Adding new inventory items

When recording new inventory records in GGCE, several requirements must be met:

• The inventory must link to an accession. Furthermore, the accession's species must be an accepted species in the taxonomy table. (One of the accession's required fields is accepted taxon. If you are recording a new accession item and only know the genus, you can use Genus spp., but later you can edit the accession and indicate the exact species.)
• The GGCE inventory number must be unique. Organizational naming conventions will differ, but all GGCE inventory numbers consist of four fields: the Inventory Prefix, Number, Suffix, and Type. The Inventory Type is selected from a list to match the actual form of the inventory. For example, some of the germplasm types include SD (seed), PL (plant), and IV (in vitro material).
• Every inventory item references a policy name from a list of inventory maintenance policies. Therefore, ensure that you have an inventory policy that you can select when saving a new inventory item.
• Select a maintenance site from the list of sites. Begin typing in the field and a list of sites will display. These sites are typically entered by the GGCE database administrator.
• The availability status must be specified from one of the available options.

Acquisition

Most genebank operations in GGCE automatically create new germplasm inventory records. The Acquisition tool is useful when you receive completely new material and need to add (in bulk) new (temporary) accessions and the corresponding inventory items. In effect this feature is a shortcut for adding multiple accessions and some of the data that they have in common. This is useful in situations such as the recording of accessions obtained in the same collection trip.

Importing names

The process can involve setting up an optional spreadsheet to import the names of the accessions that will be added in one batch.

Prepare an Excel sheet containing the different names for the incoming germplasm, each row representing one accession. Copy the contents of the Excel sheet and paste the result into the Paste accession names field. The application will only consider the columns matching the ACCESSION_NAME_TYPE codes and the result will be displayed in the page.

The displayed list corresponds to the pasted accession names. At this point the other accession data can be specified in the next step.

New acqusition

Click the New Acquisition link on the banner to display the form. Shown here is an example of the form after it has been filled.

Group Name indicates to which inventory group all the added inventory items should belong. This field is required and can be used to identify an added batch of records.

Acquisition method is another controlled vocabulary type that is managed by users, it is a category that will be recorded with the group information.

Note can be used to add comments to the resulting records.

Accession Prefix will be the prefix of the accession number for all entries.

Number of Accessions is the number of accessions that will be added to the database. The default value is detected from the list of names pasted in the “Names” tab. This number can be changed: if you set it to a lower value, the exceeding items will be ignored; if you set it to a higher number, additional accessions will be created without any name information.

Select an entry in Initial Species by typing part of the scientific name: the selected taxon will be assigned to all the samples.

The next four fields deal with the inventory information for all samples. Maintenance Site can be used to set the site that is responsible for the maintenance of the samples. Select the Inventory Management Policy that will be applied to all samples. Inventory Prefix will be prepended to all inventory numbers and Inventory Type will record the type of all the inventory items; the type code will be appended to the inventory numbers.

The Accession source section can be used to set the source for all samples. Source Type indicates whether the samples were collected, developed or donated. The Source Date indicates when the samples were received. Note can be used to add comments and Cooperator should indicate the source entity.

Use the Preview button to display the list. The permanent numbers have not been assigned yet, so in the Preview window they display with a "-1."

After hitting Save, the specified number of new inventory record will be created, each with a corresponding new accession record. When specified, they will also be added to the specified Inventory group. A dialog to print labels for the new material will prompt you to immediately create and apply labels to the material.

Manually adding new inventory items

When Inventory is selected on the left menu and the inventory grid is displayed (and no rows have been selected), click the Plus (+) action button on the bottom right. When you click the button, a New inventory item form displays.

The inventory form has several sections to accommodate an inventory record's many data fields. Details on each section are explained below.

• Item
• Location of germplasm in storage
• Current quantity of germplasm
• Withdrawal and replenishment
• Other fields
• Note

Pictured here are the partial details of an existing inventory item.

When adding a new inventory record, most of the required fields are in the top Inventory item section. One other required field is in the Current quantity of germplasm section – you must select the Availability Status for the inventory item. When attempting to save a new inventory record, the save will not succeed if all required fields have not been filled in. If an attempt to save a new record fails, scroll through the form's sections and look for any screen prompts to fill out a field.

The fields' descriptions are displayed below the fields.

note

Remember that nine fields will be filled in when a new inventory form is successfully saved, because these fields are supplied by the selected Inventory Maintenance Policy.

Inventory form

Item section

For all new inventory items, you must complete several fields in the Inventory items section:

• Accession
• Unique combination of the four fields that comprise the inventory identifier: Inventory Prefix, Number, Suffix, and Type
• Maintenance Policy
• Maintenance Site

When saving a new inventory item, one other required field is the Available Status field in the Current quantity of germplasm section.

Parent inventory

The first field on the form expects you to select the **Parent Inventory **when known. When you select the parent inventory, several other fields automatically fill in, based on that inventory item: Accession, Inventory Maintenance Policy, and Inventory Type.

The Parent Inventory field represents the germplasm that was used to create the current inventory item. You can leave it blank, but ideally the **Parent Inventory **field will never be blank when inventory lots are created through regeneration and the parent lot is known. The data will correspond to an existing inventory number; as you type, a list of inventory identifiers display from which you can select.

