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Practical guide / Free to read

Know what you have. Know what the work needs.

Keep usable stock, customer commitments, and expected deliveries clear enough to act on.

Begin with what matters to your work

You might keep products for sale, parts for customer jobs, packaging, cleaning supplies, or materials measured by length or volume. Start with the items whose absence, condition, or delay would interrupt the work. A small, checked record is useful immediately.

Give each distinct item or variant a recognizable name and code. Choose the unit you actually count: each, foot, liter, or another clear measure. Record its location, including a van or market stall when relevant. Different sizes or specifications belong in separate item records.

Start with reliable information about what you have, what can be used, what is promised to jobs, and what is still expected. Compare that record with actual demand before deciding what to replenish or investigate as slow-moving stock.

Background: IRS: What kind of records should I keep?

Count the opening position

Count what is physically present and separate usable goods from items awaiting inspection, held for review, or damaged. An empty field means that condition has not been counted. Enter zero when you have checked and found none.

Record the actual count date, person, and explanation. Reconcile any movement while counting before applying the result. The planner stops an old count from overwriting movements entered since that count began. A skipped location stays uncounted.

A count establishes the physical position. If fewer usable items exist than jobs require, preserve the jobs and investigate the shortage. Changing the count should not erase a customer commitment.

Background: ERPNext: Stock Reconciliation

Keep quantities with different meanings separate

Physical stock includes all recorded conditions. Usable stock excludes goods awaiting inspection, held, or damaged. Available stock also excludes usable quantities already covering reservations, entered expired stock, and goods in a transit location.

Incoming supply is a separate expectation. An order confirmation is useful information, but it does not mean the goods have arrived or passed inspection. Record each partial receipt and its actual condition. Link it to the expected supply so the remaining quantity is visible.

The planner requires a checked opening quantity before it allows an issue or transfer. Receipts entered before that count remain recorded movements with an unknown opening balance. This prevents an incomplete starting record from appearing complete.

Record the movement when the work happens

Record a receipt, sale or use, move between locations, condition change, return, loss, or disposal with its date and reason. For a transfer that takes time, use a transit location. Record arrival of the quantity that actually arrived; the remainder stays in transit.

If an entry was wrong, reverse it with a dated explanation and enter the corrected movement. The original remains in history. Use another checked count to correct a count. This working history helps explain changes; it is not an authenticated audit record.

A customer return needs its own condition assessment. Returning goods does not automatically make them usable or recreate a customer reservation. Review the remaining requirement separately.

Background: ERPNext: Stock Entry

Check packs, batches, and dates

Keep one counting unit for each item. If a supplier sells a carton of twelve, record the conversion explicitly and check it against the supplier’s specification. The movement keeps the conversion used at the time. Later pack changes do not rewrite old quantities.

Use a batch or individual serial reference when the work needs it. Enter expiry or review dates from the relevant source. The planner excludes batches that have reached their entered use-by date from availability; it does not determine product safety or validate the supplier’s date.

Keep handling and checking instructions alongside the item. A location or batch label only helps if the person doing the work can identify it.

Background: ERPNext: Selling in Different UOM

Reserve stock for a real requirement

Name the customer job or purpose, item, quantity, location, and needed date. A reservation records demand. It does not change the physical stock count. Issuing part of it reduces the remaining requirement while retaining what was issued.

If a count reveals a shortage, the uncovered commitment stays visible. Review alternatives, expected deliveries, and the customer promise. A completed issue cannot be erased by reducing the reservation below the quantity already issued.

When taking a reservation into Job & Delivery, select the existing material requirement if it already represents this work. Check actual readiness deliberately. The reviewed file transfer does not complete the job or automatically update either original file.

Background: ERPNext: Stock Reservation

Replenish around the timing of the work

Choose a review threshold, target quantity, and supplier lead time. Add a minimum order or order multiple when applicable. Record the basis and any seasonal assumptions. Blank assumptions remain unknown.

The planner compares usable stock, all outstanding entered reservations, and supply expected between the review date and the lead-time date. It rounds an indicated replenishment quantity to the entered order multiple. Overdue, undated, and later deliveries are listed separately. Commitments due before a new order could arrive remain visible.

These are planning suggestions based on your entries. They do not forecast unrecorded demand or guarantee a supplier date. Before ordering, review existing purchase commitments, quantity, lead time, affordability, and what the work actually needs. A replenishment export creates a purchasing requirement for review; it places no order.

Background: IRS: What kind of records should I keep?

Review what is sitting unused

A slow-use review can prompt a decision about stock that has not been issued recently. New or incomplete records may simply lack usage history. Distinguish that uncertainty from evidence of poor demand.

Check condition, remaining shelf life, changing specifications, and whether upcoming work still needs the item. Record the decision and next action. Keep optional unit costs dated and supported by their source and exclusions; these references do not produce an accounting stock valuation.

Bring existing records across carefully

A Purchasing file may already include receipts, returns, pending inspection, and job allocations. Preview the line, choose the stock item and location, and explicitly convert the supplier unit. Decide whether its goods are already represented by your counts or earlier movements before adding anything.

Check whether the goods have since been used, whether a job reservation already exists, and which supply is still outstanding. Repeated imported source lines are blocked. A changed source needs reconciliation against the existing record rather than adding the whole delivery again.

CSV imports create draft physical counts from the provided template. They do not immediately change available stock. Review quantities, dates, and the actual count before applying them. Reviewed files are snapshots; they do not synchronize.

Make the record useful next time

Save the editable stock book as JSON to reopen items, counts, movements, reservations, and history. Use actual PDF reading copies for stock position, replenishment, attention items, movement history, or blank count sheets. The movement CSV is a separate table copy.

Choose handling instructions to create fresh Checklist Builder steps or a draft Business Routine. Include the stock JSON in Owner Overview to review shortages, uncertain quantities, outstanding counts, and supply follow-ups alongside other business work.

Come back when stock moves and when a count, promise, or supplier date changes. The record earns its place by helping someone make the next decision.

Try it in your own situation

Check one stock position

  1. Choose one item and its counting unit.
  2. Identify the location and any batch or serial reference.
  3. Count each condition; keep unknown quantities blank.
  4. Record the date, person, and explanation, then apply the checked count.
  5. Add any real job reservation and expected supply.
  6. Review availability and the next action; save the editable stock book.

Keep exploring.

Get what you need and keep work moving. Explore Running a business
Sources and further reading

Original Brass Charter examples and exercises, with background reading from the sources below.

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