Read a warehouse's stock
The Stock On Hand tab shows four different numbers for the same product, and they are all correct. In this walkthrough we will learn to read them. Nothing here changes anything.
Before we start
You need a BMS account with a Stock role, and a warehouse that actually holds stock — pick a working one rather than any warehouse whose name says DO NOT USE.
Step 1 — Open a warehouse
Go to Stock → Warehouses and click a warehouse. Stock opens here by default, because the warehouse is the thing most questions are really about.
You should see the warehouse's details on the left and a row of tabs across the top, opening on Stock On Hand.
Step 2 — Find the column groups
Look above the column headings. The columns are grouped: Product, On Hand, Allocated and Unallocated.
That grouping is the whole lesson. The same product is being described three times over — what is physically there, what is spoken for, and what is left.
Step 3 — Read one product across
Pick any row with stock on it and read left to right.
On Hand Qty is what is on the shelf. Last Cost and Value are what it is worth. Then under Allocated, Available Qty is what you could still promise someone. Under Unallocated, Projected Qty is where the product ends up once everything already in motion has happened.
Step 4 — Find a product where the numbers differ
Sort by On Hand Qty to bring the stocked products together, and look for a row where Available Qty is lower than On Hand Qty.
That gap is stock that is physically present and already promised to someone else. Reading only the on-hand figure and promising it again is the single most common stock mistake.
Step 5 — Look at the Incoming and Outgoing columns
Both Allocated and Unallocated carry Incoming and Outgoing. These are movements not yet completed — goods on their way in from a receipt, or on their way out on a dispatch.
What we did
You can now read a warehouse's stock properly: what is there, what is claimed, what remains, and where it is heading.
Next:
- On hand, allocated and available — why these are separate numbers
- The warehouse screen — the other tabs