The Products page tells you what you sell. The Inventory page tells you how many of each you have right now, and it can explain every one of those numbers.
That second part is the reason to use it. A stock number by itself is just a claim. A stock number with a history behind it is something you can check.
The page has three tabs: Stock, Stock count and History.
What's on your shelves
The Stock tab lists every item, one row each. For a product with sizes or colours, each variant has its own row, because Red / Medium and Blue / Large are counted separately.
Each row shows:
- In stock. How many you have.
- Reorder at. The level you set for a low stock warning.
- Value at cost. What that stock cost you: the quantity times the cost price.
Click a product's name to open it. Items that can't be sold at the moment, such as one that's in repair, are marked.
Low stock
An item is low stock when its quantity is at or below its reorder level. If you set Reorder at to 5, the warning starts when you're down to 5, not 4.
Turn on Only low stock to see just those items. The same list appears under Running low on your dashboard, so the first thing you see each morning is what needs buying.
Two things to know:
- An item with no reorder level never shows as low stock. Tabs can't guess when you'd want to restock. Set a reorder level on every product you don't want to run out of.
- Draft products are left out, since they aren't for sale yet.
Choosing a reorder level
A simple rule: how many do you sell in the time it takes to restock, plus a few spare.
If you sell about 4 cartons of noodles a day and your supplier delivers two days after you order, you'll sell 8 while you wait. Add a small cushion and set Reorder at to 10.
How stock changes by itself
You shouldn't have to type stock numbers most days. Tabs moves them for you:
- A sale takes stock off. When an order is created, its items come out of the store's stock.
- A cancelled or edited order puts stock back. If a line is removed or an order is cancelled before the goods leave, they return to stock.
- A customer return puts stock back.
- A transfer moves stock out of one store when it ships and into another when it's received. See stores and transfers.
Everything else is an adjustment or a count.
Adjusting stock
Use Adjust stock on an item when the number needs to change for a reason Tabs can't know about.
- Choose whether you're adding or removing.
- Enter how many.
- Pick the reason.
- Add a note if it helps. A note like "3 bottles broken in delivery" saves an argument later.
Tabs shows what the new total will be before you save. You can't remove more than you have.
| Reason | When to use it |
|---|---|
| New stock came in | A delivery from your supplier |
| Broken, expired or lost | Goods you can no longer sell |
| Anything else | A correction that doesn't fit the other two |
Pick the reason honestly. In a month's time, the difference between "broken" and "anything else" is how you'll tell breakage from something you ought to look into.
If you need to correct many items at once, a stock count is quicker than adjusting them one by one.
Why did this number change?
Open the History tab. Every change to your stock is listed, newest first:
- when it happened
- which item
- the reason
- the change, as a plus or a minus
- who did it
- any note
Filter by reason, by date range, or by a single item.
This is the page to open when a number looks wrong. Say Tabs shows 6 tins of milk and you count 4. Filter History to that item. You'll see the delivery of 24, each sale, and any adjustments. Either the two missing tins are explained there, or they aren't, and now you know exactly which days to ask about.
You can also reach one item's history from its product page, where it comes with a chart of the stock level over time.
Items that are in stock but can't be sold
Some items are counted but not available:
- In repair. Sent to be fixed.
- Returned to supplier. Sent back.
- Discontinued. A variant you no longer sell, kept for its history.
These are set from the product's page, not from Inventory. See sizes, colours and options.
Who can do what
Anyone who can view products can see the Stock and History tabs. Adjusting stock and running a stock count need permission to edit products. The value at cost depends on cost prices, which only show to roles allowed to see costs.
Set these under roles. A common setup is to let sales staff see stock but keep adjustments for a manager.