Inventory: Products, Routes and Reordering
What to know
Inventory is built on products, warehouses, locations and operation types (receipts, deliveries, internal transfers, manufacturing). Product types matter: storable products are tracked in stock and valued, consumables are not valued and not stock-tracked for valuation purposes, and services never move stock. Routes determine the chain of moves: a one-step receipt goes vendor → stock; two-step adds an input area; three-step adds quality control or pick/pack/ship steps, each generating its own operation type.
Stock accuracy comes from inventory adjustments (counted quantity, then Apply), lots/serials and expiration dates when enabled. Reordering rules define a minimum (order point) and a maximum (target); when forecasted stock falls below the minimum, the scheduler or a manual Replenish creates an order for the difference, using the product's route (buy, manufacture, or transfer). Reservation assigns stock to outgoing moves; unreserved demand can create backorders. Valuation is standard price, FIFO or average cost, and can be manual or automated (stock moves generate journal entries). Putaway rules and storage categories direct receipts to bins.
Traps
- Reordering rules do not fire if the product has no route or the rule is manual-trigger only.
- Changing the costing method does not revalue existing stock automatically.
- Multi-step routes change which operation types appear, not the net stock result.
- Consumables bypass valuation; a question about stock value usually means storable goods.
Rule of thumb
Order quantity = maximum − forecasted quantity. With minimum 5, max 20 and forecast 3, replenishment orders 17 units.