Hi
I am experiencing a very frustrating, ugly issue which may be my fault. If I could understand why, I can remedy it.
I have a feed store structure (location).
Inside it there are bales of feed of differing types (Lucerne, oat hay, maize stover).
I have materials and types for each. Oat hay bale, maize stover bale etc. Units are “bale”.
I added the latest quantity of maize. On the structure view it says “inventory 3 bales”. It does not say which bales. This is problem one.
I then added more lucern bales (totally different types).
It seems the addition of the second seperate bales annihilated the first log.
Now I can only see the last addition, and I still don’t know which is which.
Let me attach a screenshot. You’ll notice it says “4 bale” , but there should be 4 Lucerne as well as 3 maize. It’s very obscure.
Thanks in advance.
Marlon
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Asset inventory is calculated on the basis of the measure and unit pairs.
Probably the easiest strategy is to make separate units for the different bale types - i.e. “oat hay bale”, “maize stover bale”, etc.
Alternatively, you could make a “logical location” within the old coop for each of the bale types and track the inventory separately under each of those. However, this has the disadvantage that you wouldn’t see the totals all on the same page.
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I like the separate units idea and will try this. Thank you. That’s why you get the big bucks. 
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Great question @marlonv! Just want to add to @Symbioquine answer re: creating “logical locations”. Another similar option is to create separate Material assets for each of the bale types and assign the location of the Material assets to your storage location. This way you can keep simple “bale” units and additionally track Material assets by their “Material Type”. But like @Symbioquine mentioned right now you won’t see these totals all on the same page.
@mstenta has also described this approach (using separate asset for each type of inventory) like a “chart of accounts”, if you consider purchasing & selling of inventory/products might use the same inventory system.
And exciting news, we’re starting to work on this exact problem via the Improving Product & Inventory Management work package
Tier - Open Collective We identified this exact situation you are describing. I think the ideal solution is that we can improve the UI so it is easier to view & manage multiple material or product assets as a way of tracking separate inventories. It is more complicated to modify the existing inventory logic to also take into account the “type of material/thing/units”… but perhaps this is where we should focus.
If you’re able to make the dev call today (in 1hr) would love to chat more @marlonv @Symbioquine
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I agree!
Adding custom “units” terms works to show multiple inventories on one asset, but I worry about the “units” taxonomy becoming messy over time. It would be better to create assets for each “bucket” of inventory IMO, like a “chart of accounts”, as @paul121 mentioned. The only thing missing is some nice reporting UI/UX to make all of that visible in one place, and maybe some quick forms to make inventory adjustments easier to record (and more standardized).
“Assets” are “units of management”, aka the smallest denomination of “stuff” that you’re keeping track of. Whether that be a single animal (eg: “Bessy the Cow”) or a set of plants (eg: “2023 Corn in North Field”) or in this case a collection of hay bales of a certain type in a certain location (eg: “Lucerne bales in Feed Store”), each can have its own inventory. The benefit of having separate assets for each “set of stuff” is that each one can also have additional metadata associated with it. For example, each “Material” asset can have a “Material type” assigned to it (a term from the “Material types” taxonomy).
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