A storage area groups the storage places of a warehouse by purpose, for example high-bay racking, picking area or goods receipt. During putaway your staff only choose the area – the system automatically looks for a free place in it. The **short code** of the area is put in front of every place number.

You can also store row data per area. It is used for the hall plan, for inventories and for route optimization when picking.

![Screenshot: Storage areas list with the columns Name, Slug, Type, System, Group, Priority, places Total / Occupied / Free and Rows](/warehouse-setup/images/storage-areas-list.png)

## Before you start
- A warehouse exists and is selected as the current warehouse – see [Warehouses](/warehouse-setup/warehouses.md).
- Your user needs the permission **Storage areas** (*Lagerbereiche*) and, depending on the task, create, edit or delete – ask your administrator.
- Optional: a [storage group](/warehouse-setup/storage-groups.md) and [packing tables](/company/packing-tables.md) if you want to anchor rows to a packing table.

## Create a storage area
1. Open **WMS › Warehouse › Storage areas** (*WMS › Lager › Lagerbereiche*).
2. Click **New area** (*Neuer Bereich*).
3. Fill in **Name** (*Name*), **Short code** (*Kürzel*), **Description** (*Beschreibung*), **Priority** (*Priorität*), **Area type** (*Bereichstyp*), **Area system** (*Bereichssystem*), **Storage group** (*Lagergruppe*) and **Putaway direction** (*Einlagerungs-Richtung*).
4. Click **Save** (*Speichern*). You see "Storage area was created" (*Lagerbereich wurde angelegt*).
5. Now create the places of the area – see [Storage places](/warehouse-setup/storage-places.md). Each place number is saved as `<short code>-<number>`.

![Screenshot: Form "New area" with Name, Short code, Area type, Area system, Storage group and Putaway direction filled in](/warehouse-setup/images/storage-areas-create.png)

## Fields and options
| Field | Meaning | Required |
|---|---|---|
| **Name** (*Name*) | Name of the area | yes |
| **Short code** (*Kürzel*) | Prefix of all place numbers in this area | yes |
| **Priority** (*Priorität*) | Order / importance of the area | no |
| **Area type** (*Bereichstyp*) | Goods receipt / receiving area, storage area / main warehouse, picking area, consolidation / collection area, packing area, goods issue / shipping area, returns area | no |
| **Area system** (*Bereichssystem*) | Block storage, shelving, pallets, high-bay racking, flow rack, drive-in rack, open storage, special storage | no |
| **Storage group** (*Lagergruppe*) | Assigns the area to a [storage group](/warehouse-setup/storage-groups.md) | no |
| **Putaway direction** (*Einlagerungs-Richtung*) | **Forward (ascending)** (*Vorwärts (aufsteigend)*) or **Reverse (descending)** (*Rückwärts (absteigend)*): the order in which automatic putaway fills free places. Default: ascending. | no |
| **Pallets per storage place (block storage)** (*Paletten je Lagerplatz (Blocklager)*) | How many pallets fit on one place of this area. Up to this number a place counts as free for putaway, restocking "Free place" and relocation. A full place accepts no further pallet, not even by scan. Empty = one pallet per place. | no |
| **Putaway only in rows** (*Einlagerung nur in Reihen*) | Row numbers such as `7,8` or `7-9`. Putaway, restocking "Free place" and relocation "Next free place" then only look for places in these rows. Empty = all rows. A place scanned by hand is still allowed. | no |

## Additional options when editing
When you edit an existing area, you get more options.

**Assign to all places in this area** (*Allen Plätzen in diesem Bereich zuweisen*)
Writes **Storage place type**, **Storage place kind** and **Loading unit** to all places of the area at once. "-- unchanged --" (*-- unverändert --*) leaves the places as they are, "– remove –" (*– entfernen –*) clears the value. You see "%s places of the area updated (%s)."

