Scan is the phone screen of Warehouse: one full-screen camera for the gate lane, the yard, the tank farm and the stock room. Point it at a barcode, a QR...
Scan
Scan is the phone screen of Warehouse: one full-screen camera for the gate lane, the yard, the tank farm and the stock room. Point it at a barcode, a QR label or a painted unit number and the record appears at once a container or ISO tank, a stock item or a storage tank with the actions that make sense for it: gate in, move, gate out, take one out, put one in, count. Read with AI takes a photo of a label, a plate, a unit door or a delivery note and gives you all the text on it, the codes and unit numbers it finds (each already looked up in Warehouse) and details such as the plate, seal, UN number and weight.
Where to find it: Workspace → Logistics → Warehouse → Scan, and Inventory → Scan when the Inventory module is on. Add it to your phone's home screen for one-tap access.
Who can use it
Anyone with the base Warehouse permission can scan and look things up, and open the card of what was scanned.
The action buttons appear for users who hold at least one of Gate in and gate out, Move units in the yard, Move stock, pick lists and jobs or Stock counts. Each action is then checked against its own permission: gate in and gate out need the gate permission, a move needs the move permission, − and + and Quantity need the stock permission, saving a count needs the count permission.
Read with AI must be switched on once by an administrator: Settings → AI → Warehouse: read photos in the scanner, with a model that can see images (for example ChatGPT). If the chosen provider is not one your AI settings trust with documents, the read is refused until an administrator allows it there.
Stock items are only looked up when the Inventory module is on; storage tanks exist when the Terminal module is on.
Where it sits in the operation
The scanner is a front door, not a separate process: it finds the record and opens the same forms the desktop uses the gate form, the move form, the stock move form so every rule, permission and audit entry is the same as on the big screen. A gate in started from a scan is a normal gate in, written once to the Movements ledger.
Figure 1 A unit number always wins, and a wrong check digit stops the lookup: a misread number is never turned into "a new unit". Only codes that are not unit numbers are tried as stock items, then as tanks.
What you see
The camera fills the screen, with a frame to aim at and the hint "Point at a barcode, QR code or unit number". At the top: the close button (back to Warehouse), the switch Scan | Read with AI and, on phones that have one, the Torch.
At the bottom: Recent your last five codes on this device (tap one to look it up again) and the field Type a code with Find. It also takes a Bluetooth or USB barcode scanner: start scanning anywhere on the page and the field takes the code.
What you scan slides up from the bottom as a card. When a gate, move or quantity form opened from the card is closed, the card is refreshed with the record as it is now.
Codes are read on the phone itself: with the browser's built-in barcode reader where it exists (Chrome, Android), otherwise with a reader built into the page, so iPhone and Android phones both work. A beep and a short vibration confirm a read; both can be switched off in Warehouse settings → Inventory (Beep on a scan, Vibrate on a scan).
Scan a code
Open Scan and allow the browser to use the camera the first time. If it is refused: "The camera is not available. Allow it in the browser, or type the code."
Aim the frame at the barcode, the QR label or the unit number. The same code held in front of the camera is not read twice within a few seconds; typing it again always looks it up.
The card shows what it is:
Unit (a container or ISO tank number): type and owner, status, position, load and cleanliness, and an On hold chip naming each open hold. Buttons: Open, Move and Gate out when it is on site (no Gate out while a hold is open), or Gate in when it is not.
New unit: a correct number Warehouse does not know yet "Not in Warehouse yet gate it in." Gate in opens the gate form with the number already filled in.
Stock item (its WI- label, its barcode or its SKU): photo, name, SKU and folder, the quantity in large figures with a Low chip under the minimum level, − and + (Out and In, one at a time), Quantity for anything else, and Open.
Storage tank (its code): product, a fill bar, level against capacity, and Open.
Tap Scan the next one.
Gate a unit from the phone
Scan the unit number on the door (or the QR code on a client's pick-up slip).
Tap Gate in, Move or Gate out. The usual gate form opens on top of the camera, with the unit chosen.
Fill in what the gate needs plate, condition, damage sides, seal, photos from the phone camera and press Let it in, Move it or Let it out.
