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Stock and locations

Where your stock is, how much of it is free to sell, what is on its way, and how it moves between locations. Every change to a SKU's stock is recorded with the order, receipt or count that caused it, and who made it.

One SKU: its stock at each of three sites, and the movements that put it there.

The Inventory screen

Inventory lists every SKU. Search by SKU, name or barcode. Filter by Tracking, Kind, Sellable or Location; filtering by a location shows what that site holds. Save the filters you use as a view. Each row shows four figures:

Available
What a new order can be promised: on hand at sellable locations, less what is already reserved for orders.
Unavailable
Here, but not free to sell: reserved for orders, damaged, awaiting identification, or at a location whose stock cannot be sold.
Incoming
On its way: on authorised purchase orders, or in transit between your locations.
Projected
What you will have free once incoming stock arrives and backorders are filled. Backordered means ordered by customers but not yet held for them, because there was none to hold. Reserved stock is not counted again. A negative figure means orders already taken need more than you have and have coming. Raise a purchase order to cover it.

Click a figure to see what it is made of. The parts always add up to the figure. Available plus Unavailable is everything physically on your shelves.

A SKU's page

Open a SKU to see:

  • Its totals, and a row per location with what is on hand, reserved, damaged, awaiting identity and in transit there.
  • Incoming: the purchase orders it is expected on, oldest first.
  • Backorders: the sales orders it is short on, longest waiting first.
  • Bundles: the kits that use it, and how many whole kits its stock makes.
  • Files: photos and documents attached to it. Press Upload file to add one.
  • Configuration: its name, barcodes, tracking and costing.
  • Activity: every change ever made to it, newest first.

Cost basis is its unit cost in your home currency. The next receipt with a cost replaces it; to type one by hand, enter it and press Set. Prices built from it are covered in Catalogs.

A kit has no stock of its own. Its page shows its components and how many whole kits they make. Move the components' stock and the kit's availability follows.

Adding a SKU

  1. On Inventory, press New SKU.
  2. Type the SKU, its name and, if it has one, a barcode. SKUs are stored in upper case, so widget-1 becomes WIDGET-1.
  3. Under Stock or service, choose stock, or service for something you sell but do not hold.
  4. Enter an Opening quantity and the Location it is at, if you already hold some.
  5. Choose Tracking (none, serial or batch) and the Costing method. Both are fixed once stock has moved.
  6. Leave Sell ticked to offer it for sale, and Counted (inventoried) ticked to keep a stock count for it. A service is never counted.
  7. The three account pickers start at your chart's defaults. Change them only if your accountant asks.
  8. Press Create SKU.

Many SKUs at once come in from a spreadsheet. See Import & export.

Recording a movement

Most stock moves by itself: receipts on purchase orders add it, shipped orders take it away. For everything else, use the panel on the SKU's page. Choose what happened, the Quantity and the Location, then press Record.

adjust
A correction, up or down, with a Reason: recount, received, sold, damaged or returned. Type a negative quantity to take stock off. A recount adjustment corrects the quantity but not your accounts. To write a shortfall down, or value a gain, run a stocktake.
receive
Stock arrived without a purchase order. A serial or batch SKU's units wait under Awaiting identity until you identify them.
identify
Enter the serials, one per line, or the batch and its expiry, for units awaiting identity. Only then can they be sold. Type a Reference of your own, such as the delivery docket number.
damage
Move units still on the shelf out of sellable stock into Damaged. Add a Reference if you like, such as crushed-carton-22-oct.
dispose
Remove units for good, from on hand or from damaged, for example after throwing them away. It needs a Reference, such as the date and reason.

Each reference is used once. A movement with a reference used before is taken as a repeat, and nothing changes. Use a new one each time.

Use damage, not adjust, when the units are still here but cannot be sold, and dispose when they are gone. Use receive, not adjust, when stock arrives. Keep adjust for correcting a miscount.

The SKU page does not record which serials or batch were damaged or thrown away. There is no write-off screen yet. Ask an AI agent to write them off: "Write off serials SN-1042 and SN-1043 of WIDGET-PRO at Main as damaged, reference crushed-carton-22-oct."

Stock received on a purchase order is identified at the door: the receipt asks for the batch or serials. See Purchase orders.

To correct many counts at once, run a stocktake instead of adjusting SKU by SKU. See Stocktakes.

Locations

A location is anywhere you hold stock: a warehouse, a shop, a 3PL, a quarantine bay. Every organization starts with one called Main. Locations are under Settings › Locations.

To add one:

  1. Press New location.
  2. Type its Name and, if useful, a Note such as the address, bay or 3PL account.
  3. Tick Stock here can be sold if orders may be filled from it. Leave it unticked for a site whose stock must be held back, such as quarantine or a showroom.
  4. Press Create.

Each location shows as sellable or held only. Stock at a held-only location counts as on hand but never as available.

Press Edit on a row to rename it, change whether its stock can be sold, or set the Ships from address carriers book its labels under. A sellable location with no address shows no address: carriers cannot quote or book labels from it until it has one. Making a location held only does not move its stock. It takes it off sale where it is. Your last sellable location cannot be made held only.

Archive closes a location to new stock and keeps its history. A location can be archived only when it holds nothing, and not when it is your last sellable location. A location a sales channel ships from shows In use by a sales channel; disconnect the channel, or remove the location there, first. Show archived lists archived locations.

Moving stock between locations

Open Transfers from the Screens menu at the top of the admin. How transfers work is set by the Transfer policy at the top of the screen. Only owners and admins can change it.

two-step
Despatch, then receive. Stock is in transit between the two. The default, and the only way to record a short delivery.
instant
The stock moves in one step, with no in-transit time. Right for moves inside one building.
unrestricted
Choose two-step or instant on each transfer.
off
Transfers are switched off.

To move stock:

  1. Press New transfer.
  2. Choose From and To, and the Mode if the policy lets you.
  3. Add a Reference if you have one, such as the docket number.
  4. Add a line for each SKU with its Quantity. Add line adds another.
  5. Press Create transfer.

An instant transfer moves the stock at once. It is refused if the source does not have that much free to move. A two-step transfer opens as draft and moves nothing until you act on its row:

draft
Opened, nothing moved. Press Despatch when the stock leaves. Despatch is refused if the source does not have the units free; units reserved for orders do not count.
in-transit
Out of the source, not yet at the destination. It shows as In transit on the SKU. Press Receive when it arrives.
received
At the destination, and on hand there.
cancelled
Withdrawn. Anything still in transit goes back to the source.

Despatch sends everything on the transfer, and Receive books in everything still in transit. To send part, or to record a short delivery, ask an AI agent. For example: "Receive 8 of the 10 WIDGET-1 on the transfer from Main to Shop, docket D-1042." The rest stays in transit.

A transfer into a held-only location is normal: it is how stock is moved into quarantine or out of sale.

Before you go live

If your organization is read-only and following another system, stock and locations come from that system. You can read them in Manifold but not change them until you go live. You can still count and cost the opening stocktake. See Read-only mode and going live.

For developers