You repair or refurbish electronics — board-level repair, instrument service, equipment refurbishment — and the parts are half the job. Repair stock is wide rather than deep: thousands of different components and salvaged boards, a few of each, and the question is always the same one: do you have this part, and where is it?
PartsBox answers as you type: search by part number, description, footprint, or a custom field, fuzzily, so a fragment from a faded package marking is usually enough. Put an ID Anything™ label on every bin and drawer, and the bench finds a part by scanning instead of walking the shelves. Set a low-stock threshold on the parts you go through, and the low-stock report shows what to reorder before a job stalls.
Donor boards and salvaged parts fit the same model. A storage location can be a shelf of donor units; a salvaged part is stock like any other, with its source noted. Stock history is permanent, so what was taken, and when, stays on record.
Repair purchasing is small and frequent. Build a purchase list from what is short, let vendor rules pick the distributors you actually buy from, and receive deliveries by scanning the distributor barcode — the part, the quantity, and the price come off the label.
With lot control, each batch of parts is a distinct lot with its own source and cost. For warranty work, for servicing aviation or medical equipment, or for any customer who asks where a part came from, the lot record answers: which order it arrived on, and which work consumed it. Keep a customer's own parts as tagged lots, separate from house stock, the same way consigned stock is handled.
PartsBox manages parts, stock, purchasing, and lot records. It is not a repair-ticketing or RMA system: jobs, customer communication, and warranties live in your service tool, and PartsBox is the parts side. A workable pattern is to record the job or RMA number on the lot or in a stock comment, so the two systems reference each other.
Search, stock, scanning with a USB scanner, and low-stock warnings are in every plan, including the free Maker plan. Purchasing starts on the Essentials plan; lot records are on the Control plan.