Planning your hierarchy

Before you start creating locations, sketch out your hierarchy on paper or a whiteboard. Think about where your agency stores things and how detailed you need to be.

Ask yourself:

  • How many stations or facilities do we have?
  • How many vehicles?
  • Do we need to track at the compartment level, or is the vehicle level enough?
  • Do we have specialty bags (airway bag, drug bag, trauma bag) that need separate tracking?

You do not have to set up every shelf and bin right away. Start with the big locations and add detail later as you learn what your team needs.

Creating a top-level location

  1. Click Locations in the menu.
  2. Click Add Location.
  3. Enter a name like "Station 1."
  4. Choose the type facility.
  5. Enter a short code like STA1, or leave it blank to auto-generate one.
  6. Click Create.

Adding child locations

Now add locations inside your facility. Find the Station 1 row and click the Add child action on it. Fill in the new location's name, type, and (optional) code, then click Create. Repeat for each sub-location:

  • "Supply Room" with type room and code STA1-SUP.
  • "Medic 5" with type vehicle and code M5.

To nest further, use Add child on Medic 5's row to add:

  • "Driver Side" with type compartment and code M5-DRV.
  • "Airway Bag" with type bag and code M5-AIR.

Worked example

Here is a realistic setup for a small agency with two stations and three vehicles:

  • STA1 — Station 1 (facility)
    • STA1-SUP — Supply Room (room)
    • E1 — Engine 1 (vehicle)
    • M5 — Medic 5 (vehicle)
      • M5-DRV — Driver Side (compartment)
      • M5-AIR — Airway Bag (bag)
      • M5-TRA — Trauma Bag (bag)
  • STA2 — Station 2 (facility)
    • STA2-SUP — Supply Room (room)
    • M7 — Medic 7 (vehicle)

Tips

  • Keep location codes short. You will type them in imports and see them on reports.
  • Use a consistent naming pattern. If Station 1 is STA1, Station 2 should be STA2, not ST2 or Station2.
  • Plan the hierarchy before you create locations — moving a location to a new parent after the fact is not something you can do from the Edit action.