Inventory and QR codes

Your inventory is the catalogue of things people can borrow, and QR codes are how Space Works proves which physical box or tool changed hands. This guide covers setting both up. Handing things out is in Loans.

You need edit_inventory to change the catalogue and manage_qr for QR tools, containers and the scanner. Inventory Managers and Space Managers hold both.

The building blocks

Thing	What it is	Where you manage it
Category	A grouping on the public catalogue, with an optional icon and display order	Inventory → Categories
Product (inventory item)	One kind of thing: “Cordless drill”, with quantities and visibility settings	Inventory → Inventory
Asset unit	One individually tracked unit of a product: “Drill #3”, with its own asset tag, serial number and QR	Inside a product (needs the asset_units module)
Box / container	A physical container with its own QR code. Every reviewed loan is issued in a box	Inventory → Containers (needs the containers module)
Storage location	A free-text note on a product or container saying where it lives	The product or container form

Storage locations, box IDs, QR codes and scan history are staff-only. They never appear on the public catalogue.

Add a category

1. Open Inventory → Categories.
2. Enter a name and slug, and optionally an icon and an order number.
3. Save. Categories can also carry a default loan period and renewal cap that apply to their products (see Loans).

Add a product

1. Open Inventory → Inventory and choose Add item.
2. Fill in the product master data: name, category, description, manufacturer, model, barcode and supplier company. Keep personal supplier contacts out of this form.
3. Choose a Tracking mode:
   • Quantity: you track how many you have (“4 drills”). Simple, and fine for consumables and identical tools.
   • Individual: each unit is an asset with its own tag and QR, so you know exactly which unit went out.
4. Set the Total quantity and Storage location.
5. Set the public visibility options (see below) and any Public borrowing terms text you want shown on the item page.
6. Optionally set a Reorder point and Reorder quantity. A reorder point of 0 turns low-stock alerts off; a reorder quantity lets Space Works draft a procurement entry.
7. Save. The item opens for editing so you can upload a photo.

Each product page also shows its lending history, QR history and, for individual tracking, its asset units.

Quantities and the to-be-fixed shelf

Space Works keeps available, reserved, issued, damaged, lost and to-be-fixed counts for you. You do not edit “available” by hand: it changes when requests are accepted, issued and returned.

When you need to correct stock, use Adjust quantities with a reason. To take broken units out of circulation, use Move to Fix Shelf; they stay in the total but are never available. Inventory → To-be-fixed lists everything awaiting repair, and Move back to inventory returns repaired units. Staff can also send broken units straight to this shelf while issuing.

Archive item hides a product you no longer lend without deleting its history. Show archived brings archived items back into view. You can export the inventory list as CSV or XLSX from the same screen.

Public visibility

Each product has three settings that decide what visitors see on /m/<slug>.

Setting	Default	Effect
Public	On	Off removes the product from the public catalogue entirely
Public visibility	Status only	Exact count, Status only or Hidden
Show count	Off	A safety switch: an exact number is only shown when this is also on

How they combine:

• Hidden: the product is listed but shows no availability.
• Status only: the product shows a label (see below).
• Exact count: shows the number available, but only if Show count is on. Otherwise it falls back to the status label.

The status label is worked out from the live counts:

Label	When
Unavailable	Nothing available, or a total of zero
Limited	Available is at or below 20% of the total (rounded up)
Available	Anything more

So a product with 10 units and 2 available shows Limited; with 3 available it shows Available.

The whole catalogue can also be switched off with Show public inventory in Settings → General, which deletes nothing.

Tip

“Status only” is the default for a reason: it tells people whether to come in without revealing that you own exactly one very expensive oscilloscope.

Boxes and containers

Every reviewed loan is issued in a box: staff scan the box QR at issue and again at return, so the scan history shows where things went. With the containers module, boxes can nest (a box inside a shelf inside a room).

In Inventory → Containers you can, for each container:

• edit its label and location, or mark it inactive;
• see its contents (products, asset units and sub-containers) and its scan history;
• define kit components, if the Kit checklists feature is on, so staff count the parts at issue and return.

Note

Creating new box records is not yet exposed as a button in the staff console. A superadmin can add them from the control plane at /control/, or an integration can create them through the API.

Generate and print QR labels

QR codes can point at a box, a product or an asset unit. Every QR code is an opaque string; it carries no information on its own.

To print labels for individually tracked units:

1. Open Inventory → QR Tools (needs the qr_print_batches module).
2. Create a QR print batch, giving it a title.
3. Choose the inventory item, a unit count and an optional label prefix, then generate the missing or new unit QRs. Use Add/reprint item QR for a product-level label, or reprint an existing unit’s label.
4. Use Download all (ZIP) to get the label images for printing.

Batches are kept, so you can come back and download a sheet again. Without the qr_print_batches module, a single unit’s QR can still be shown and reprinted from its container’s contents list.

Scan and look up

Inventory → Scanner (or the standalone scanner page at /scanner) resolves any QR payload, typed, pasted or read with the camera, to its box, product or asset. From the result you can see a box’s contents and, with manage_qr, act on the QR. Every scan is recorded and scan records cannot be edited.

Revoke or rebind a QR

If a label is lost, damaged or stuck on the wrong thing:

1. Scan or paste it in Inventory → Scanner.
2. Choose Revoke QR. A revoked code stops resolving for handovers and self-checkout.
3. Generate a replacement label for the box, product or asset.

The scanner can also re-point a QR at a different target where that is allowed. Revoked codes and their history are kept.

Public self-checkout

If the Self checkout feature is on, members who are checked in at the space can borrow eligible tools themselves by scanning the tool’s QR on the public site and uploading a photo. Eligibility is per product and per asset: tick Enabled for public self-checkout (or use Enable public QR) on the items you trust people to take without staff. See Loans.

Import inventory from a spreadsheet

With the bulk_import module installed, Inventory → Bulk import loads many items at once:

1. Upload a CSV or XLSX file, or paste a table.
2. Map your columns to Space Works fields (or mark a column Do not import).
3. Preview. The preview lists rows to create or update, with errors and warnings.
4. Apply.

An Advanced JSON mode accepts rows as JSON for scripted imports. Without the module, items are added one at a time in the console or through the API.

Stocktake, transfers and procurement

• Stocktake (stocktake module): open a session, scan through the shelves, review variance and commit the adjustment. The Stocktake discipline feature adds blind counts, variance thresholds and a second manager’s approval for large differences.
• Transfers (stock_transfers module): move stock between locations. Moving stock between makerspaces needs the superadmin.
• To Buy (procurement module): keep a to-buy list, attach receipts and move purchased items into stock. Add to To Buy on a product drafts an entry.

Related

• Loans
• Kiosk and front desk
• Reports and audit
• Modules