# Record a Transfer

Send stock from one depot to another, and leave it visibly in transit until it lands.

A transfer is two steps because a van takes time. Sending it is the first.

> **Before you start:**
>
> Two warehouses, and stock at the source one.

## Send stock

- **Go to Stock Transfers and select Transfer Order**

  Choose the source and destination warehouses. They cannot be the same.

  ![The Stock Transfers list with its Transfer Order action and columns for Date, Transfer Order number, Source Warehouse, Destination Warehouse, Reason, Status and Total Qty.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/stock-transfers/transfers-list.png)
- **Add the items and quantities**

  Every line resolves to a variant, because that is what stock belongs to.
- **Write a reason**

  It is free text and it is the only thing that will explain the movement later. "Van stock top-up for the trade counter" beats "transfer".
- **Check the source actually holds them**

  A transfer cannot send stock that is not there. If the source is short, that shortage is a stock adjustment, not something to work around here.
- **Send it**

  The units leave the source depot and the transfer moves to **In Transit**. They are still in your total and available at neither end.

> **Note:**
>
> **A transfer changes no value and no total**
>
> Nothing was bought or sold, so your stock value and your total on hand are identical before and after. What changes is where the stock is, and therefore what each depot can promise.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Send on the day it goes, not when it arrives**
>
> Recording both ends at once hides the in-transit period, and that period is exactly when somebody at the source depot will try to sell units you have already put in a van.