Warehouses and stock levels

Stock is held per location rather than as one company-wide number, because “we have forty” is not useful when thirty of them are in another city.

Adding a warehouse

1. Go to Inventory → Warehouses and choose New.
2. Name it and set its address — this is used on documents that despatch from it.
3. Mark one as the default, which is where documents assume goods move unless told otherwise.

Reading the ledger

Every movement names the document that caused it. Open an item and you can see what came in, what went out, and which challan, receipt or adjustment did it. If a figure looks wrong, this is where you find out why rather than guessing.

Adjustments

1. Go to Inventory → Stock and choose Adjust.
2. Pick the item and the location.
3. Enter the counted quantity and a reason.
4. Save. The adjustment appears in the ledger as its own movement, so the correction is visible rather than silent.

Counts and stock below nil

A count says what was on the shelf on its date. When it is posted, the difference is taken against the stock on that date as it is known then, so two counts of the same moment come to the last one posted, and anything that moved after the count stands. A count touches only the shelf it names: a count of the loose stock is not taken from the bins.

Stock can go below nil, where goods went out before they were booked in. The figure shows in red on the stock list and on the item, which reads Below nil, so it is seen and put right with the receipt or a count.

Holding stock for an order

1. Open the order in Inventory → Fulfilment.
2. Choose Reserve stock. The order now holds what it still has to ship, in that warehouse. Where the shelf is short, what is there is held and the rest ships later.

Pressing it again changes nothing. Shipping lets go of that order’s hold as the goods leave, and cancelling, closing or calling items off lets go of what is no longer to ship. One order’s shipment never frees another order’s hold.

Moving stock between warehouses

A transfer takes stock from the warehouse it leaves, bins included, loose stock first. Stock held for a customer’s order is not sent: the transfer says how many are free to send. While the goods are on the road they are still yours, and still counted in the stock value.

If fewer arrive than were sent, choose Close short on the receiving window and say what happened. The missing units are recorded as lost in transit at the cost they left at, and come off the stock value.

Correcting a goods receipt

1. Open the receipt in Inventory → Goods receipts and choose Correct quantities.
2. Enter what was really accepted on each line, and say what was wrong.
3. Choose Save correction. The difference comes off the shelf it went to, and the purchase order’s received quantity follows. Take it all back reverses the whole receipt.

Goods received against a purchase order with no cost typed are costed at the order’s rate, and no more than the order still has to come can be received against it. Raise the purchase bill at the same time works for a receipt with no order too: the draft bill is at the costs on the receipt.

Documents that move stock

• A sent invoice or bill of supply takes its stocked goods out, unless they already left on its sales order or its challan. Shipping it afterwards records the dispatch and does not take them out twice.
• An opened purchase bill brings its goods in at the bill’s cost, unless they already came in on its purchase order or by a goods receipt. Cancelling it takes them out again.
• Receive on a purchase order writes a goods receipt, so the goods are in stock and the order shows them received.
• A delivery challan takes its goods out when dispatched and brings them back when marked returned.
• A credit note returning goods brings back no more than went out on its invoice, into the batch they left from. A debit note sends back no more than came in on its bill, from the warehouse they were received into when none is chosen.

Goods that are tracked by serial number move where the units are named: on the document, every unit of the line, or else in Inventory, which asks for them.

Packing and delivering

A box cannot be packed with more than is on the shelf, counting what other boxes on the bench already hold. It is marked delivered after a shipment has carried it: choose the box when shipping from Fulfilment, then Mark delivered on the box. If the shipment carries fewer than the box holds, the box records what went, and the rest is owed to pack again.

An assembly is built only with Assemble, which takes the components off the shelf and puts the finished items on it. Deleting one puts back only what it really built.