”
• Page 7352 “Put-away Worksheet” · captioned “Put-away Worksheets” · on Table 7326 “Whse. Worksheet Line”
• Page 7353 “Whse. Worksheet Templates” · captioned “Warehouse Worksheet Templates” · on Table 7328 “Whse. Worksheet Template”
• Page 7366 “Whse. Worksheet Template List” · on Table 7328 “Whse. Worksheet Template”
• Page 7367 “Bin Templates” · on Table 7335 “Bin Template”
• Page 7368 “Bin Creation Wksh. Templ. List” · on Table 7336 “Bin Creation Wksh. Template”
• Page 7369 “Bin Creation Wksh. Names” · on Table 7337 “Bin Creation Wksh. Name”
• Page 7370 “Bin Creation Wksh. Templates” · captioned “Bin Creation Worksheet Templates” · on Table 7336 “Bin Creation Wksh. Template”
• Page 7371 “Bin Content Creation Worksheet” · on Table 7338 “Bin Creation Worksheet Line”
• Page 7372 “Bin Creation Worksheet” · on Table 7338 “Bin Creation Worksheet Line”
• Page 7373 “Bin Creation Wksh. Name List” · on Table 7337 “Bin Creation Wksh. Name”
• Page 7374 “Bin Contents” · on Table 7302 “Bin Content”
• Page 9813 “Devices”
• Page 9814 “Device Card”

Learn also names 1 object with no object page: page/7379.

Source: Microsoft Learn (CC BY 4.0). Descriptions are Learn’s own.