Setting Up Lost and Found
The lost and found module in SOVA provides a very efficient means of tracking your lost and found items, but also allows you to process shipping of those items where the payment for shipping is passed back to customer. Shipping lost and found items and adding lost and found items to your inventory will be covered in a separate article. This article will cover the initial setup of your lost and found module in SOVA. The screen that we will be working in is shown below:
- Navigate to Lost and Found > Add Lost/Found.
- In the screen above, take note of any default "Item Categories" and "Storage Locations" by clicking those dropdowns. Default items already added as part of the initial SOVA setup are dealt with in a special way, so there is no need to add those manually by using the steps in this article. As an example, when adding a lost and found record and choosing "Cash" as the item category, the logic built-in to SOVA will automatically select "Secure Storage" as the storage location. This is because it is a best practice to always store cash and other valuables in a separate, secure area like a safe, and only provide limited access to the contents.
- Click the green "Storage Locations" button at the top right
- A popup opens allowing you to enter storage locations
- Enter your storage locations one at a time, and hit the enter key on your keyboard to add the storage location. Most of our clients setup a bin for each day of the month, and keep those bins in a locked storage area at their facility. For example, "Bin 1" would represent the first day of the month. They have a policy to keep non valuable lost and found for 30 days, so when the first of the month rolls around again, the prior month's stored, non-claimed lost and found items are purged and given to the finder, donated, or discarded. This is just an example, you can use any criteria that you wish. Keep typing your storage locations and hitting enter until you're done entering storage locations. When you are finished, close this popup.
- Click the green "Item Category" button,and repeat the same process to add your item categories. Some common item categories are shown below. Feel free to use these, or make your own list of item categories to suit your organization.
The screen below shows what it looks like when entering "Storage Locations". I have added Bin 1, Bin 2 and Bin 3 by typing on the line and hitting enter on my keyboard:
TIP: You cannot return to the list of previously entered "Item Categories" or "Storage Locations" and edit those. If you misspell something, or otherwise need to change one of these items, you will need to delete it from the popup shown above, by clicking the "x" next to the item you wish to remove. You could then add a new item per your needs
Example Lost and Found Categories
| Lost and found category | Valuable? |
|---|---|
| Cash | yes |
| Credit Card | yes |
| Bags/Purse | no |
| Eyewear | no |
| Jewelry | yes |
| Charger/Phone Accessories | no |
| Sports/Toys | no |
| ID/Passport | yes |
| Food & Beverage | no |
| Books/Magazines | no |
| Beauty/Health | no |
| Medication | yes |
Watch the video below to learn more about setting up lost and found:
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