Academy - How to set up inventory item expiration alerts

This article applies to:
PoliceOne Academy, CorrectionsOne Academy, and white-label sites. 

If you are using our Inventory Manager add-on, you are now able to set in-app and email alerts to notify personnel about upcoming item expiration. Body armor, taser cartridges, OC spray, QuikClot, Narcan, filters for masks, and ammunition are examples of items that expire.

This feature allows Inventory admins to:

• Set up default notification rules for all items in three quick steps
• Customize notifications per SKU type
• Flag expiration dates in the Admin Dashboard

Before getting started, make sure you are tracking expiration dates for inventory items in the system. You can enter expiration dates when first acquiring the SKU/item, or by editing it: 

Note: If individual items with the same SKU have different expiration dates, you must enter each item separately, using the Add item button in the form.

How to quickly add default expiration alerts 

1. Go to Settings, and select Notifications:

2. Select when notifications will be sent

3. Select who will receive all notifications and save

You can use this simple method if you want these settings to apply to all expiring items of every SKU type, or if you are only tracking expiration for items of one SKU type. If you want to further customize this default notification rule, you can find it in the Notification Manager.

How to customize expiration alerts per SKU type

If you have different personnel managing certain SKU types, or there's great variation in lead times, it might make sense to create additional, custom notification rules for some SKU types.

In this example we will create a custom notification rule for all SKUs/items with SKU type "Bullet-proof vest"

1. At the bottom of the Notifications screen, find the link to Notification Manager (see above screenshot)

2. Select New Notification

3. Enter a name for the notification, and select the notification type and template as shown:

4. Specify desired SKU types, personnel, and other delivery settings. Save!

5. Back in the Notification screen (Inventory Manager, Settings) you will see all existing expiration notification rules for your organization

Note: You may want to edit your default notification rule to avoid duplication. In this example, personnel managing the "Bullet-proof vest" SKU type could be receiving both the default and custom notifications.