InventoryHelp docs
Skip to the article

How Inventory works

Three chains change a stock count, and nothing else does. Learn those and the rest of the app follows.

Inventory is not twenty unrelated screens. It is three chains that change a count, plus the item records those counts hang off.

An item record for Hydraulic Oil ISO VG46 with its Transactions tab open, showing a document-type selector set to Invoices and one invoice listed with its date, customer, quantity, rate, amount and a Sent status. The Activity Panel on the right lists the movements behind the count: shipment processed in Rotherham Central Warehouse against SHP-00023, stock increased via purchase in Rotherham Central Warehouse against SI-RST-0013, stock transferred in at Sheffield Depot against TO-00010, and stock transferred out of Rotherham Central Warehouse.
One item's history. Every line in the panel on the right is one of the three chains reaching this item.

Highlights

  • Three chains: stock in, stock out, and the corrections that belong to neither.
  • Draft moves nothing. A count changes when a document is confirmed, not when it is saved.
  • Stock is held per warehouse, so any total is a sum of places.
  • Reserved is not gone, and available is the number that decides what you can promise.
  • One record, many apps. An item is not copied into Finance; it is the same row.

Stock coming in

  1. Purchase OrderWhat you asked for
  2. Purchase ReceiveWhat turned up
  3. BillWhat they charged

The receive is the step that changes the count, and it is the one people skip. It records what arrived rather than what was ordered, which is how a short delivery is caught before you pay for the full order rather than after.

Stock going out

  1. Sales OrderCommitted
  2. PicklistPulled
  3. PackageBoxed
  4. ShipmentGone

Confirming a sales order reserves stock rather than removing it. The units stay in your holding, committed to that order and unavailable to anybody else, until a shipment sends them.

The Inventory Overview screen. Total Stock Overview reads a total stock value of 116.4 thousand pounds and splits it into an Available figure and a Reserved figure. Stock Status counts 33 items as 32 in stock and one low stock, and Stock Movement charts stock in against stock out with in, out and net totals above it.
Total Stock Overview splits what you hold into available and reserved. The second number is the one a delivery promise depends on.

Available

can be promised

  • YesCounted in stock on hand
  • YesCan be committed to a new order
  • YesSellable today

Reserved

already promised

  • YesCounted in stock on hand
  • NoCan be committed to a new order
  • NoSellable today

Not every order uses all four steps. Picklists and packages earn their place when somebody other than the person taking the order does the picking; when that is not true, go from the order to the shipment.

Corrections, and everything else

Neither chain is edited backwards once a document is out. Corrections get their own record, which is what keeps the trail intact.

What happenedWhat you raiseAgainst
A stocktake found fewer unitsStock AdjustmentThe item
Goods were damaged in the warehouseStock AdjustmentThe item
Stock needs to move between warehousesStock TransferThe two warehouses
A customer sent goods backSales ReturnThe sales order
You over-invoiced a customerCredit NoteThe invoice
A vendor over-charged youVendor CreditThe bill

What actually changes a count

Nothing you are still drafting. This is the single most useful rule in the product, and it is behind most "why is this figure wrong" questions.

If the figure looksLook at
Too highPackages that have not shipped, and draft sales orders reserving nothing
Too lowA delivery that arrived and was never received in
Right but unsellableReserved stock. Open sales orders have already claimed it
Right in total, wrong on siteStock sitting at another warehouse, or a transfer sent and never received

One set of records, several apps

Inventory shares its records with the rest of the SorviAI suite rather than keeping copies. An item created in Finance is the item you count; a customer created here is the customer a repair ticket is raised for.

Was this document helpful?