An IMPS scenario

Lets say you have three boxes of items you are storing. Two of these boxes are in your basement and contain household decorations, and the other is in your garage and contains office supplies. This scenario will walk you through putting these items and boxes into IMPS.

For this example, we will assume you are adding the items from one of the two boxes in the basement to IMPS first.

Add a box

Before you can add items, you must have a box to put them in.

1. From the IMPS home page, click the Add box icon to open the Add box page.
2. Here under Box number the First available unused box number will be selected and the number 1 will be in the field.
3. Since the first box you are adding is in the basement, in the location field you would type "Basement". This will create a new location named "Basement" for use when we add future boxes in this location.
4. You may optionally assign a box name.
5. Once you are done, click Add box to add the box to IMPS.

Add items

Once the box is added, you will be taken to the confirmation page. To begin adding items:

1. Click Add items.
2. The Add a new item page will open.
3. Give the item a name. Every item must have a name assigned. For this example, we will say that the first item is a decorative vase, so enter "vase" as the name.
4. Choose a box. Since we are working with box 1, put the number 1 in the Box number field.
5. Select a category. By default, this field will be set to "Uncategorized". Because this item is a decorative vase, type "Decorating" in the field. This will create a new category named "Decorating" for use when we add future items.
6. You can also add a description. For our example, enter "Glass vase with etched roses" in the Description field.
7. Add a photo. By default, No photo is selected in the photo section. To add a photo:
   1. Click the Browse button
   2. Take a photo or choose one from your photo library
   3. Click Open to queue the file to be uploaded.

   IMPS only allows JPG, PNG, and WEBP photos

8. Once you are done, click Add to add the item to IMPS.
9. Once the item is added, you will be taken to the item details page. Here you can review your entry to ensure it is correct.

Continue adding items until the box is full.

Print the label

One important feature of IMPS is the QR code-enabled box labels. The next step in using IMPS is to label the box you have just filled.

To print the label:

1. From the IMPS home page, click the Box list icon.
2. On the Box list page, click the QR code button in the label column of the row containing box one.
3. When the new window opens, click Print
4. Once printing has finished, click Close
5. Attach the label to your box.

Add the second box

Next, repeat the above steps for a second box from the basement. When you add the box, IMPS will automatically choose 2 as its number. You will notice that in the locations field, one of the pre-filled options is "Basement".

Now add items to this box--naming, categorizing, and photographing them as above--setting their box number to 2 this time--until you have added all items from the second box to IMPS. Then print the second label and attach it to the second box

Add the third box

The third box is the one from the garage that contains office items. When you add the third box, type "Garage" in the location field before clicking Add box.

Again following the above steps, add items--naming, and photographing them--but this time setting their category to "Office" and setting their box number to 3--until you have added all items from the second box to IMPS. Then print the label and attach it to the third box

Finding items

Now suppose some time has passed and you need the vase we added to one of the above boxes but you don't remember which box it is in. There are several ways to find it using IMPS.

You can:

• Search for the item. IMPS has the item and its description, so from the IMPS home page, a search for "vase" or "glass" or "rose" will return the vase as one of the results, since all of those terms are used in the name and description.
• View the inventory. The inventory is a sortable list of all items in IMPS. Since the glass vase went in first, selecting the inventory and then sorting by date would bring the vase to the top of the inventory list.
• View items by category. Perhaps you are looking for an item to decorate your table not the vase specifically. You could choose the By category view to see all the decorative items you have in IMPS.
• View the box contents. Perhaps you think you remember that the vase you're looking for was in box 1, but you're not sure. You could choose the By box view and look at all the items that are in box 1.

Seeing box contents from the label

One of the more useful features of IMPS is the QR code-enabled box labels. Imagine that you are in your basement and you want to know what is in box 2. You can point your smart phone or tablet's camera at the box label, and you will be taken to the By box page for that box, which will show you a complete list of all the items you have added to IMPS with their box number set to 2.