What is a base unit of measure?
A base unit of measure is the unit a WMS counts an item in, such as each or kilogram, with every other unit for that item converted to it.
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Why one base unit matters
Suppliers ship in pallets, the warehouse stores cases and customers order single units. If each step records its own unit, the totals stop adding up.
A base unit of measure fixes this. The WMS stores every quantity in the base unit and converts other units to it using fixed ratios. Most teams choose the smallest unit they ever handle, so quantities never need fractions.
Worked example
In this example, item E-500 has a base unit of each. One case holds 24 eaches and one pallet holds 40 cases, so a pallet is 960 eaches.
The warehouse receives 2 pallets and 5 cases, which the system stores as 2,040 eaches. A picker then takes 30 eaches, and the balance becomes 2,010.
How Waresify handles it
Every Waresify item has a base unit, and stock balances are kept in it. The unit table is part of the core platform.
Handling several units per item, with conversions at every scan, comes with the multi-UOM module, on the Professional and Enterprise plans. ERP messages then carry both the unit the worker used and the base quantity.
Questions
Can the base unit be a weight?
Yes. Items sold by weight, such as bulk powders, often use kilograms as the base unit. Items counted in units but billed by weight need catch weight handling as well.
Should the base unit match the ERP?
It helps. If the ERP and the WMS count an item in different units, every message between them needs a conversion, and mismatches are easy to miss.