# Introduction - Items

An item is one thing you stock, buy or sell, and it is the record every quantity in Inventory is counted against.

**Video coming soon:** A tour of the Items module: the catalogue, a variant product, and where a stock figure comes from.

Every purchase receive, shipment, adjustment and transfer points at an item rather than at loose text. That is what makes a count possible at all: stock is not a number you keep, it is the sum of what the documents did to one item.

![The Items screen in Inventory, headed Items with the subtitle Manage your inventory items, goods, and services. Columns read Item Name, Structure, Usage, Selling Price, Cost Price, Stock on Hand, Status and Created At. The first row, Hydraulic Hose Assembly R2AT, carries only a name, a chevron and a purple 6 variants badge, with every other column blank. Rows beneath are marked Single item and carry real figures: Emergency Callout at 275.00 with no stock, Hydraulic Oil ISO VG46 20 Litre Drum at 76.50 with 56 pcs, Brass Compression Coupling 22mm at 33.75 with 134 box.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/items/items-list.png)

*The catalogue. Look at the first row: a variant parent shows a name and a count, and nothing else.*

## Tracked and untracked

The most consequential switch on an item is whether Inventory counts it.

**Tracked** (goods you hold)

- Yes: A quantity, per warehouse
- Yes: Appears in stock reports
- Yes: Can be picked, packed and shipped
- Yes: Cost recognised when it sells

**Untracked** (services, and goods you never hold)

- No: A quantity, per warehouse
- No: Appears in stock reports
- No: Can be picked, packed and shipped
- No: Cost recognised when it sells

Only goods can be tracked, because a service has nothing to hold. An untracked good is a real and useful thing: something you order in per job and never keep on a shelf. In the list above, the Usage column tells you which is which at a glance.

## A variant is itself an item

A variant is not a property of a product and not a row hanging off one. It is a complete item with its own SKU, prices, stock and status, joined to the product above it by nothing more than a parent reference.

![The Items list with Hydraulic Hose Assembly R2AT expanded. The parent row shows a downward chevron and a 6 variants badge with Usage, Selling Price, Cost Price, Stock on Hand, Status and Created At all blank. Six indented sub-rows read 1/4 in / 1 m, 1/4 in / 2 m, 3/8 in / 1 m, 3/8 in / 2 m, 1/2 in / 1 m and 1/2 in / 2 m, each labelled Bore / Length, and each carries its own selling price from 38.50 to 78.30 and its own cost price.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/items/variant-rows.png)

*Every value column is blank on the parent and filled on the variants, because the variants are the items.*

> **Note:**
>
> **You count variants, never the product above them**
>
> A parent is a grouping label. Parents cannot be selected or bulk-edited, and a receive, a shipment or an adjustment always lands on a variant.

## What an item record holds

Open any item and it splits into a summary, its stock, and the history behind both.

![The record for Hydraulic Oil ISO VG46 20 Litre Drum, in three columns. A mini list of items runs down the left. The centre carries tabs reading Summary, Inventory, Statistics, Warehouses and Transactions with an Adjust Stock button above, then panels: Basic Information showing Type Goods and Usage Inventory, Tax showing Standard Rate 20.00 per cent, Sales Information showing a selling price of 76.50, Purchase Information showing a cost price of 39.20, and Item Details listing SKU IRN-LUB-HYD46, Category Lubricants and Workshop Chemicals and Returnable Yes. An Activity Panel on the right lists stock movements naming Rotherham Central Warehouse and Sheffield Depot.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/items/item-detail.png)

*Five tabs and an activity trail. Adjust Stock sits here rather than on the form, because a count is a movement.*

| Tab | What it answers |
| --- | --- |
| Summary | What the item is, what it sells and costs, and its identifiers |
| Inventory | What you hold and what it is valued at |
| Statistics | How it has been selling and buying |
| Warehouses | Where the stock physically sits, depot by depot |
| Transactions | Every document this item has appeared on |

## Stock on hand is three numbers

Asking how many you have has three honest answers, and the gap between them is where most availability arguments come from.

- **Stock on hand** (per warehouse): What is physically there, available and reserved together.
- **Available** (per warehouse): Stock on hand minus what open sales orders have already committed. This is the number that decides whether you can promise a delivery.
- **The item total** (across warehouses): What the items list shows. Useful for valuation, misleading for a promise: any single depot can be empty while the total looks healthy.

> **Warning:**
>
> **Decide tracking before the first transaction**
>
> Turning it on after an item has been bought and sold leaves movements the system cannot value, and the form blocks turning it off once transactions exist.