Barcode stock control
Scan it and the product comes up. A scan looks for that exact barcode.
Panel → Stock control. Built to be used with a laser scanner in your hand, in front of the shelf. The scanner acts as a keyboard: aim, fire, and the code goes in.
Finding a product
Scan it and the product comes up. A scan looks for that exact barcode.
If you type instead, the search box (Search product by name or SKU…) also finds partial matches: part of the SKU, of the barcode or of the product title.
When a product has no barcode
Almost no inherited catalogue comes with EANs: the ones that come from WooCommerce or a spreadsheet usually have a SKU and little else.
That is why linking exists: when a code is not recognised, you find the product by name or SKU and press Link, and from then on that barcode identifies it. It is done once per product.
Which warehouse you are working in
Everything on this screen belongs to one warehouse, the one in the Warehouse selector at the top: the stock it shows you, the entries and exits of the quick adjustment, and the count. The choice is remembered between sessions.
If your store only has one warehouse there is nothing to decide: the selector shows it and every number is that one's.
Quick adjustment
Each scan changes the stock by the quantity in the box, in one of three modes:
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| In (+) | Adds to stock: goods received. It is the default. |
| Out (−) | Subtracts from stock: a sale or shrinkage. It never goes below 0. |
| Inventory (=) | Sets the stock to the quantity given. |
Every move lands in the warehouse selected above and never in another: if the product does not track stock in that warehouse, the scan is refused saying so instead of correcting a different shelf.
Every move of the session is listed on screen, with the warehouse it went to, and can be downloaded with Export CSV.
Inventory count
For a full stocktake, switch to Inventory count. Here scanning does not touch the stock: you scan every physical unit, the system adds up what you counted and compares it with the current stock, product by product.
The Expected column is the stock of the selected warehouse, not the sum of every warehouse. That is the whole point: if you count 7 units on your shelf and the same product has 13 more at a distributor's, a total of 20 would show a difference of −13 that does not exist. When the product is also stocked elsewhere, the total across warehouses is shown underneath, as a separate figure, so it does not look as if the product page were contradicting you.
A count belongs to one warehouse: changing the warehouse halfway empties what you have counted, asking first, because those numbers were compared against another warehouse's stock.
When you are done, Apply count sets each product's stock to what you counted, in the selected warehouse and only there, all at once. Before applying, you are told how many products have a difference with the system and which warehouse it is going to. A product that is not stocked in that warehouse is skipped and named: it is never counted somewhere else.
This is deliberate: in a real stocktake nobody knows how many units have left since last time, but anybody can count what they can see. A system that asks for differences forces a mental subtraction that gets it wrong.
Several warehouses
Stock control writes to a single warehouse at a time: the one selected. It never spreads a count or an adjustment over several, and it never falls back to another one when the product is not stocked where you said.
To correct another warehouse, pick it in the selector and count again. Counting your shop does not fix a distributor's warehouse, and the other way round: they are separate figures and the tool keeps them separate.
What it does not do
It is not a full inventory with a movement history. It is the tool for making what the website says match what is on the shelf.