Getting Started with CISPro > Getting Started for Users > Getting Started creating Materials and Containers
One of the most important steps in getting started with CISPro is populating the system with inventory data. Sometimes the system administrator will have done some of this work up-front to get the system started. Inevitably however, users will need to define new chemicals and add new containers to the system.
Creating Materials
When you search for materials beginning with "ace," you will only find 'acetone' if someone has already defined it. If you initiate a search for a material, and CISPro finds no matches, a message displays asking whether you would like to create the material yourself (it also presents a link that allows you to search for it in another database called "ChemCat," but we'll get to that later).
Clicking the Create New Material? link will take you to a screen like this:
CISPro has several Material Types, and each type has several Classes associated with it. In the example above, we are creating a CHEMICAL type material. But the only important things to know for now are that every chemical material must have a name, a class, and a physical state (solid, liquid or gas).
After you click Submit, you will be taken to the new material. At this point, you can do several things. One thing you might want to do is to add additional information such as a CAS#, or Hazards tab or Physical tab information. For example, to add a CAS#, type it into the Primary CAS# field and click the Save button.
You can also click The Physical tab and enter a Formula, then click the Save button to store it.
You can find more details about the other tabs in the Material View section.
Adding Containers
Because sodium chloride is a new material, we don't have any containers. In CISPro Global, containers are created as the product of either a receipt or a dispense. For a receipt to be performed, there must be at least one package and size record to be received. Once containers have been received, you can dispense from them.
To continue with the creation of containers for your new Sodium Chloride material, create a package and size record, and then receive the new containers. See Packages, Receiving, and Dispensing for instructions.