A move or gate out opens on the site where the unit stands. A gate in of a unit that is not on any site opens on your first site in alphabetical order; with several sites, start that gate in from the right site's page instead. See Units for the gate rules.
Read with AI
Tap Read with AI at the top. The hint becomes "Frame the label, plate or document, then tap the button".
Frame the label, plate, unit door or document and tap the round button. "Reading the photo…" shows while it works.
After a few seconds the card shows:
one sentence, in your language, saying what the photo shows;
Found in Warehouse: every unit, stock item or tank on the photo tap one to open its card;
Codes: the barcodes and numbers read tap one to look it up;
"Probably misread (wrong check digit):" for unit numbers whose check digit does not add up they are shown, never used;
Details: Plate, Seal, UN number, Product, Quantity, Weight, Date, Reference or Company when they are on the photo;
Text on the photo: everything written on it, line by line, exactly as printed, with Copy.
Figure 2 The barcode is decoded by the phone, the printed text by the model, and every unit number must pass its check digit before it is looked up. Read with AI finds records; it does not fill in or save anything by itself.
The photo is sent to the model chosen in Settings → AI and is not kept by Warehouse (photos up to 8 MB). The model is told never to guess a character it cannot see; anything it returns that is not a correct unit number or one of the listed details is shown as text only.
Count by scanning
Open a stock count and click Count by scanning. A yellow banner says "Counting: scan an item, type how many, press Enter." with Open the count to go back to it.
Scan an item, type how many you count in the Count field of the card and tap Save.
Scan the next one. When everything is counted, go back to the count and finish it (see Counts).
Without the banner, an item card still offers the Count field while a stock count is open: it records into the newest open count, named on the field.
Controls and exceptions
A unit number with a wrong check digit: "…: the check digit should be 3. Check the number on the unit." Nothing is opened and no new unit is offered.
An unknown code: "… is not a unit, stock item or tank in Warehouse."
A unit on hold shows the hold and no Gate out button; the gate form would refuse it anyway.
Taking out more than is in stock is refused with the quantity there is ("There are only 3 of …").
A double tap on + or − on a slow connection is not counted twice; each tap carries its own one-time key and is recorded as a scan.
When Read with AI is off: "Reading photos with AI is switched off. An administrator can switch it on in Settings → AI → Warehouse: read photos in the scanner."
When nothing can be read: "Nothing could be read. Try again closer, with more light." With no photo received: "No photo was received. Try again."
A browser that cannot read barcodes with the camera still takes typed codes and a barcode scanner.
For the manager
Gate lane: a phone at the gate removes typing errors on unit numbers the check digit is verified before anything is opened and puts the gate photos straight onto the EIR.
Yard and stock checks: print QR labels for your items from Items; they read fastest and from furthest away. For a full yard inventory against the list use Yard check.
Audit: every gate move or stock move made from the scanner is recorded like any other, with the user and time; − and + taps are marked as coming from a scan.
AI cost: Read with AI is its own operation in Settings → AI, so its use and cost show on their own line, separate from Marvin's gate-photo reading.
Tips
In a dark yard use the Torch button.
For a damaged or dirty label, Read with AI often still finds the number printed next to the barcode.
A Bluetooth barcode scanner works like a keyboard: just scan; the code field takes it.
Painted unit numbers on a corrugated door read best straight on and close; if the camera hesitates, type the 11 characters the check digit catches a slip.
Glossary
Check digit
The 11th character of an ISO 6346 unit number, computed from the first ten; a mismatch means a misread.
WI- label
The label Warehouse prints for an inventory item, holding its own id (WI-123).
SKU
The stock-keeping unit code of an item; matched like a barcode.
QR code
A two-dimensional code; Warehouse uses it on item labels and on the client's pick-up slip.
OCR
Reading printed text from an image what Read with AI does for text the barcode reader cannot see.
Book quantity
The stock the system holds for an item, shown in large figures on the item card.
Cycle count
Counting part of the stock on a schedule; Count by scanning records the counted quantity per item.
EIR
Equipment Interchange Receipt; the photos taken in the gate form from the phone appear on it.
