Allocating Items

Once you have purchased an item or received an order, you can allocate items to people and/or CMDB items. Allocating items transfers them from either the On Hand or Reserved pool, to the In Use pool.

Before you start

Reserve/Allocate must be selected within the Execute Transactions sections in the CMDB Items tab of your Configuration Management security role. If you have jurisdictions, and want to create purchases in jurisdictions other than your own, All Jurisdictions must be selected in the Order/Purchase/Transfer section on the same window.

You can only allocate items from the On Hand view if they have the status On Hand – Available. You can do this by adding a purchase, receiving an order, canceling a reservation or canceling an allocation.

1. The title and any description of the current software product or inventory appear at the top of this window. The Transactions window also has two tabs:

   Orders

   This tab allows you to add and manage your orders, that is record the number of items of a software product or inventory item you have ordered but have not yet received.

   Purchases

   This tab allows you to view and manage your purchases, that is the number of items of the software product or inventory item you have purchased as well as received from an order. The state of these items can change, that is they can be on-hand, in use, reserved, and retired. Each state (also referred to as a “transaction pool”) is represented by the tabs or views in the Purchases view (that is On Hand, In Use, Reserved, and Retired).
2. Select the Purchases tab. This is just below the Description field. This tab has two browse tables. The top browse table is the list of purchases, and has columns for all the purchase transaction details. The bottom browse table has four tabs or views, On Hand, In Use, Reserved, and Retired. Each view represents the state of the purchased items after a particular transaction was performed.

3. You can select Filter Columns below the table to show or hide columns. A blank value in a column means that this transaction detail was intentionally left unspecified or it is not relevant to the particular transaction.

4. Select the Show transactions for selected purchase only radio button above the browse table to only display the items in the bottom browse table for a selected purchase. Clear this option to list the items in all purchases.

5. Scroll down to the bottom of the window and select either the On Hand tab if you want to allocate items which were purchased or received, or the Reserved tab to allocate items which have been reserved.

6. From the browse table, select the transaction record from which you want to allocate items.

7. Select Allocate to display the Transaction Details Allocate window.

8. Complete the details.

Available Quantity	The number of items that are available to allocate. This is a read-only field.
Total allocated in this transaction	The total quantity of items allocated in this transaction. This is a read-only field.
Allocated Item	The name of the item you are allocating. This is a read-only field, populated with the information from the Transactions window.
Cost Center	The name of the cost center, if supplied. This is a read-only field, populated with the information from the Transactions window.
Organization	The name of the organization, if supplied. This is a read-only field, populated with the information from the Transactions window.
Location	The name of the location, if supplied. This is a read-only field, populated with the information from the Transactions window.
External Supplier	The name of the external supplier, if supplied. This is a read-only field, populated with the information from the Transactions window.
Contract	The name of the contract, if supplied. This is a read-only field, populated with the information from the Transactions window.
Allocate to	The following fields contain the details of the recipient of the allocation.
CMDB Item	Search for and select a CMDB item to which the item is being allocated, if appropriate. If allocating items from the Reserved view, this field show the CMDB item specified when reserving the items. However, you can select another CMDB item. You must specify a CMDB Item or a Person. You can specify both, for example the laptop used by a particular analyst. You can select a CMDB item from any cost center.
Person	Search for and select a person to whom the item is being allocated, if appropriate. If allocating items from the Reserved view, this field shows the person specified when reserving the items. However, you can select another person. You must specify a CMDB Item or a Person. You can specify both. You can select a person from any cost center.
Quantity	Type the number of items you wish to allocate to the selected CMDB item or person. The quantity you specify must be equal to or below the value shown in the Available Quantity field.
Status	Select a status for the transaction. The default status is In Use, but others may be configured in the Asset Management - Transaction Status window.
Allocations	The browse table below shows all of the existing allocations.

9. Select Add beneath the browse table.

10. The details are displayed in the browse table and the Available Quantity and Total allocated in this transaction fields are updated.

11. If any usage restrictions apply, you will receive an error message to this effect. Select OK to close the message and select a different CMDB item.

12. Select the In Use tabto see that an entry for each allocation added appears in the browse table.

13. The Item Summary on the Software Product Details or Inventory Details is updated to reflect the new total quantity of items in the On Hand – Available or On Hand – Unavailable, and In Use pools.

Canceling an Allocation

If you have allocated items that are no longer needed, you can return them to the On Hand - Available pool so that they can be reserved for or allocated somewhere else.

1. Select the Purchases tab.

2. Select the In Use tab to see the reservations in the browse table.

3. Select the entry you want to cancel and then select Return to On Hand.

4. The Transaction Details Return to On Hand window appears. The quantity allocated and details of the person/CMDB item they are allocated to are displayed at the top of the window. In the Unallocate section, complete the details.

Quantity to Return	type the quantity of the item you want to return to On Hand.
Status	Use the drop-down list to specify whether you want the status to be Available, so that it can be reserved or allocated to someone else, or Unavailable.

5. Select OK to close the window. The details are updated in the window, as well as in the transaction history and item summary for the item.