Inventory Settings
The rules you set once for stock — how it is valued, whether it can go below zero, how expired stock is treated, and which costs are added to the value of your goods. These decide what your stock is worth on the books.
Open the Bizconnekt admin console and go to Configuration → Item Central → Inventory. You need Tenant Administrator access.
How is my stock valued?
When you issue, sell or consume stock, Bizconnekt needs to know which units to draw down first, and at what cost. You choose the costing method:
| Method | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| FIFO — First In, First Out | The oldest stock is used first. Its cost is the one that leaves. |
| LIFO — Last In, First Out | The newest stock is used first. |
| FEFO — First Expiry, First Out | Stock nearest its expiry date is used first — useful for perishables and batches. |
The chosen method is used to value every stock reduction consistently, so your inventory value and cost of goods stay accurate.
What else can you control?
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Negative stock | Decide whether a document may take stock below zero. Off keeps you from over-issuing; on allows it where your process needs it. |
| Expired stock | Choose whether issuing from an expired batch just warns the user or is blocked outright. |
| Costs added to stock value | Decide which extra costs — freight and other landed costs, transport on transfers, processing charges, overheads — are added to the value of your goods rather than treated as an expense. |
| Reserve stock | Decide whether a sales order holds stock automatically when it is approved (the default) or only when someone reserves it by hand. See When stock is reserved. |
How to configure inventory
- Go to Configuration → Item Central → Inventory.
- Choose your costing method (FIFO, LIFO or FEFO).
- Decide whether negative stock is allowed.
- Set how expired stock is handled — warn or block.
- Review which extra costs are added to the value of your goods.
- Choose how stock is reserved — automatically on approval, or manually.
- Click Save.
When stock is reserved
You choose when a sales order sets stock aside for itself: automatically when the order is approved (the default), or only when someone reserves it by hand. Reserved stock is held for that order, so it can't be sold or used elsewhere.
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| Automatically on approval (default) | Approving a sales order reserves the free stock it needs. Nobody has to do anything. |
| Manually | Approving an order holds nothing from stock already on your shelves. Someone on your team reserves stock for the order by hand when they are ready to commit it. Goods bought or made for the order are still held for it when they arrive — see Stock bought or made for an order is held for it. |
The setting is per business unit. Find it under Configuration → Item Central → Inventory → Reserve stock. With Manually, your team reserves stock from the Demand Planning board — see Reserve and release stock.
How automatic reservation shares stock
Automatic holds on the stock of an item at a location are shared first come, first served, by the date each order was created. If an older order needs stock of that item that a newer order is holding automatically, that stock moves to the older order.
Stock bought or made for an order is held for it
When a purchase order or a work order is raised for a sales order — for example from Demand Planning — the goods it brings are held for that order the moment they arrive:
- Purchase order: when you receive the goods against the purchase order, the quantity bought for the order is reserved for it at the location you received into.
- Work order: when finished goods are produced, the quantity made for the order is reserved for it at the location they go into.
The order is only given what it still needs. If it already holds enough of that item, or the receipt is bigger than the order's share, the rest is treated like any other stock. These holds keep the order line's release-by date.
Goods are not held on arrival when:
- the order line is past its release-by date;
- it is a drop-ship line or a service line;
- the order is no longer open — for example it has been closed or has expired;
- the stock at that location is already fully held by other orders.
The receipt still goes through in every case. Any stock that isn't held for the order is shared first come, first served.
This happens whichever Reserve stock option you choose — on Manually too, because the goods were bought or made for that order.
A hold that came in this way is protected in the same way as one reserved by hand: the first-come, first-served sharing never moves it to another order.
Stock you reserve by hand stays with its order
When someone reserves stock of an item for an order by hand — choosing the location and the quantity — that hold is never moved to another order by the first-come, first-served sharing, not even to an older order. It stays with the order until one of the things under When a hold ends happens.
Holds made before this release count as automatic. To protect one, reserve it again by hand.
When there isn't enough stock to go round
Sometimes the stock simply isn't there any more — for example after a stock adjustment, or when goods are damaged — and the holds at a location add up to more than is on the shelf. Bizconnekt then gives up holds in this order:
- Automatic holds go first.
- If the protected holds alone are still more than the shelf has, they are cut back too, starting with the most recently created order. Within one order line, stock held for it on arrival from a purchase or work order goes before stock reserved by hand.
What each order is told:
| What happened to the order | What you see |
|---|---|
| Its automatic hold was moved to an older order (first come, first served) | A note on the sales order's activity, saying how much of which item at which location moved, and to which order or work order. No notification. |
| A protected hold (reserved by hand, or held on arrival) was lost because the shelf is short | A note on the sales order's activity saying the stock was released because the shelf is short, so the order is now short. If the order is still short after the cut, everyone in the business unit who can view sales orders also gets a notification. |
When a sales order is reduced and needs less, the same order applies to what it lets go: its automatic hold first, then stock held on arrival, then stock reserved by hand.
When a hold ends
Every hold has a release-by date. If the stock hasn't shipped by then, the hold frees up automatically. A hold is also released when you release it yourself, the order is edited down and needs less, or the goods ship.
Changing the setting
- Switching to Manually leaves every existing hold as it is. New approvals simply stop reserving on their own: stock already on your shelves is held for an order only when someone reserves it by hand. Goods bought or made for an order are still held for it when they arrive.
- Switching to Automatically does not reserve stock for your open orders straight away. An approved order picks up its stock the next time it is saved, or the next time stock moves at that location — a receipt, a release, or a hold expiring — with the oldest order served first. Holds reserved by hand stay where they are.
What it affects
These rules apply to every stock movement — receipts, issues, transfers, adjustments and conversions — and to the value shown in your inventory and accounting reports. Changes apply to new movements going forward.
Related guides
Need help? Contact support at support@bizconnekt.com