Getting started with Lagerdrift is quick — most people are up and scanning the same day. This guide takes you through the whole setup in four simple steps: adding users, registering materials, printing QR codes, and taking out and refilling stock with your phone. Steps 1–3 are done in the web app (in your browser) and step 4 in the mobile app.

In short — get started in 4 steps:

Add users — create the colleagues who will use the system.
Register materials — enter your items with name, unit and location.
Print QR codes — create labels and attach them to the shelf.
Take out and refill — scan the QR code with your phone to take out and add stock.

About this guide: It shows one way to get started. Most tasks can be done in several ways — for example, materials can be bulk imported from Excel instead of being added one by one — and most tasks can be done both in the web app and in the mobile app. Have a look at the other guides for more approaches, or just send us a message if you are wondering whether something can be done differently.

Before you start: create a free account

Don't have an account yet? Create a free user — it takes a couple of minutes, requires no credit card, and gives you 30 days free access to all features.

Start your free trial →

Step 1: Add users (web app)

First you add the colleagues who will be using Lagerdrift — for example additional admin users, or the people who will only take out or add materials with the mobile app.

Steps 1–3 are done in the web app — log in from your browser here:

Open User Administration. You will find it in the left-hand menu of the web app, under Company → User Administration.
Click the + (Add user) in the action bar.
Fill in first name and last name, email (used as the login) and password (at least 8 characters).
On the Permissions tab you choose what the user should have access to. Which menus and buttons the user sees in the app is controlled by these permissions.
Submit — the user can now log in with email and password. Tell your colleagues straight away: they can download the Lagerdrift app from the App Store or Google Play and log in immediately, so the whole team is up and running from day one.

Tip: You can also let users pick their own password — select them in the user list and use the password-reset function — they then get an email with a link to set a password themselves.

Want to know more about user settings? Every user can be tailored in detail: you decide what each person has access to, which locations they can see, which actions are allowed, and whether they should be notified — for example with a message when a material drops below a set minimum quantity, or by email about other events.

Step 2: Add new materials (web app)

Next you register your materials. Here we show how to create one material at a time manually — the simplest way when you have few articles or want to try things out.

Open the materials list. You will find Materials in the left-hand menu of the web app.
Click the + button (Add material) in the action bar at the top of the list.
On the Basic tab, fill in the most important fields: Material Name (required), a Material Category to group your materials (optional) and the Unit — e.g. pcs, metres, litres.

The Booking Type field defaults to Quantity, which suits the vast majority of materials.

What does «Booking Type» mean?

Booking Type determines how the stock of the material is recorded. The field has six options, and your choice controls which booking functions are available for that material:

None — no stock keeping at all. The material only exists as a catalogue entry (name, prices, supplier and so on), but it cannot be booked in or out. The system will show the message «Booking is not possible for booking type "none"».
Quantity — the default: stock is kept as a plain number per storage location. You book goods in and out by quantity, without tracking individual items.
Serial Numbers — every single item is registered with its own serial number, and booking in and out happens per serial number. Used when individual units must be traceable.
Batch — stock is kept in batches with a batch number, for example for traceability or shelf life.
Reel — for cable reels and similar: each reel is registered separately, and you book out lengths from the reel (the remaining length is tracked per reel).
State — stock is split by condition (e.g. new/used); technically it works like batch tracking, but the key is the condition instead of a batch number.

Two things worth knowing when you create the material:

If you choose Serial Numbers, Batch or State, the «current stock» is automatically set to 0 in the creation form — stock is instead entered afterwards through the serial number or batch entries.
Serial Numbers, Batch, Reel and State are all treated internally as «batch-like» types, so they have their own tabs and dialogs for stock, while «Quantity» simply has a single quantity field.

On the Location tab you enter the Location Name — the physical place the material is kept — and a Min Stock value if you want to be notified when it is running low. A material can also have several locations — for example if the same material sits in several different places or in a service van.
Submit, and repeat for the next materials.

