# Introduction - Stock Transfers

A stock transfer moves units between your own locations.

Total stock does not change and nothing is bought or sold, so no revenue and no cost of goods is recognised. Only the location changes, which is exactly why it is a separate document from an adjustment.

![The Stock Transfers screen listing fourteen transfer orders with columns for Transfer Date, Transfer Order Number, Source Warehouse, Destination Warehouse, Reason, Status and Total Quantity. Every row runs out of Rotherham Central Warehouse to one of the depots, and statuses read Transferred, In Transit and Draft.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/stock-transfers/stock-transfer-list.png)

*Source and destination sit side by side, because that is the whole of what a transfer records.*

## Transfer or adjustment

If the same goods exist somewhere else afterwards, it is a transfer. If they have ceased to exist, it is an adjustment. Using two adjustments to fake a transfer destroys the connection between the two halves and makes the movement impossible to audit.

**Stock Transfer** (Goods moved between your sites)

- Yes: Total stock unchanged
- Yes: Both halves linked in one document
- Yes: Handles goods in transit
- Yes: No profit and loss impact

**Two Adjustments** (The wrong way to do it)

- No: Two unrelated write-offs
- No: Posts to expense accounts wrongly
- No: No record that they are the same goods
- No: Distorts shrinkage reporting

## Goods in transit

Between despatch and receipt the stock belongs to neither location. It is still yours and still on your balance sheet, but it is not available to sell from either site. This is deliberate: a van on the motorway should not satisfy an order at either end.

1. **At source**: Available to sell
2. **In transit**: Owned, not available
3. **At destination**: Available again

> **Tip:**
>
> **Receive promptly**
>
> Stock left in transit is invisible to both warehouses and quietly causes stockouts at the destination while the units sit unreceived on a loading bay.

## Valuation

Goods move at their existing cost, so nothing is gained or lost by moving them. If the destination costs stock differently, the transfer preserves the original cost rather than revaluing it, which keeps margins on the eventual sale honest.