# Set up automatic service pick

Turn on the preference, put For service stock rules in place, and confirm a Service Order to have Tooling Metrics build its Service Pick — and any Return List it needs — for you.

Source: https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/purchasing/guides/set-up-automatic-service-pick/
Updated: 2026-10-29

**Prerequisites:** A vendor and at least one item with Service Info configured exist (see [Create a service order](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/purchasing/guides/create-service-order/)).

**Required permission:** Admin Center access (organization owner or a member of the `<org-name>-admins` group) to turn the setting on; Inventory → Stock Rules — User or above to create stock rules; Purchase → Purchase Orders — User or above to confirm Service Orders (Admins can confirm any order; Managers and Users only the orders they created).

## Step 1 — Check the preference

**Automatic creating Service Pick is on by default for every organization** — most shops don't need to do anything in this step beyond confirming it's still on, or turning it off if a person should choose collection locations instead.

1. At the bottom of the sidebar, click your organization name → **Manage Organizations**.
1. Click your organization's name in the list to open its settings.
1. The **Preferences** tab opens by default. Scroll to the **Purchase Preferences** section.
1. Under **Service Orders**, confirm **Automatic creating Service Pick** is checked (or uncheck it here to turn the automation off).
1. Click **Update**.

![Organization purchase preferences with automatic service pick enabled](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/service-preferences-eng.webp)

*Fig. 1: The preference lives under Purchase Preferences — Service Orders, and is checked (on) by default.*

This only affects orders with the Service Order flag set — ordinary Purchase Orders are untouched (see [Configure automatic purchase receipts and restocks](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/purchasing/guides/configure-auto-receipt-restock/) for that side). If it's already on, as it is out of the box, the next confirmed Service Order will use it without any further setup here.

## Step 2 — Add a For service stock rule for each bulk item

A **bulk item** (an insert, a generic holder — anything tracked only by quantity) has no way to tell the automation which units on the shelf need service; only a stock rule can say where sorted-for-service stock physically lives. Without one, the automation skips that item's line entirely — and, if the item has Service Info configured (making it serviceable), notifies the warehouse's administrator instead of guessing.

1. In the sidebar, click **Inventory → Stock Rules** → **+ Create**.
1. Select the **Item**.
1. Set **Item Condition** to **For service**.
1. Select the **Storage Location** where units awaiting service are physically kept.
1. Set **Threshold Quantity** and **Max Capacity**, then click **Create**.

![New stock rule form with the Item Condition menu open and For service visible](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/service-stock-rule-eng.webp)

*Fig. 2: Choose For service from Item Condition to make a bulk item eligible for automatic picking.*

Repeat for every bulk item you want this automation to pick. See [Define stock rules](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/inventory/guides/create-stock-rules/) for the full field reference.

## Step 3 — Add a For service stock rule for a serialized item's return destination

A **serialized item** (a tool with its own ID) doesn't need a rule to be found — each unit already knows whether it needs service from its own condition (Need service), wherever it's currently sitting. A rule only becomes necessary when a candidate unit is still loaded into a **Tool** out on the shop floor: something has to tell the automation where to send it back to before it can build the pick. Follow the same steps as Step 2 — Item, Item Condition **For service**, Storage Location — for any serialized item you expect might need service while still mounted in a tool.

If more than one For service rule exists for the same item, the automation fills each rule's location up to its Max Capacity before spilling into the next one. See [How Automatic Service Pick Works — Picking serialized items](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/inventory/overview/automatic-service-pick/#picking-serialized-items) for the full logic.

## Step 4 — Confirm a service order

1. Open a Sent Service Order with at least one line whose Quantity is greater than what's already been sent (see [Create a service order](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/purchasing/guides/create-service-order/)).
1. Click **Confirm Order**.

![Confirmed service order with the New Service Pick action available](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/service-order-confirmed-eng.webp)

*Fig. 3: Confirming is the only trigger — there's no separate button to run the automation.*

The automation runs in the background right after confirming; give it a few seconds on a larger order before checking the results.

## Step 5 — Find what it built

1. In the sidebar, click **Purchase → Service Picks**. A new pick appears for each Warehouse Access Point the order's items span — numbered from the same Picklist sequence as a manually created pick, with a comment in its history saying the confirmed order created it.
1. If a unit had to come back from a tool first, click **Inventory → Return Lists** to find the matching Return List. That unit only lands on the Service Pick once the return is validated.

![Automatically created service pick with its creation entry in the history panel](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/service-pick-history-eng.webp)

*Fig. 4: An automatically created pick is a normal Service Pick — the comment is the only thing that marks it as system-generated.*

From here, work the pick (and any return list) exactly as you would a manual one — see [Service Orders — Service Pick](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/purchasing/reference/service-orders/#service-pick) and [Return Lists Reference](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/reference/return-lists/).

## When a stock rule is missing

If Step 2 or Step 3 was skipped for an item, the automation doesn't fail silently — it notifies whoever can fix it:

- **Serviceable bulk item, no For service rule in the order's warehouse:** the warehouse's administrator gets a notification: *"[item] has no For service stock rule yet — add one so service picks route automatically."* That order line stays unpicked. (A bulk item without Service Info configured — not serviceable in the first place — is skipped just as silently, with no notification, since there's no rule to configure for it.)
- **Serialized item stuck on a tool, no For service rule for that item:** both the tool's owner (*"[item] in your tool [tool] needs to go back to storage for servicing."*) and the location's administrator (same missing-rule message as above) are notified.

![The Notifications panel opened from the sidebar bell over a confirmed service order, with an unread notice that R390-0097A10-07L has no For service stock rule yet](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/notifications-service-rule-missing-eng.webp)

*Fig. 5: Watch the bell icon at the bottom of the sidebar after confirming — a missing rule shows up in Notifications, not as an error on the order.*

To recover: add the missing For service rule (Step 2 or 3), then finish that order's remaining lines with **New Service Pick** as usual — the automation only runs once, at the moment of confirming, so it won't retry on its own.

## Notes

- The automation commits stock to a pick the moment the order is confirmed, before anyone reviews what got picked. If your shop wants a person choosing collection locations instead, turn the preference off (Step 1) and keep using **New Service Pick** manually.
- For the full decision logic — bulk vs. serialized, how shortfalls and duplicate lines are handled — see [How automatic service pick works](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/inventory/overview/automatic-service-pick/).