Managing Discontinued Items & Locations: Archive vs. Delete

As your business evolves, some items may become obsolete, or warehouse locations might be decommissioned. AssetBlaze offers a safe way to manage these.

1. Archiving Items (Soft Delete):

What it is? Instead of permanently deleting an item, you can now "Archive" it. This removes the item from your active lists and prevents it from being selected for new sales orders or purchase orders, but it preserves all its historical data.

When to Use:

• For items you no longer stock or sell, but that have been involved in past transactions (e.g., past sales, purchases, inventory movements).

• Items that might be seasonal and you want to reactivate later.

Why Not Delete? If an item has any history (even a single past sale, purchase, or quantity adjustment), you cannot permanently delete it. This is crucial for maintaining accurate financial records, audit trails, and consistent reporting. Attempting to delete such an item will result in a message prompting you to archive it instead.

How to Archive: Go to the Item's overview, and you'll find an "Archive" option.

Viewing Archived Items: You can typically filter your item lists (e.g., "Show Archived") to view these items. They might appear greyed out or with a specific status.

2. Archiving Locations (Cities, Warehouses, Bins):

What it is? Similar to items, you can now "Archive" locations that are no longer in use. This prevents new inventory from being added to them or new movements initiated from them.

When to Use: For warehouses or specific storage bins that are being decommissioned.

Why Not Delete? If a location has (or had) any inventory, or any historical inventory movements, you cannot permanently delete it. This ensures that your past inventory records remain complete and auditable.

Impact: Archived locations will still appear in historical reports, showing past inventory levels or movements. If a location still contains inventory when archived, those items will remain visible in that location, but you won't be able to add *new* inventory to it.