How stock works
ekPOS keeps a running quantity for every product — and every variant of a variable product — at every location: each branch and each warehouse separately.
What changes stock
| Event | Effect | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Opening stock | Sets the starting quantity | Each location entered |
| Purchase received (in full or part) | Adds the received quantity | The purchase's location |
| Purchase return | Removes | The purchase's location |
| Sale (POS or Add Sale, completed) | Removes | The sale's location |
| Sales return | Adds back | The return's location |
| Transfer | Removes from one location, adds to another | Both |
| Adjustment | Adds or removes | The adjustment's location |
| Repair part fitted | Removes | The repair's location |
| WooCommerce order | Removes | The location set in the integration |
Things that do not change stock: purchase orders that haven't been received, sales saved as drafts, quotations or proforma invoices, inventory audits, and products that don't track stock (Manage Stock off).
Editing or deleting any of these documents corrects stock automatically: ekPOS undoes what the document did and applies it again from the new figures.
Selling more than you hold
A product with Manage Stock on cannot be sold beyond what the location has available — its stock less anything reserved by proforma invoices. At the POS and on Add Sale, an out-of-stock product can't be picked and a quantity can't be raised past what is available. Completing or editing a final sale checks again, so two cashiers selling the last unit at once can't both succeed: the second is told how many are left. Drafts and quotations are not checked, because they take no stock.
If the shelf holds more than ekPOS shows, correct the figure first: receive the purchase you forgot, transfer stock in, or record an adjustment.
Stock taken another way is not refused: a WooCommerce order, a part fitted to a repair, or an imported sale can still take a location below zero. Negative stock shows you what to fix.
Combos and services
- A combo holds no stock. Selling one takes its components out of stock.
- A product with Manage Stock off — a service, for example — is never counted.
Where to see stock
| To see | Go to |
|---|---|
| One product at every location | The eye (quick view) on the product list |
| Totals for the whole catalog | The Current Stock column on the product list (red when at or below the low-stock level) |
| Stock and its value per location | The Stock report |
| Every movement of one product | The Product Stock History report |
| What needs reordering | The Restock report and the dashboard's Low Stock Alert |
Warehouses and zones
A warehouse can be divided into zones. Stock moved on the ekPOS screens is held at warehouse level. See Branches, warehouses and zones.