Inventory App Basics with Knack

I do a lot of inventory related Knack apps. Very common type of app, and it can be accomplish well using Knack. Here I take you through some of the basics on proper setup. I review the objects and connections you'll need, in addition to the important user interfaces.

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Full Transcript

builders

um today's topic is going to be

the basics of building an inventory app

it's a real common uh app I do a lot of

them they're actually pretty

straightforward just got to think of it

the right way I'm going to go through

uh the basic objects you need how

they're connected and then and the

interfaces if you like this video uh

I'd ask that you uh like it on YouTube

and subscribe to the YouTube channel

appreciate it thank you today

[Music]

okay I'm back let's just jump right into

this

I'm going to call up an app here

this is a non-profit

that uh gives away to people in need

hygiene products and they asked me to

build a inventory system for them

this particular Missouri system

addresses locations they have several

locations this is part of this I'm not

going to get into that that's a little

more complex I just want to go through

the basics of the objects you're going

to need how they're connected and the

interfaces now you're obviously going to

have clients

and you're going to create client order

which is sort of like an invoice in

order to which you have items you're

going to add the stuff that you're

giving out but let's start with this one

um items this is a basic thing it's a

list

of all this stuff that you carry

in this case they have all these

different

hygiene products quite a few of them

and you're going to grab you're going to

create typical stuff item number

um

let me get over here it's current value

um

and other basic stuff there's some

calculation but this is the important

the name of the item item number is

common in its value those are the big

things

um

so in the client order again is like an

invoice you're going to create an order

the date who the client is uh what

they're buying is not really relevant to

the order that's a different item that's

again outside uh so you're going to add

those item to this which you're going to

take away now let's go to that thing I

call it in out because with inventory

you're selling stuff or giving out stuff

that's going to be an out then you have

to replenish it that's going to be an if

and depending on what the action you're

doing in the app is the system is going

to know which one it is and then it's

basically just going to keep the tally

of all those so every item

you're going to select the item

uh a child record to that will be if

it's coming in or out and it has a

number let's go to that

we uh

hold on

so they have the value quantity stuff

you're going to do and then it's either

coming in or out if it's coming out

there's a here let's go to this type

factor I call it

let's go down to that that's a

conditional thing type Factor condition

if it's incoming it's a factor it's

going to be one

if it's outgoing it's going to be a

negative one then it's going to do a

calculation

on the quantity

and

um on the price the quantity is the main

one for tracking inventory so it's

either going to be a negative number or

a positive number depending if it's

going in or out and then what you can do

is each item you can look down at that

since those are all child records for

each item it's going to keep a summary

of everything and it's going to give you

the current value

uh as an aside when you're setting these

up first any inventory thing you're

going to have to have

start off with the the first record is

going to be uh the current inventory

than what you have an eye on the hand so

you have to do a physical inventory and

create a record a positive one for each

one of those to start off

um that's the main thing now the CL

we're going to go to the client side

let's go here

let's go find one

this is an order you have to do create

order it's going to have this

boilerplate stuff up top then you're

going to add items to it

you're going to select what item this is

the connected this is an in-out thing

here so this is connected to the parent

which is the item you select it you put

in the quantity and

I'm not going to do it because it's a

real app here it's going to show up down

here and then I'll show you what goes on

behind the scenes and those pages

uh this is that add an item to it

gonna go to rules and create a record

rule

you're going to capture whoever the

client was in the parent record the

order itself in this case it does a

location you're going to grab the date

also of the client order

this knows that it's going out because

it's an order so we select that value is

out that'll make that number factor a

negative and that does the proper

calculation and then what you do the

value of it is going to be to a

connected value and this is going to be

that parent record of a list of all the

table of all the products you have and

its current value it will go grab the

current value so that's that part of it

let's go to the admin side then

the admin

well first they can they'll have a table

of all the items so they can add new

ones and update the pricing or or

whatever then how they manage the

inventory

let's go here manage inventory

here's a list of all those items and now

it's giving us a summary that is at all

different locations but the system knows

just by the account how many are if

something came in something goes out it

keeps the constant tally of that but

let's go to an item look this item

liquid spray

here's where they can uh

add stuff they can do a couple things

actually if they have incoming they can

do it here what it was that they're

collecting information what service

location is going to how many are coming

in

and is it coming in or out I give them

an opportunity to enter out here

um because with the same thing when

they're replenishing but on occasion

you're going to do a physical inventory

uh and for a number of reasons what the

computer says and what the physical

inventory is can be off

um so you want you're periodically going

to do a physical inventory to make a

manual adjustment for whatever was

missing or if there's too many there

um and here they can select uh if they

want this to be a negative or a positive

um and then you can look at all kinds of

there's all kinds of reporting in here

um but this this is basically it if you

get those things right

uh on the data side there's just a few

important ones

um and then build those things out it's

going to work really well so that's the

basics of an inventory thank you