Maintenance Site

Maintenance Site is a required field. As you begin typing in the field, a list of sites will display.

The Maintenance Site field uses sites names that are currently in the database. Your genebank's GGCE administrator is responsible for managing the list of sites; contact them if a site needs to be added to the list. When you select the parent inventory item, its maintenance site is automatically copied into this field, but you can change the value.

The Propagation Date refers to when the germplasm was multiplied to constitute the inventory material. You can use the Propagation Date Format field to indicate an approximate date when the day or month and day are unknown.

Location of germplasm in storage section

This is perhaps the most important section to complete when adding new inventory. It is critically important that your genebank staff know at all times where your inventory is physically located. Since every genebank has its own system in place for naming its storage locations, GGCE uses generic field titles: Location Section 1, 2, 3, and 4. Alternatively, if the genebank prefers to record the Latitude and Longitude for a living plant, GGCE has two additional fields in this section.

See Storage naming conventions.

Current quantity of germplasm section

This section's fields are primarily used to record the amount of germplasm currently on hand.

Although Quantity On Hand is not a required field, ideally you will have that data and can record it here. The Quantity On Hand Units and Type of Container fields use lists from which a value can be selected. The Hundred Seed Weight field indicates the cumulative weight of 100 seeds, a commonly used quantitative seed trait.

One of the fields in this section, Availability Status, is a required field for the inventory item. The Availability Status indicates the current availability status of the inventory. Its value initially must be selected from a dropdown list before the inventory record can be saved. The field can be edited later.

The Is Available? switch can be used to indicate globally to the application whether the inventory is available for distribution. The switch manages a trigger. If the Availability Status = "Low," and the Quantity On Hand changes and becomes greater than the Distribution Critical Amount (in the Withdrawal and replenishment section below), the Is Available? status will change to "Available."

Updating quantities

Later, when you need to review or update inventory quantities, you have several methods for doing so. GGCE has several provisions for updating quantities. The Inventory menu in the left pane has two menu options: Amount in storage and Update quantity.

These options can also be accessed at the GGCE home page.

Amount in storage

When selecting the Amount in storage option, you can view information about type, status, quantity, and inventory count of material conserved in the genebank. The list can be filtered by providing the search criteria.

The displayed results are the aggregate amounts for the accessions.

Withdrawal and replenishment section

The Withdrawal and replenishment section documents how the germplasm quantities are distributed and monitored. The fields describe how each inventory is distributed – the quantity and the form being distributed. You can also use the section to indicate critical quantities to help your genebank monitor inventory quantity levels. The Availability Start Date and -End Date fields currently serve more as a comment and reminder for the genebank staff – these fields do not impact availability.

Many of the fields in this section were automatically populated by the respective Inventory Maintenance Policy that was selected when the inventory item was initially saved. Refer to the inventory maintenance policy documentation for details. (Text in bold below indicates the fields that were automatically populated.)

• Is Distributable?
• Is Auto Deducted?
• Standard Distribution Quantity
• Unit of Distribution
• Standard Distribution Form
• Distribution Critical Amount
• Replenishment Critical Amount
• Availability Start/End Date
• Availability Status Note

Your genebank should use the two critical amount fields to ensure sufficient quantities of germplasm are in storage. The Distribution Critical Amount determines the minimum amount of material that must be on hand to allow for external distribution of germplasm. The Replenishment Critical Amount sets the limit at which you will need to schedule multiplication of the material. Typically, the Distribution Critical Amount limit will be somewhat higher than the Replenishment Critical Amount, since it is safer to stop external distribution before reaching the replenishment limit. This allows your genebank to have sufficient material on hand in case the multiplication fails. These amounts are determined by your genebank's experience with the germplasm, the species' viability considerations, and the frequency of requests for the material.

Availability Start Date and Availability End Date serve as note fields to indicate the range when the inventory can be distributed.

Other fields section

All the fields in this section are optional; some fields do not apply universally to all germplasm.

The Preservation Method and Regeneration Method fields reference methods stored in a GGCE Methods table. These methods document procedures and may also describe environmental conditions in a narrative. The Pollination Method field is different in that it uses code values that have been defined by the administrator in the GGCE Code table. Similarly, the Pathogen Status, Plant Sex, and the Pollination Vector fields all use codes. The Rootstock and Backup Inventory fields accept text input.

Note section

The two note fields are text fields; the Note field is strictly internal and will not display on a public website, whereas the Web Availability Note is intended for external users.

Inventory barcode

The Inventory Barcode encodes a unique identifier that is printed as QR, Datamatrix, linear barcode on labels. You can then attach labels using this barcode to the germplasm packaging, which enables the use of barcode readers with GGCE. This barcode scanning will be useful throughout GGCE when working with the germplasm.

info

A barcode for an inventory item is automatically generated when you initially save the item. If you have an existing barcoding system in place, you can also scan the current barcode into this field.

The barcode's text equivalent is also displayed in Inventory details (e.g. I:13538 in the example below). When you do not have a barcode scanner nearby, you can use this text when searching for the inventory data.

Editing (or deleting) existing inventory items

When the inventory list is displayed and you select an inventory item by clicking on an Inventory Number, the form will display for the corresponding item. Using the form, you can edit the data or even delete the inventory item.