Everything here sits under OPERATIONS → Items & Purchases, which opens three screens: Inventory Center (the overview), Item List (the catalogue), and Purchase & Adjustment List (the log of everything that has ever moved stock). A fourth screen, Item Detail, opens from inside the first two and is where most questions actually get answered.
1. Inventory Center
The first stop — what you hold, what it's worth, and what is moving.
| Card | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Total Products | How many items are in your catalogue. |
| Low Stock | Items at or below their reorder level — your buying list. |
| Out Of Stock | Items at zero or below. |
| Total Stock Value | What the stock on hand is worth at cost. |
The two Top 5 Fastest Movers charts answer different questions and are worth reading together. By Units Sold shows what leaves the shelf most often; by Sales Value shows what actually brings in money. An item can top one chart and be absent from the other — that gap is usually where a pricing or stocking decision is hiding.
The Date Range selector at the top applies to the fastest-movers charts only. The four cards always describe stock as it stands right now.
2. Item List
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Item Name | Your internal name. Click it to open Item Detail. |
| Item Type | PRODUCT (has stock) or SERVICE (does not). Services always show quantity 0 — that is correct, not a fault. |
| Purchase Rate | Cost price. |
| Sales Rate | What you charge. |
| Quantity | Stock on hand. |
| Reminder Lvl | The reorder point — see section 8. |
| Manage | The row's actions. |
2.1 Negative quantities
A negative figure in the Quantity column means the system has recorded more going out than ever came in. It is almost never a counting error at the till — it is stock that was sold before it was ever entered as received, or purchases that never synced. Fix it with a stock adjustment (section 6) once you have counted the shelf, and treat a large negative as a sign that the item's purchase history is incomplete.
3. Creating items
Create Item opens a form that lets you queue several products before saving any of them.
- Item Name and Item Type (Product or Service).
- Purchase Rate — what it costs you. Sales Rate — what you charge.
- Quantity Avail — opening stock. Use it only for what is on the shelf the day you create the item; everything arriving afterwards should come in as a purchase so the cost is recorded.
- Reminder Lvl — the reorder point.
- Item Image (optional) — worth adding. The photo shows as a thumbnail in the New Sale item picker, so staff can confirm they've grabbed the right product at a glance.
- Add To List, repeat for as many items as you're entering, then Save.
4. Item Detail — the stock passbook
Click any item name to open it. This screen answers "why does it say I have this many?"
4.1 The five cards
| Card | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Current Stock | Units on hand. |
| Reorder Level | Minimum before restock. |
| Sales Price | Per unit, as charged. |
| Stock Value | What you're holding, at cost. |
| Retail Value | The same stock at selling price, with the margin percentage. |
4.2 Stock History
Every purchase, sale, adjustment and transfer for this item, each with the change it made and the running balance afterwards. Rows run newest first, so the balance on the top row is today's figure.
This is the tool for a disputed stock number. Work down the column until the balance stops matching what you believe, and the row where it diverges is the movement to investigate. A Received PURCHASE +100 against a Sold SALES −5 reads at a glance.
4.3 Trend, sales and the rest
- Stock Level Trend — stock over time, with the reorder level drawn as a dashed line. Stretches below that line are stock-outs you may not have noticed.
- Sales & Orders — total units sold and total sales value for this item.
- View Sales Records / View Purchases — drill into the transactions behind those figures.
- Print — a printable copy of the item's position.
5. Purchase & Adjustment List
Every entry that has moved stock, other than sales. Open it from Items & Purchases → Purchase & Adjustment List. The page is headed Purchases & stock adjustments and has two tabs: History and Scan a paper.
5.1 The buttons at the top
- Record stock opens the entry form (section 6).
- Scan a paper jumps to the Scan a paper tab (section 6.4).
- More holds Upload purchases (many purchases from a spreadsheet), Upload adjustments (a stock count or corrections from Excel) and Export to CSV (everything on the list). The uploads are covered in the Upload & Scan guide.
5.2 The History tab
- Dates — pick a period, or press All dates to see everything ever recorded.
- Summary tiles — Bought from vendors (money), Stock added (adjustments) and Stock removed (adjustments) (units), and Vendors bought from.
- Type chips — show only one kind of entry. Each row's Type badge reads Purchase, Stock added, Stock removed, Transfer in or Transfer out (transfers come from the Consolidator).
- Search — by item, vendor or type.
- Columns — Date, Item, Type, Vendor, Qty, Unit cost and Value. Value is what the vendor billed. Where no amount was recorded (older entries, and every adjustment) it shows in grey as quantity × unit cost.
A row with no vendor is an adjustment; a row with a vendor and a value is a purchase. That difference is the subject of section 7.
6. Recording a purchase or an adjustment
Record stock opens one form for a whole vendor bill or a whole stock count — as many lines as the paper has, saved together.
6.1 Step by step
The form has three buttons at the top. Choose one first:
| Button | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Purchase | Bought from a vendor. Adds stock and records what you paid or still owe. |
| Add stock | Found, returned or miscounted stock. No vendor, no payment. |
| Remove stock | Damaged, expired, lost or used up. Taken off at the item's average cost. |
- Choose what you are recording — Purchase, Add stock or Remove stock.
- Date — defaults to today. Change it to the day the stock really moved. A future date shows a warning.
