Warehouse Map

PrepFlow's Warehouse Map turns your physical warehouse into a structured, scannable grid of registered locations — enabling barcode-driven storing, accurate pick-task routing, and real-time inventory visibility by shelf.

This guide covers two things:

1. Setting up your warehouse map from scratch
2. Migrating existing free-text location data to the warehouse map

Location Modes

Every warehouse in PrepFlow operates in one of two location modes:

You switch between modes in Settings → Warehouse → Warehouse Map.

Setting Up Your Warehouse Map

Step 1 — Open the Warehouse Map Page

Go to Settings → Warehouse, then select your warehouse and click Warehouse Map.

This page has two panels: Zones on the left and Locations on the right.

Step 2 — Create Zones (Optional but Recommended)

Zones let you group locations into named areas of your warehouse — for example: Aisle A, Aisle B, Cold Storage, Overstock.

To add a zone:

1. Click + Add Zone.
2. Enter a Zone Code (short identifier, e.g. A, B, OS) and a Zone Name (e.g. Aisle A).
3. Set a Sort Order to control the display sequence.
4. Click Save.

Zones are optional — you can create locations without them — but they make large warehouses much easier to navigate in the picker's task list.

Step 3 — Create Locations

Each registered location gets a unique location code (e.g. A-03-2) built from three parts:

The location code is auto-generated as Aisle-Shelf-Bin (e.g. A-03-2).

To add a single location:

1. Click + Add Location.
2. Select a zone (optional), enter the aisle, shelf, and bin values.
3. Choose a Location Type:
   • Storage — standard inventory shelf
   • Receiving — dock or intake area
   • Staging — prep or holding area
   • Packing — packing station
   • Damaged — damaged goods area
4. Click Save.

Step 4 — Bulk Create Locations

For large warehouses, use Bulk Create to generate an entire aisle or shelf range at once.

1. Click Bulk Create.
2. Enter an Aisle, a Shelf range (e.g. 01 to 10), and a Bin range (e.g. 1 to 5).
3. PrepFlow will preview all locations that will be created (e.g. A-01-1 through A-10-5).
4. Click Create to generate them all at once.

This is the fastest way to set up a new warehouse — create all your aisles in minutes rather than one location at a time.

Step 5 — Print Barcode Labels

Each registered location can have a barcode label printed and attached to the physical shelf.

1. Click the Print icon next to any location.
2. PrepFlow generates a PDF with a barcode encoding the location code.
3. Print and stick the label on the corresponding bin or shelf.

Once labels are in place, staff can scan any shelf to identify it instantly during check-in, storing, and picking — no manual typing required.

Tip: Print labels for an entire zone at once by using the zone-level print action, so you can label a whole aisle in one go.

Step 6 — Enable Warehouse Map Mode

Once your locations are set up and labelled, switch your warehouse to Warehouse Map mode:

1. Go to Settings → Warehouse and edit your warehouse.
2. Change Location Mode to Warehouse Map.
3. Save.

From this point on, all check-ins, storing operations, and pick sessions will use registered locations instead of free text.

If you have existing free-text location data, switch to Warehouse Map mode after completing the migration below — otherwise historical inventory will lose its location context.

Migrating from Free-Text to Warehouse Map

If your warehouse has been operating in Free Text mode, your check-in records contain location strings like "Shelf 3" or "Aisle B Bin 2" — not linked to any registered location.

The Migration tool converts those strings into registered warehouse map locations, so your historical inventory gains full map integration without any data loss.

When to Migrate

Migrate when:

• You've finished setting up all your registered zones and locations
• You've printed and attached barcode labels to your shelves
• You're ready to switch your warehouse to Warehouse Map mode

How to Start the Migration

1. Go to Settings → Warehouse → Warehouse Map.
2. Click Migrate to Warehouse Map (shown when your warehouse is still in Free Text mode).
3. The migration modal opens showing all unique free-text location strings found in your historical data, along with how many orders and units are stored at each.

Step 1 — Review Unmapped Locations

The overview screen lists every distinct free-text string used as a location across your check-in records. For each one you'll see:

• The location string as it was typed
• The number of orders stored there
• The total quantity of units

A progress bar at the top shows how many you've mapped so far.

Step 2 — Map Locations

For each free-text string, you need to tell PrepFlow which registered warehouse location it corresponds to.

PrepFlow may already suggest a match — shown as a coloured button next to the location:

• Green (100%) — exact or near-exact match. Click to accept it immediately.
• Amber (partial %) — a possible match. Review it before accepting.

If no suggestion is shown, click Map to open the location picker and select the correct registered location manually.

You can also use Smart Auto-Match All to let PrepFlow attempt to match all remaining free-text strings at once based on similarity:

1. Click Smart Auto-Match All.
2. A preview screen shows all proposed matches with their confidence scores, sorted highest first.
3. Review each suggestion — remove any that look incorrect by clicking the trash icon.
4. Click Apply Suggestions to add the confirmed matches to your mapping list.

Anything that couldn't be auto-matched will still need to be mapped manually.

Step 3 — Apply Mappings

Once you've mapped the locations you want to migrate:

• Click Apply All & Finish if every free-text string has been mapped — this applies all mappings and switches your warehouse to Warehouse Map mode automatically.
• Click Apply X Mappings if you've only mapped some — this applies what's ready and leaves the rest for a later session. Your warehouse stays in Free Text mode until all are resolved.

You can run the migration tool multiple times. Each time, already-applied mappings disappear from the list and only the remaining unmapped strings are shown.

What Happens When a Mapping is Applied

When a free-text location is mapped to a registered location, PrepFlow updates all the underlying check-in records that used that string. Going forward:

• Those orders are linked to the registered location
• They show up in the warehouse map view
• Pick sessions route to the correct shelf automatically
• Storing page shows the correct location suggestion for those items

No data is deleted or changed other than linking the existing records to the proper location ID.

Summary

Once fully set up, every item entering your warehouse can be scanned to a registered shelf, every pick session will route staff in location order, and you'll have complete visibility of exactly where every unit sits in your building.