A roundabout works because of one rule: give way to the right. Everyone arrives at once, nobody has to negotiate, and the traffic keeps moving because the question of who goes first was settled before anyone got there.

Warehouses need the same kind of rule. A single number decides which shelf a picker walks to first. A master SKU sits behind every pack SKU sold against it. An ERP can stay the finance record while the people on the warehouse floor don’t need to learn it. Several of this week’s answers aren’t about clever features; they’re about rank: which location, record or system gets the final say when they disagree.

Which Field Matters Most When Setting Up Pick Locations?

When setting up pick locations in Helm, the critical field is "visit order": a lower number means higher pick priority, and the number determines the order pickers are routed through the warehouse.

Locations are managed under Settings, then Warehouse, then Location list, and can be exported in full to review in one go. There's no practical limit on how high the number can go, so it's worth leaving gaps between values and giving a new location room to slot in later. Get the numbers wrong and pickers walk the building in whatever order they say, whether or not that makes sense on foot.

What's the Difference Between Dedicated Item & Max Items Locations?

In Helm, a dedicated item location is locked to one specific product, so anyone trying to put something else there gets an error, while a max items location instead caps how many different product types can be associated with it.

One is a lock; the other is a ceiling. With dedicated item switched on, nothing else can go in that location, so there's nothing left for max items to cap, which is why using dedicated item means you don't also need max items. Max items is for locations that can hold more than one product, with a limit on how many different ones.

Can You Keep Bulk Storage Separate from the Pick-Face?

Yes: in Helm you mark bulk areas as non-pickable and the primary pick-face as pickable, and replenishment alerts tell staff when to move stock from bulk into the pick-face.

Marking bulk as non-pickable means pickers aren't sent there, so overstock stays out of the pick routes. The replenishment alerts then handle restocking: they tell staff when it's time to move stock across, rather than leaving someone to notice an empty shelf with the stock still in the building.

Can a Location Be a Van Instead of a Shelf?

Yes: Helm lets you set up a location as a van or similar mobile unit instead of a fixed shelf, so stock loaded into vehicles can be tracked the same way as warehouse stock.

Levels in each van can then be reviewed and replenished each evening, the same as any other stock. A van is a shelf that drives: as far as the system's concerned, a location is wherever stock is held, whether or not it has racking.

Can One Master SKU Sit behind Channel-Specific Pack SKUs?

Yes: Helm lets you hold one master SKU and map a channel-specific pack SKU to it, so a sale of the pack deducts the corresponding number of units from the master SKU.

A six-pack on one channel and a single unit on another aren't two products with two stock counts; they're one stock count seen through two listings. Helm links SKUs automatically by default when they match, and where they don't, an unlinked SKUs view lets you map them in one of three ways: a formula, a manual link or a provided spreadsheet. The failure this prevents is two counts for the same physical thing, which tend to drift apart once either one moves.

Does Helm Support Partial Receiving of Purchase Orders?

Yes: Helm shows a purchase order's delivery status as partially received or fully received, with a record of what has been received and what is still due in.

Suppliers don't always deliver a whole order in one go, so the purchase order itself holds the difference between ordered and arrived. Mid-delivery, the number worth watching is what's still owed, not what was ordered.

Is There a Log of Every Stock Adjustment?

Yes: Helm logs any inventory movement or change, showing who made it and the reason given.

A wrong stock figure is an inconvenience. One nobody can trace to a person or a reason is an investigation, and the log shows who and why before anyone has to ask.

Can Orders Be Routed to Different Pickers by Product Type or Location?

Yes: Helm routes or splits orders between pickers using order rules and automation, plus custom fields and a multi-location warehouse setup. A mixed order can be tagged or flagged to show it needs picking from more than one place.

Routing decides who picks what; the flag is what stops anyone being surprised halfway through.

Can Helm Book Postage through a Consolidator Account?

Yes: Helm can book postage bought through a consolidator or reseller account, by adding the consolidator as a courier integration using your account credentials, with only the shipment services active on that account appearing as options.

Your own shipping rules in Helm, set by weight, dimensions or tag, select which of those services is used automatically. The rules decide and the account sets the menu, so a service the account doesn't have never appears as an option.

Can You Use a Courier You Haven't Integrated?

Yes: in Helm you can manually dispatch an order and enter the courier's name and tracking number by hand, and the order then passes through to the sales channel as if it had been booked via an integration, just without an auto-generated shipping label.

So a carrier you rarely use doesn't need an integration project. The order still reaches the sales channel with its tracking details, and the only thing missing is the label Helm would otherwise generate.

Can Helm Run Alongside an ERP as the Finance Record?

Yes: Helm is REST API driven, so an ERP such as Microsoft Dynamics or Business Central can push orders in and pull data out, either directly or through its integration partner, while the ERP remains the system of record for finance.

Many customers run Helm alongside their ERP rather than relying on the ERP's own logistics module, which is often limited. Operational staff interact only with the warehouse system rather than needing to learn the ERP, and the ERP keeps doing the wider business and finance work. Neither system has to pretend to be good at the other's job.

Eleven answers, and several of them come down to one question: when two things disagree, which one wins? Decide it before they do.

If you're not sure which of your own systems currently outranks which, bring the list to a call: talk to us.