Inventory

Inventory is the hardware and parts your organization keeps on hand, where it is, and what it cost. Stock arrives through receiving, leaves through delivery, returns, and adjustments, and moves between locations by transfer. Every change is a movement in a ledger that is never edited. This page covers setting up items and locations, reorder points, transfers, adjustments, and how stock is costed.

Before you begin

• Reading inventory needs inventory:read. Managing items and locations, adjusting stock, and transferring it needs inventory:write.
• Running the reorder by hand needs procurement:write, because it drafts purchase orders.

Set up locations

A location is anywhere stock is kept: an office, a warehouse, or a technician’s van.

1. Select Inventory > Locations, then New location.
2. Enter the Name, and choose the Kind: Office, Warehouse, Van, or Other.
3. For a van, choose who it belongs to in Held by.
4. Select Receive into this location unless told otherwise to make it the default receiving location. Only one location is the default.
5. To have suppliers deliver here, select Suppliers ship here (printed on purchase orders) and enter the address. The Country is two letters. A distributor submission needs this address.
6. Select Save location.

A location that still holds stock, or that a draft or in-transit transfer names, cannot be removed. Move or adjust the stock out first.

Add stock items

A stock item is one thing you keep in stock, under one SKU.

1. Select Inventory > Stock items, then New item.
2. Enter the SKU and Name, and optionally the Manufacturer, Part number (MPN), UPC, Category, Unit, Default supplier, and Description.
3. Select Track every unit by serial number for hardware such as laptops and switches. Each serialized unit becomes an asset when it is received.
4. Select Save item.

Choose serial tracking carefully. It cannot change once the item exists, and a SKU can never be reused by another item, even after the item is deactivated. Quantities of a serialized item are always whole numbers.

To stop using an item, select Deactivate. An item whose serialized units are still in stock cannot be deactivated.

Record supplier costs

On the item’s Suppliers card, select Add a supplier, then choose the Supplier and enter Their SKU, Their cost, and Lead time, days. Purchase orders to that supplier use this SKU and cost for the item when a line leaves them empty.

To see what your distributors charge for the item right now, select Compare prices on the item. See Distributor connections.

Sell an item from stock

On the MSP plan, a product in your billing catalog can be delivered from a stock item, which is what makes an accepted quote raise a sales order. See Billing catalog.

Set reorder points

A reorder point is the level at which a location needs more of an item.

1. Select Inventory > Stock levels.
2. On the item’s row at the location, select Edit.
3. Enter the reorder point and the reorder quantity, then select Save.

Clearing both removes the rule. Select Below reorder point to see only the levels that need ordering.

Reorder automatically

The reorder run adds what is needed to one draft purchase order per supplier and location. Nothing is ordered until somebody approves and sends the draft.

• To run it every hour, select Draft purchase orders every hour for stock below its reorder point in Procurement > Settings.
• To run it once, select Run now on Inventory > Reorder.

The run orders from each item’s Default supplier. An item at or below its reorder point with no default supplier is listed with No default supplier, and the hourly run raises an alert in the procurement category for it.

Stock already on order counts toward the level, including draft purchase orders, so the same need is never drafted twice. The suggested quantity is the reorder quantity, repeated as many times as it takes to bring the level above the reorder point.

Transfer stock between locations

1. Select Inventory > Transfers, then New transfer.
2. Choose From and To, and optionally enter a Note.
3. Under Items to move, select Add an item for each item and enter the quantity. Select Save draft.
4. When the stock leaves, open the transfer and select Ship. The stock leaves the source location, and the transfer is In transit.
5. When it arrives, select Receive. The stock arrives at the destination, and serialized units move their location with it.

A draft can be canceled with Cancel transfer. Once shipped, it can only be received.

Adjust stock

Adjust stock when a count, a loss, or internal use changes what is on hand.

1. On the stock item, select Adjust stock.
2. Choose the Location and the Direction: Take out of stock or Add to stock.
3. For a serialized item, scan or type the serial number of each unit in Serial numbers. Otherwise, enter the Quantity.
4. Choose the Reason: Damaged, Lost, Found, Stock count, Internal use, or Other. Every adjustment needs one.
5. Enter a Note. It is required when the reason is Other.
6. Select Adjust stock.

Taking a serialized unit out marks its asset Lost, or Retired when the reason is Damaged. Adding one either finds a lost unit or, for a serial Outpost has not seen, creates a new asset at the item’s average cost.

The movements ledger

Inventory > Movements lists every change to stock on hand, with what caused it: Received, Receipt reversed, Transfer out, Transfer in, Adjustment, Fulfilled, Fulfillment reversed, Returned to supplier, Returned to stock, and Cost adjustment. Filter by item, location, or kind.

Nothing in the ledger is edited or deleted. A mistake is put right by a new movement, such as a reversal or an adjustment, so the history always adds up.

How stock is costed

Each stock item has one weighted-average cost across all its locations.

Movement	Effect on the average
Receiving	Re-weighted by the received units at their unit cost.
Landed cost from an approved bill	Added across the units still on hand.
Delivery, return, transfer, adjustment, reversal	Posted at the current average. The average does not change.

A transfer moves units, not value, so moving stock to a van never changes what it is worth. Last cost on the item is the most recent unit cost received.

Verify

• Inventory > Stock levels shows each item’s On hand and On order at each location.
• The item’s Recent movements shows the change, and All movements of this item opens the full ledger.

Next steps

• Purchase orders
• Returns to suppliers
• Assets