Scanning to Receive, Check In, and Move Inventory from D-Tools mobile app

Summary

D-Tools Cloud’s web application already supports scan-based inventory workflows: receiving against purchase orders, Batch Receive, Batch Move, Batch Allocate, warehouse location labels, and serial number capture. The native iOS and Android app does not offer these workflows; its Scan Item function only increments an on-hand count, and Field users have no receiving access. Integrators who need scanning at the dock, in the van, or on site are therefore running the desktop web application in a mobile browser on enterprise Android scanners. We request the same workflows in the native app, built for one-handed use on devices such as the Zebra TC22, with hardware-scanner and offline support.

Problem / Current State

• Our company receives, checks in, and moves inventory using the D-Tools desktop site in the mobile browser on Zebra TC22 handhelds. The integrated imager delivers each scan as keystrokes into whichever field has focus. The approach works, which proves the demand, but it is fragile: the desktop layout is not designed for a 6-inch screen, a scan into the wrong field silently misfiles data, the Scan modal reserves the upper half of the screen for a camera view that a hardware imager never uses, browser sessions lose their place on reload, and nothing works offline.

• Field users cannot receive at all, so warehouse and field staff who handle deliveries must be licensed as Office users or hand the work to someone who is.

• D-Tools has acknowledged both gaps: its Inventory Asset Management webinar Q&A states that phone scanning is not yet available in the native app and that Field user inventory access is on the roadmap.

• The native app’s Scan Item function raises on-hand quantity without a purchase order or serial number. Release R103 removed a comparable “back-door receive” path on the web, which confirms that untraceable count increases are a data-integrity risk.

Business Impact

• Inventory accuracy: time between physical receipt and system check-in is time in which stock shows as unavailable, duplicate orders are placed, or allocated items cannot be found.

• Labor and error correction: every misfiled scan or dropped session is re-work that a scanner-aware native interface would prevent.

• Serial and warranty data: serial numbers captured at receipt are complete; those captured later are often missing, which weakens the asset, warranty, and service history D-Tools has built in recent releases.

• Field accountability: Field users can check out items from the app but have no documented way to check them back in, so returns and partial installs drift until the office reconciles them.

Requested Capability

1. Scan workflows in the native Android and iOS app for Office and Field roles: receive against a purchase order (select or scan the PO, scan items to match lines, enter or scan serial numbers, record variances and damage photos, scan the destination location label), plus check-in, Batch Move, Batch Allocate, and return-to-stock, matching the web Scan modal.

2. Hardware scanner support: accept input from Zebra DataWedge (intent and keystroke output), generic keyboard-wedge and Bluetooth HID scanners, and the device camera; suppress the camera view when a hardware scan arrives; map the device’s dedicated scan buttons to the active scan field.

3. Scanner-first interface: large touch targets, a persistent scan target so focus can never land in the wrong field, audible and haptic confirmation, and a running count of scanned versus expected quantities per PO line.

4. Offline queuing with conflict review on reconnect, consistent with the app’s existing offline mode.

5. Role permissions so a Field user can receive only to assigned locations or projects, and an audit trail per scan.

Benefits to D-Tools and the Integrator Community

• The business logic already exists on the web; the native work is a scanner-aware interface and device integration, which lowers the engineering lift relative to the value delivered.

• Enterprise Android handhelds such as the Zebra TC22 are the standard receiving device in small and mid-sized warehouses; supporting them makes D-Tools Cloud credible as an inventory system rather than a catalog with counts.

• D-Tools’ CEO described inventory management in 2019 as the single most requested feature from D-Tools customers, and D-Tools’ SI inventory partner, Tracknicity, built its product around mobile UPC scanning for receiving, staging, picking, and delivery across warehouses and vans.

• Every Inventory Pools and Inventory Asset Management customer benefits, and the feature strengthens the case for Field user licenses.

Success Measures

• A full purchase order receipt completed one-handed on a TC22 in the android /iOS native app without zooming or keyboard-focus errors.

• Deliveries checked in on the day of receipt, with serial numbers captured for all serialized items.

• No on-hand increases outside a PO receipt or an authorized adjustment.

• Field users can return items to stock from the app.