# Welcome to FloorLine > What FloorLine is, the main ideas it's built on, and how they fit together on your shop floor. Source: https://docs.floorlinehq.com/start/welcome/ (updated 2026-10-14) FloorLine tracks jobs through your shop. You enter a work order, it moves from station to station as operators start and finish each step on a tablet, and everyone in the office sees where every job is, live. On Basic and up, your stock moves with the jobs: materials come out of stock as work starts, and finished goods go in when it's done. It's built for small manufacturers, roughly 5 to 250 people: job shops, fabricators, machine shops, and assembly shops that have outgrown the whiteboard and the spreadsheet. Each shop has its own address, like `acme.floorlinehq.com`. You can look around a working shop before you set up your own: [demo.floorlinehq.com](https://demo.floorlinehq.com) is Ridgeline Fabrication, a made-up 10-station metal shop, rebuilt every morning. Change anything you like there. ## The main ideas Everything in FloorLine hangs off a few records. Once you know what each one is for, the rest of the app follows. ### Stations A **station** is a place on your floor where work happens, like Saw, Weld, Paint, or Pack. You list them in the order work usually moves through them. Each station can have one tablet, and the tablet comes with the station: your plan limits stations, not tablets. See [Set up stations](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/setup/stations/). ### Items An **item** is anything you make or buy. Items are either: - **Made in house**: something your shop produces, like a welded cart frame. A made item has a routing, and on Basic and up it can have a bill of materials. - **Purchased**: something you buy from a vendor, like steel tube, powder coat, or bolts. Purchased items have no routing. On Basic and up, an item can also keep stock: how many are on hand, with a min and max that tell FloorLine when you're running low. See [Set up items](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/setup/items/). ### Routings and steps A made item's **routing** is the list of stations it goes through, in order, with an **operation** at each one: what happens there, like "Tack and weld frame on fixture F-12". A station can appear more than once. Each line of the routing becomes a **step** on every work order for that item. You can attach written instructions or a file to each operation (Basic and up), so the operator sees them on the tablet when the step comes up. See [Routings](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/setup/routings/). ### Bills of materials A made item's **bill of materials** (BOM) lists what goes into one of it: the components, how many of each, and at which station they're used. A cart frame might take 4 ft of tube and 2 brackets, used at the saw. Components can be purchased items or other made items (subassemblies). Bills of materials are Basic and up. See [Bills of materials](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/setup/boms/). ### Work orders A **work order** is a job: make this many of this item, by this date, maybe for this customer. FloorLine numbers them WO-1001, WO-1002, and so on. When you create a work order, it copies the item's routing and bill of materials. Later changes to the item don't change orders already on the floor. Each work order prints as a **traveler**: a PDF to send along with the job, with a barcode for the order and one for each step. See [Work orders](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/floor/work-orders/). ### The floor tablet Each station's **tablet** shows the jobs waiting there. An operator taps their name, enters their PIN, picks a job (or scans its traveler), and taps **Start** and **Complete step**. Steps go in order: a job shows up at a station only when its current step is there. The tablet is an installable web app, not a store app. It runs on any tablet or phone with a browser, and it keeps working through short connection drops. See [Use the tablet](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/floor/tablet/) and [Set up tablets](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/setup/tablets/). ### Live view **Live view** is the board for the office: a card for every station showing what's available to start, what's late, what's on hold, and each job being worked, with who's working it. It updates as operators tap, without refreshing. See [Live view](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/floor/live-view/). ## How it fits together Here's one job from start to finish: 1. You set up the item once: its routing (Saw → Weld → Deburr) and its bill of materials (tube and brackets). 2. Someone creates a work order for 20 of it, due Friday, and prints the traveler. 3. At the saw, an operator signs in on the tablet and starts step 1. On Basic and up, the tube comes out of stock at that moment. 4. They complete the step. The job leaves the saw's list and shows up at Weld. 5. Weld and Deburr do the same. When the last step is complete, the order is done and, on Basic and up, the 20 frames go into stock. 6. All along, Live view shows where the job is and who's on it. ### Stock moves as jobs move On Basic and up, you rarely type stock changes by hand. Starting a step takes the materials used at that station out of stock. Finishing the order puts what it made into stock. Receiving a purchase order adds stock, and shipping a delivery order takes it out. Each of those is recorded, so every item has a history of what changed and why. FloorLine never stops the floor for stock. If the numbers say you're out, the operator still works; the tablet and the work order show a **Short** warning so someone can look. See [How stock moves](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/stock/how-stock-moves/). ### Orders in and out On Basic and up, stock also moves through orders with the outside world: - **Purchase orders** (PO-1001): what you've ordered from a vendor. You receive them, all at once or in parts, and the stock goes up. - **Delivery orders** (DO-1001): what you're shipping to a customer. You ship them, and the stock goes down. - **Sales orders** (SO-1001): what a customer ordered. Saving one makes its delivery order, plus work orders for anything you need to make. **Replenishment** looks at what's on hand, what open orders will take, and what's coming in, and tells you what to order or make before you run short. On Mid and up it runs MRP, which plans all the way down your bills of materials. See [Shipping and receiving](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/stock/shipping-receiving/), [Sales orders](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/stock/sales-orders/), and [Replenishment](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/stock/replenishment/). **Note:** Some of what's described here depends on your plan. Items with routings, work orders, travelers, the tablet, and Live view are on every plan. Stock, bills of materials, and orders in and out are Basic and up. Every new shop starts with a 14-day trial of Mid, so you can try nearly everything. See [Plans and limits](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/start/plans/). ## Who does what Everyone in your shop is a user with one of three roles. Every user counts toward your plan's user limit, operators included. | Role | Signs in with | What they do | | --- | --- | --- | | **Owner** | Email and password | The admin who signed the shop up. Everything an admin does, plus billing: picking and changing the plan, add-ons, and payment. There's one owner. | | **Admin** | Email and password | Sets up the shop: users, stations, shop settings, and the audit log. Also does everything a manager does. | | **Manager** | Email and password | Runs the work: items, work orders, stock, orders, planning, and reports. Sets up tablets. Sees stations but doesn't change them. | | **Operator** | Name and PIN, on a tablet | Works jobs at a station: starts, stops, and completes steps, puts jobs on hold, and records checks. Operators don't sign in to the office app. | Admins and managers can also set their own PIN, so they can sign in on a tablet when they work a station. See [Users and roles](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/setup/users/). ## Where to go next - [Get started](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/start/getting-started/): Sign up, set up a station and an operator, and finish your first job on a tablet. - [Find your way around](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/start/find-your-way/): The header menus, Home, what each role sees, and installing the app. - [Plans and limits](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/start/plans/): Prices, limits, and which features come with each plan. - [Import from spreadsheets](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/setup/importing/): Bring in stations, items, routings, and open work orders all at once (Mid and up). - [Use the tablet](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/floor/tablet/): What operators see and do at their station. - [Glossary](https://docs.floorlinehq.com/help/glossary/): Every FloorLine term in one place.