![Screenshot: Section "Assign to all places in this area" with the three drop-downs place type, place kind and loading unit](/warehouse-setup/images/storage-areas-assign-all.png)

**Rows** (*Reihen*)
Add row ranges with **Add row range** (*Reihen-Bereich hinzufügen*). Per entry:
- **Row from** / **Row to** (*Reihe von / Reihe bis*) – for a single row enter the same value twice, e.g. "from 12 to 12".
- **Numbering** (*Nummerierung*): **Ascending** (smallest place at the front), **Descending** (largest place at the front) or **U-shape** (*U-Form (hin und zurück)*) with a **Turning point (place)** (*Wendepunkt (Platz)*) – the last place before the row turns.
- **Back to back** (*Rücken an Rücken*) – the rows stand in pairs without an aisle between them.
- **Against the back wall** (*Hinten an der Wand*) – there is no passage behind the rows; the pick route then uses the front cross aisle.
- **Packing table** (*Packtisch*) and **Packing table at place no.** (*Packtisch bei Platz-Nr.*) – where a packing table stands in the row.

![Screenshot: Section "Rows" with two row ranges, numbering U-shape with turning point and a packing table assigned](/warehouse-setup/images/storage-areas-rows.png)

**Segment assignment**
Tell the system which segment of the place number contains what – counted **without** the area short code:
- **Row = segment of the place number** (*Reihe = Segment der Platz-Nummer*)
- **Place position = segment …** (*Platz-Position = Segment …*) – the running position within the row
- **Level = segment …** (*Ebene = Segment …*) or "-- no levels --"
- **Compartment = segment …** (*Fach = Segment …*) or "-- no subdivision --"

Example from the screen: the place "RD-12-05-4-2" has the segments 12 | 05 | 4 | 2. With row = 1st segment and place position = 2nd segment it lies in row 12 at position 5.

**Row 1 starts** (*Reihe 1 beginnt*): **Left in the hall** or **Right in the hall** (looking into the hall). This is the basis for the hall plan.

**Further levels from area** (*Weitere Ebenen aus Bereich*): areas of the same warehouse whose places stand in the same racks (for example the upper levels as a separate area). The hall plan then shows all levels as a stack.

![Screenshot: Segment assignment with Row = 1st segment, Place position = 2nd segment, Level = 3rd segment and the "Row 1 starts" option](/warehouse-setup/images/storage-areas-segments.png)

## Hall plan
Click **Show hall plan** (*Hallenplan anzeigen*) in the list. You see a top view of the area: rows on top of each other, start at the bottom, positions from left to right, one cell per compartment. Colours show occupied, partly occupied (levels) and free. Hover over a compartment to see the details and the levels as a stack.

![Screenshot: Hall plan of an area with occupied, partly occupied and free places and the tooltip of one compartment](/warehouse-setup/images/storage-areas-hall-plan.png)

## How storage areas are used
- **Putaway:** the system searches for a free place only in the chosen area, in the order of the putaway direction. The area is prefilled from the article attribute for the storage area or from the client's default storage area – see [Putaway](/inbound/putaway.md) and [Clients](/company/clients.md).
- **Relocation:** target suggestions per area; the area whose rows are anchored at your current packing table is preselected – see [Relocation](/stock/relocation.md).
- **Employee assignment** filters by areas or groups – see [Employee assignment](/warehouse-setup/employee-assignment.md).
- **Picking:** the row data is used for the pick routes – see [Picking](/outbound/picking.md).

## Delete a storage area
Click the delete button and confirm "Do you really want to delete this storage area?" (*Möchtest du diesen Lagerbereich wirklich löschen?*).

!!! warning All places are deleted too
Deleting an area also deletes **all storage places** of this area.
!!!

## Good to know / Troubleshooting
| Message | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Row, place position, level and compartment must be different segments. (*Reihe, Platz-Position, Ebene und Fach müssen verschiedene Segmente sein.*) | The same segment was chosen twice. | Choose different segments. |
| This area has no storage places. (*Dieser Bereich hat keine Lagerplätze.*) | Hall plan of an empty area. | Create places first. |
| No rows are stored for this area – the rows were derived from the place numbers (*Für diesen Bereich sind keine Reihen hinterlegt …*) | No row data entered. | Add row ranges in the area. |
| Place(s) cannot be displayed (row/position not readable from the place number) (*Platz/Plätze nicht darstellbar …*) | The segment assignment does not match the place numbers. | Check the segment assignment. |

- **Why does putaway always fill the highest place?** The putaway direction is set to **Reverse (descending)**.
- Empty row entries are ignored, swapped from/to values are corrected automatically, and a single value counts as from = to.