How does custody work and how can my reps use inventory outside of their custody?

In Beacon all inventory is governed by custody. It is always in someone's custody even if it is with the Organization. Custody dictates what inventory is available to a user to use in a case and custody is changed when inventory is transferred. When a sales rep enters a case, they may record sales using the inventory that is in their custody. Distributors have the ability to view and make changes on inventory in their own custody and the custody of sales users assigned to their group. 

So generally when a user is assigned to a case, the inventory available to be used is in that user's custody. However, there are situations where users may use inventory shared with them, they may draw from a shared warehouse, or maybe they pull inventory from forward field stocking locations. 

There are two main ways you can handle these situations in Beacon: 

1. Distributor Shared Inventory: With this setting enabled, Distributors may share the inventory in their custody with their connected sales reps. So, in a case a sales rep would be able to select from inventory in their own custody or the shared inventory from the distributor. In this way, a distributorship may managed a shared inventory warehouse. 

2. Quick Transfers: Quick transfers allow users to transfer inventory to themselves from specially designated custodians, set up by admins in the User Settings. The purpose of this feature is to enable the use of forward stocking locations, remote warehouses, and other situations where reps obtain inventory on their own. Users transfer inventory to themselves from these Quick Transfer Custodians, the transfers are automatically accepted, and the inventory becomes immediately available for use in the user's cases. 

In other circumstances, users may create inventory on their own, but this would have to be enabled in the settings.