Master list is your company's Sample Library. The master list contains detailed information about all samples in the inventory. It typically includes data such as sample names, descriptions, locations, and other relevant attributes. 

Importing samples from master list to a department's inventory copies all samples information and creates a record in the department's inventory. 

The master list is your samples catalog from which departments can select samples from to add to their inventory. 

A send out is a physical delivery of Samples.

A send out can be of different type:

• Loan
• Transfer
• Reservation
• End of life
  • Purchase
  • Return to Vendor
  • Send to Archive
  • Gift
  • Write-off

The status of a send out is also tracked to help you understand which stage it's at:

• Open: your delivery is still in progress, and your send out has at least 1 sample remaining out on loan. 
• Pending: your delivery is waiting to be approved before being sent out
• Reserved: samples are reserved and waiting to be converted to a send out. 
• Closed: all samples on your delivery have been marked as returned (or relevant End of Life Status).
• Cancelled: your delivery was cancelled, thus no Samples have been sent out

A request is a formal or informal submission made by an individual or department to borrow or obtain specific samples for a designated purpose. A request usually comes from a PR opportunity. 

As a Samples manager or coordinator, tracking requests in Samples allows you to identify all the opportunities (internal or external) that require one or multiple samples from your Sample Inventory. 

When logging a request in Samples, the purpose, the duration of the sample usage, and the delivery details can be filled in to give as much information as possible on the opportunity. You can then decide to approve or deny the Samples Request based on your strategy and samples' availability. 

Requests are converted to send out to organise the physical delivery of the requested Samples (or substitute). 

Samples requests can be made by stylists or editorialists of the industry directly from your Galleries Showroom. 

A reservation involves setting aside a certain quantity of samples for a particular purpose or event. Reservations help ensure that the required samples are available when needed and prevent them from being allocated to other requests or purposes.

You can mark Samples as reserved by creating a send out reservation.

Simply convert your send out reservation to a loan to get your Samples on the go when the reservation comes to date. 

Transfer is a “loan type". Sample transfers involves transferring samples ownership from one location to another within the organisation. This could be between different departments, offices, or warehouses.

In a transfer, you don't expect the sample back in your inventory. 

You can create an send out type transfer to transfer your samples.

You can also transfer sample ownership with an external tenant, like your PR agency with whom you're sharing samples. You can do this when you have Gateway enabled. Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or our Support team if you would like to use this feature

End of Life Samples are those which have had their 'Sample Status' marked as:

• Sold
• Written-Off
• Gifted
• Returned to Vendor
• Sent to Archive

These samples are considered "End of Life", because when marked as the above statuses, the sample will be removed from the Inventory 'Inventory Status' and will only be able to be found within the 'Send-Out Report'. In most situations, samples with the above statues, are samples that are no longer in use.

Learn how to recover your End of Life Samples 

Send to Archive is an "End of Life" send out. Sending a sample to archive removes them from the inventory and if you want to bring them back, they need to recovered via the End of Life Manager. Send to Archive is usually used for samples that are being sent back to an archive warehouse (where the warehouse does not use Samples. 

This action involves moving samples to an archive or storage location, usually after they have reached the end of their useful life or are no longer needed for active usage. Archiving samples helps maintain organised inventory management and reduces clutter in active storage areas.

You can create an end-of-life type of send out and send your sample(s) to archive. 

Once in the archive, the sample is removed from your inventory and can no longer be used by your department. You can still report on the sample's activity if you choose to display or focus on archived samples. 

Archived samples can be recovered from End of life manager. 

Write Off  is an "End of Life" send-out which will remove the samples from your inventory. Writing off samples typically refers to the process of removing them from inventory due to various reasons, such as damage, expiration, or loss. Writing off samples ensures accurate inventory records and helps in financial reporting.

You can create an end-of-life type of send out to write-off samples.

Once written off, the Sample is removed from your inventory and can no longer be used by your department.

Written-off samples can be recovered from End of life manager. 

Return to Vendor is an "End of Life" send-out which will remove the samples from your inventory. Returning samples to a vendor involves sending unused or unsuitable samples back to the original supplier or manufacturer. This might be done due to defects, errors, or changes in requirements.

You can create an end-of-life type of send out to return your samples to the vendor.

Once marked as returned to the vendor, the Sample is removed from your inventory and can no longer be used by your department.

Returned to vendor samples can be recovered from End of life manager. 

Gift is an "End of Life" send-out which will remove the samples from your inventory.  Samples designated as gifts are intended to be given away or distributed for promotional or goodwill purposes. Tracking gift samples helps monitor distribution and assess the impact of such promotional activities.

You can create an end-of-life type of send out to give your samples.

Gifted samples can be recovered from End of life manager. 

A placed Sample is a Sample tagged on a placement linked to a Send out. When a sample is placed it will be be linked to MIV and the Voice that was activated. 

To find out more about Sample Placements please click between the below links:

• Suggested Placements 
• Linking Placements to a Send Out Manually 
• Managing your Placements
• Tagging Samples on Linked Placements 
   

RFID (or Radio-Frequency Identification) is a way to tag samples that can be read by an RFID Scanner which allow you to wave the RFID Scanner over a pile of samples, or a rack of samples, or a box of samples and then based on that motion all the Samples that have RFID tags will be recognised. This differs from the traditional barcode where each individual item needs to be scanned on a 1:1 basis. Using RFID allows you to use the 'Locate' feature that will tell you where your samples are based on a location beep getting stronger as you get closer to the physical sample. 

Location is the physical location of a sample. This could be useful in situations where samples are being shared across several offices OR in situations where you are managing large quantities of samples in a warehouse or library set up.

Gateway allows you to send and receive samples between departments and other Launchmetrics clients. It is a communication and data transfer interface that facilitates the exchange of information between different systems, such as inventory management, sample tracking, and reporting.

Gateway eases sending and receiving samples between departments

• It eliminates the need to manually import and receive samples when one department is transferring a sample to another one
• It maintains consistency between departments, by sharing the samples' data (descriptions, images, and logs) to keep departments in sync

Gateway will also be used when sharing samples with other Launchmetrics sites/tenants like your PR agency also using Samples.