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Depots

Attention! A user must be assigned to a depot before it will be visible for them to use. To avoid user mistakes and fraud, BHIMA requires that each user be individually assigned to a depot similar to cashboxes.

Depots are used to store stock articles. We cannot discuss stock without talking about depots since all stock articles are assigned to specific depots. The depot forms a container for the enterprise’s stock, and allows users to enter stock through Stock Entry, or dispense stock through Stock Exit.

To see the registry of depots:

menu > Stock > Depot Management
⇒ Opens a registry of known depots and allows editing existing depots and creating new ones

To edit an existing depot, click on the Action link on the right end of the row of the depot to edit. Then click on the “Edit” link, make the changes on to the depot and then click the [Submit] button on the bottom of the edit form.

To create a new depot, click on the [Add Depot] button in the top right corner of the page. This opens a modal window to enter the depot information. While creating a new depot, you will need to specify the supplier. For more details on creating and editing suppliers within BHIMA, please see the Supplier documentation.

Depot Heirarchies

BHIMA allows sites to structure their depots in a tree hierachary of parents and children, similar to the chart of accounts. This feature exists to allow easier permissions management. If a user is responsible for many depots in a region, it may make sense to group these regionally and assign a user the permissions to all child depots in that region. Functionally, the parent-child relationship has no bearing on which depots can transfer stock between one another.

Depot Capabilities

Each depot can be customized to allow only certain kinds of entries and exits. For example, a central warehouse might not distribute directly to patients, but may serve as a staging center to distribute to other depots. Similarly, a depot could be a distribution center only and not allow direct entry of donated or purchased stock.

Getting Access to a Depot

Before managing or accessing a depot, a user have authorization. To get access, open the User Management page:

menu > Administration > User Management
⇒ Opens a registry of users

Use the Action link on the right end of the line for the user you wish to update and click on the “Depot Management” menu item. A form will appear that will allow you to enter the name of the depot you want to obtain permission to manage. Click in the input box under the “Add:” and begin typing the depot name. After you type in a few characters, BHIMA will look up the depot by name and the full name should appear. Click on it to select it. The depot name should now be shown.

If you do not see any depots names loaded, this could mean that either you have a slow connection to the server or your have mistyped your depot name. Confirm the name is of an existing depot and try again.

Then confirm the authorization by clicking on the blue [Submit] button. If the operation is successful, a green “Updated” message will appear briefly at the top of the page.

Enabling this authorization is only necessary once (per user). Once done, the user will be able to carry out operations related to stock movements with the authorized depot.