Beginner's Guide to HortiPeMS | Chapter 8-10

Welcome back to our beginner's guide to HortiPeMS!

We've already covered the essentials of user and pesticide setup, along with creating pesticide applications. Today, we will dive into pesticide inventory management.

While HortiPeMS's pesticide inventory features are entirely optional, I'd encourage you to give them a try! You'll miss out on some handy tools if you skip them – like those low inventory alerts that can save you from running out at a crucial moment, or the quick overview of what you have on hand.

Chapter 8 details how to manage your pesticide inventory within HortiPeMS, including adding, editing, and pricing pesticides. Chapter 9 provides instructions on setting up low inventory alarms for improved stock management. Regardless of whether you utilize the inventory features, Chapter 10 is essential reading. It outlines how to accurately track pesticide usage, which is invaluable for rebate season and overall operational efficiency.

Chapter 8: Viewing and manipulation current pesticide inventory.

We'll begin by demonstrating how to view your current pesticide inventory (Chapter 8.1), followed by instructions on manually adding new pesticides in Chapter 8.2. Please note that this step may have already been completed during the batch import process described in Chapter 3.

8.1: Checking the current and past pesticide inventory

To view your pesticide inventory, navigate to the Inventory section within HortiPeMS by clicking the Inventory button in the left main menu. The inventory page displays a table listing all pesticides saved within HortiPeMS. An example of this table can be seen in the picture below. You can quickly search this table by entering the EPA number, name, or type in the filter textbox (1). The "Inventory" column (2) shows the current inventory for each pesticide, displaying "0" if no inventory has been added.

You can also generate a complete and printable report of your pesticide inventory. Click the "Download inventory report" button below the table to access a popup where you can specify a date and choose a file format (.pdf for a printable report or .csv for a spreadsheet compatible with other applications). The date field defaults to the current system date, but you can select a previous date to generate a report reflecting the inventory status at that specific time, accounting for past usage and additions.

8.2 Manipulation the pesticide inventory

There are 3 ways to manipulate a pesticide inventory you are using within HortiPeMS:

1. By adding inventory (e.g. when you purchase more)
2. By editing an inventory (e.g. after you do an inventory count and you need to make a correction)
3. The third options won’t adjust the inventory, but you can set purchase prices here

Pressing the "+" sign (column 1 in the image above) opens a popup where you can specify the quantity of pesticide to add to your current inventory. For instance, if you have 1 gallon in stock and enter 1 gallon in the popup, your updated inventory will be 2 gallons. You can also adjust the receiving date if needed for tracking purposes.

Pressing the "+/-" sign (in column 2) displays a popup where you can enter a new quantity to directly update the current inventory. For example, if you have 1 gallon in stock and enter 3 gallons, the system will adjust the inventory to 3 gallons. You can also toggle between liquid and solid formulations by checking or unchecking the "Liquid formulation" checkbox.

In column 3, clicking the price (or "N/A" if no price is set) displays a popup. Here, you can enter the price per quantity. This allows HortiPeMS to calculate pricing per application if needed.

Chapter 9: Setting pesticide low inventory warnings

Running out of a pesticide at a critical time can be frustrating. HortiPeMS helps avoid this by providing low inventory warnings.

When a pesticide application is created, the system automatically subtracts the used amount from the inventory. If the inventory drops below a set threshold, a warning is triggered. This warning appears within HortiPeMS and can optionally be sent via email, ensuring timely notification even when a grower uses the last bit of a pesticide.

To set a warning, click the "!!!" button next to the relevant pesticide. Please refer to the picture below for an example.

When you do so, you will see a popup like below.

In this setup, you've instructed HortiPeMS to trigger a warning when the pesticide inventory falls below 1 gallon, and to send you an email notification in that event.

Let's illustrate this with a scenario:

• Current inventory: 2 gallons
• Tomorrow's usage: 1.5 gallons
• Resulting inventory: 0.5 gallons

Since the remaining inventory (0.5 gallons) is less than the warning threshold (1 gallon), HortiPeMS will:

1. Send you an email alert informing you that the pesticide is running low.
2. Display the warning on the warnings screen within HortiPeMS.

This proactive alert system helps you stay ahead of potential shortages and ensures you have enough pesticide on hand when you need it.

Any active warnings are immediately visible in the left-hand menu. As shown in the image, there's currently one pesticide with low inventory.

Clicking on this button takes you to a page where you can view active warnings and manage all your warning settings.

Clicking the "Manage warnings" button displays a popup listing all pesticides for which you've set low inventory alerts, along with their corresponding email notification settings. If you no longer want HortiPeMS to track a specific pesticide's inventory, simply click "Delete."

Chapter 10: Tracking pesticide usage

There are 2 ways to track usage and inventory of a pesticide.

10.1 pesticide specific tracking

The first report is pesticide-specific and accessible from the inventory screen. Locate the desired pesticide and click the "History" button associated with it.

Clicking this button displays a popup detailing the pesticide's known history, organized by date. Adjustments related to applications are highlighted in blue and underlined; clicking on these entries opens the full application report for the corresponding application.

10.2 Total pesticide tracking over a period of time

The second tracking method focuses on pesticide usage over a specified timeframe, which is useful for forecasting future needs and preparing for rebates.

To access this report, click on "Pesticide usage" in the left-hand menu. You can then enter the desired time period for review. In our example, we'll examine pesticide usage for the entire year 2024.

Click "Get report" to initiate HortiPeMS's calculation of pesticide usage per month based on your records.

Once complete, you'll see a table displaying the product, usage per month, and total usage within the specified timeframe.

It's worth noting that pesticides present in HortiPeMS but unused within the specified timeframe will be omitted from this report.

You can also download this report by clicking the "Download/print report" button. For printing purposes, the report generates a separate table for each pesticide, ensuring they fit neatly on a single sheet of paper.

Any other questions or concerns please don't hesitate to reach out.