Learn how PurchasePlus helps your Organization to manage the Products that you hold in Inventory.
This is Part 1 of our Introduction to Inventory series.
- Read Introduction to Inventory, Part 2: Stock Items
- Read Introduction to Inventory, Part 3: Stock Locations
- Read Introduction to Inventory, Part 4: Transfers
- Read Introduction to Inventory, Part 5: Stocktakes
What is the PurchasePlus Inventory Module?
Inventory is an optional module that can be included in your PurchasePlus plan, to help you further control and reduce your procurement costs by:
- Receiving Products from your Suppliers’ deliveries directly into your Inventory, and start tracking your Stock Levels,
- Maintaining oversight of the total dollar value of all Stock Items in your Stock Locations,
- Accounting for Transfers of Stock Items between Locations (or other movements of Stock Items, e.g. Variances during Stocktakes),
- Conducting periodic Stocktakes to verify the Stock Levels in these Locations.
If your Organization has enabled Inventory, then the [Inventory] area will be available in the side navigation bar:
What is included in the Inventory Module?
The Inventory Module comes with four major features: Stock Items, Stock Locations, Transfers, and Stocktakes. We will dive deeper into each of these four features below.
Stock Items
A Stock Item is a Product that is available in your Inventory and can be added to and held in one or more of your Inventory Stock Locations.
As a Stock Item, you will be able to receive Purchase Order items against it, as well as include it in any Transfers, Collections, or Point of Sale Items. If your Organization Creates a New Stock Item, it will also appear as a product in their All Products area, and your Organization will be set as the owner of the product.
View our article about Introduction to Stock Items for more information.
Stock Locations and System Locations
A Stock Location can be representative of a physical location at your Organization where Stock Items are held. Stock Locations can also be used as a Point of Origin or a Destination for a Stock Transfer, a Location to receive Stock Items into on a Goods Receiving Note, and a Location where a Stocktake can be conducted.
A System Location is a non-physical Location that is used for accounting purposes - e.g. transferring a Stock Item out of a Stock Location to a System Location to keep track of a variance during a Stocktake.
View our article about Introduction to Stock Locations for more information.
Transfers
A Transfer is a way to account for the movement of Stock Items between Stock Locations.
A Transfer can be created manually at any time if the user has the ‘Manage Transfers’ permission, or they may be created automatically during certain actions - e.g. Receiving Goods, or during the initial setup of a Location's Opening Balances.
Transfer Notes are created for each type of transfer, so that a detailed summary of the Transfer’s Origin, Destination, transferred Stock Items and other important information can be viewed.
View our article about Introduction to Transfers for more information.
Stocktakes
A Stocktake is a method of systematically verifying the quantity of Products that you are holding in a Stock Location. In PurchasePlus, a Stocktake is conducted at a Stock Location, and has a defined ‘Period’ (i.e. a calendar year and month). The Stocktake allows users at your Organization to count the Actual number of Stock Items in the Location, so that this count can then be compared to the Expected number of Stock Items in the Location. The variance between the Actual and the Expected count must be accounted for in a Variance Transfer, prior to the Stocktake being Closed.
The abilities to Manage and Close Stocktakes are controlled by user permissions, to ensure the quality of data in each Stocktake.
View our article about Introduction to Stocktakes for more information.
How do I start using the Inventory Module?
If your Organization would like to begin using the PurchasePlus Inventory module, please contact your Account Manager or our friendly Customer Success Team for assistance with enabling the module, and to organize training for your users.
Note for Purchasers using Legacy PurchasePlus
The Inventory module in New PurchasePlus has been redesigned, and is materially different to the Legacy PurchasePlus Inventory module. Organizations migrating from our Legacy PurchasePlus platform to our New PurchasePlus platform will be given additional migration support.