- Vendor (Purchase only) — who you bought from. A new supplier? The Add a vendor link opens Vendors & Transactions — add them there first, then come back.
- Add the items — type in Search an item to add… and press Enter. Each pick shows how many you have and its cost. Add as many lines as the bill has.
- Fill each line — Quantity (whole numbers only) and Unit cost (for Remove stock this shows the Avg. cost and cannot be changed). The line shows its Line total and the After figure — how many you will have once it is saved. After turns red if it would go below zero.
- Payment (Purchase only) — the totals box shows the bill total. Paid follows the total until you type your own figure; untick Paid in full if you are paying part now. Still owed to vendor shows what is left. If you paid anything now, choose Paid with (the payment type).
- Press Save, read the summary (for example "… for ₦45,000, leaving ₦15,000 owed") and confirm.
6.2 What the form stops you doing
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Choose the vendor you bought from. | Pick a vendor. A new one must be added on Vendors & Transactions first. |
| …quantity must be a whole number. | Stock is counted in whole units. Record 2, not 1.5. |
| Amount paid cannot be more than the total. | To pay a vendor in advance, record it on the vendor's page instead. |
| A Cash vendor must be paid in full. | A vendor named Cash is always paid in full. To record a balance owed, pick the real vendor. |
| Choose how you paid. | You entered a paid amount, so choose the payment type. |
6.3 If some lines fail
Lines are sent in batches. If a batch fails, the lines already saved stay saved and are taken off the form; the message says how many were recorded. Press Save again to send the rest. Nothing was recorded means no line was saved — check your connection and try again.
6.4 Scan a paper instead of typing
The Scan a paper tab turns a supplier's receipt, a delivery note or your own handwritten list into entries — handwriting is fine.
- Choose Purchase (goods a vendor sold you) or Stock adjustment (a stock count, damages or shortages).
- Take or upload a photo. A long sheet? Add several photos; their lines are added together.
- Check what was read: correct a line, or untick it to leave it out. Nothing is saved until you confirm.
Each photo uses usage units. When you confirm, the History tab refreshes with the new entries. The same reader is described in full in the Upload & Scan guide.
6.5 From the dashboard's low-stock list
The Buy link next to a low-stock item on the dashboard opens this form with that item already on it.
7. Purchases vs adjustments — and why it matters to your costs
Both move the quantity. Only one of them tells the truth about money.
| Purchase | Adjustment | |
|---|---|---|
| Changes stock | Yes | Yes |
| Records a vendor | Yes | No |
| Records what you paid | Yes | No |
| Creates a payable if unpaid | Yes | No |
| Feeds your average cost | Yes, at the rate you entered | At whatever cost is on the entry — zero if you leave it blank |
The reverse mistake is milder but still worth avoiding: recording a recount or a breakage as a purchase invents a vendor liability you don't owe.
8. Reorder levels and low stock
The Reminder Level (called Reorder Level on Item Detail) is the figure that drives your Low Stock alerts — on the Inventory Center card, on the dashboard, and as the dashed line on the item's trend chart.
Set it to cover the time it takes to restock, not to zero. If a product takes a week to arrive and you sell five a week, a reorder level of five means you run out exactly as the new stock arrives; ten gives you a week of cover. Items left at zero never alert, which is why a store can have seventy items out of stock and no warnings.
9. Doing it in bulk
Everything in this guide has a bulk equivalent, covered fully in the Upload & Scan guide:
| One at a time | In bulk |
|---|---|
| Create Item | Upload Data → Items, or Upload from Excel on the Item List |
| Record stock → Purchase | Upload Data → Purchases |
| Record stock → Add stock / Remove stock | Upload Data → Stock Adjustments, or More → Upload adjustments on the purchases page |
| Editing an item's price | Upload Data → Prices |
| Typing from a paper delivery note or stock count | The Scan a paper tab on the purchases page, or Upload Data → Scan A Report |
10. Quick reference
| I want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| See what needs reordering | Inventory Center → Low Stock |
| Know what my stock is worth | Inventory Center → Total Stock Value |
| Find out why a stock figure is wrong | Item List → click the item → Stock History |
| Add a product | Item List → Create Item |
| Record a delivery from a supplier | Purchase & Adjustment List → Record stock → Purchase (one form for the whole bill) |
| Write off damage or expiry | …same form → Remove stock |
| Correct stock after a count | …same form → Add stock or Remove stock for the difference |
| Enter a supplier's paper receipt without typing | Purchase & Adjustment List → Scan a paper |
| Change a selling price | Edit the item (or Upload Data → Prices) — not the purchase form |
| See everything that moved stock this month | Purchase & Adjustment List → History → pick the dates |
| See what I owe suppliers | Vendors & Transactions, fed by the unpaid part of each purchase |
If something looks wrong
- Quantity is negative. More has gone out than was recorded coming in. Count the shelf, then post an adjustment — and check whether purchases for that item were ever entered.
- A service shows quantity 0. Correct. Services don't carry stock.
- Profit looks too good. Check whether stock was brought in as zero-cost adjustments instead of purchases.
- Stock value looks too low. Same cause.
- An item never appears in Low Stock. Its reorder level is probably 0.
- A price changed unexpectedly. It did not come from a purchase entry — that form cannot change selling price. Look at item edits and the Prices upload.
- Stock History and current stock disagree. The last row's running balance is the authority; if it doesn't match the card, raise it with support rather than adjusting over the top.