QR code or your own barcode? To make a material scannable you have two options. The easiest is to use the QR code the system creates automatically for every material (you print it as a label in step 3) — then there is nothing extra to do here. But if the item already has a barcode, QR code or another reference number and you would rather use that, you can enter it in the Barcode field on the Additional Fields tab — then you can scan the existing code directly, without printing a new label.

Using an existing code? Easiest to scan it with your phone

If the item already has a barcode, QR code or another reference number, you don't need to type it in by hand — the easiest way is to scan the code straight into the Barcode field with the mobile app. There are two ways to do it:

A) While you create the material in the mobile app:

Start a new material — from Favourites at the bottom of the app, choose «Material – create new», or from the function menu (the three lines ≡) at the top left.
Fill in the name and the other fields.
Tap the scanner button on the right of the Barcode field and scan the existing code on the item.
The code is filled in automatically. Tap Save (the disk icon at the top).

B) On a material you have already created in the web app:

Open the material in the mobile app — find it in the materials list and tap it.
Go to the Details tab at the top.
Tap Add barcode (the dashed button at the top of the page).
Scan the existing barcode or QR code on the item — the code is saved on the material.

Several codes — and the web app: You can also type the code manually into the Barcode field (tab Additional Fields) in the web app. If a material needs several codes — for example both a supplier barcode and an internal code — use Additional scanner codes (inside Edit material), where you can add as many codes as you like, by scanning too.

Lots of materials? Use the Excel import. If you have many articles you don't have to add them one by one. In the materials list you will find the Import and Export buttons — you can upload an Excel or CSV file and create or update many materials in one operation.

Step 3: Print QR codes and place them at the location (web app)

In this guide we use QR codes: you print a label for each material and attach it to the shelf or the place where the material is kept.

First time: choose a label template

Open Label Templates. You will find it in the left-hand menu of the web app, under Company → Label Templates.
Create a template for material labels with the green + button, and pick a format that suits your printer — ordinary A4 label sheets (DIN A4) or label printers from Brother and Dymo are supported.
The template decides what goes on the label — typically the QR code, article number and name. The default layout works fine to begin with.

Print the labels

Go to the materials list (Materials in the left-hand menu) and tick the materials you want labels for.
Click Create Label (the label icon in the action bar) and choose your template.
Click Print labels and print them.
Attach the label clearly visible at the location of the material — on the shelf edge, the box, or the wall next to the spot.

Other label formats: If you need a special label format that isn't included, you can define your own measurements on A4 sheets in the template.

Step 4: Taking out and refilling with the mobile app (mobile app)

Now everything is ready for daily use: your team takes out and refills materials by scanning the QR code at the location with the mobile app.

Log in

Download the Lagerdrift app on your phone and choose Log in with email — use the email and password from step 1.
Alternatively users can log in by scanning a QR code from the web app (Log in with QR code).

Taking out material

Start scanning in one of two ways: open the Favourites tab at the bottom of the app and tap Take material out of stock (the favourites can be customised with the pencil icon at the top right), or open the Scanner tab at the bottom of the app.
Scan the QR code on the shelf.
If the material has several locations, choose which one you are taking from. You also see the stock and minimum quantity per location.
Enter the quantity you are taking out.
Optional: link the withdrawal to a project, write a booking note or attach a document.
Tap Take out — you get the message «Booking successful», and the stock is updated immediately.

Adding material

Refilling works in exactly the same way — use the favourite Add material to stock (or the Scanner button), scan the QR code and enter the quantity being added.

Tip: take out many materials in one operation. If you need several different materials at once — everything for a project, say — there is a Collective withdrawal function, where you scan several materials one after another and confirm them all together.

Done — your warehouse is up and running

Your users are in place, the materials are registered, the locations are marked with QR codes, and withdrawals and refills are recorded with the phone. You have a full overview in real time. Over time you can explore more possibilities — such as Excel import of master data, several warehouses, minimum stock with notifications, and project booking.

Try Lagerdrift free for 30 days →

Stuck? Send us an email at kontakt@lagerdrift.no — we answer within 24 hours, and support is always free.