Initial stock and found inventory

StockBold has two ways to add stock that did not arrive on a purchase order. Initial stock records the quantity you already hold on the day you start using StockBold. Found inventory records stock that was written off and has since turned up.

They are not interchangeable: initial stock requires a unit cost, found inventory does not, and each has its own rules for when you can use it.

Both are available from New Movement under Inventory, then Movements. The same New Movement menu is also on an active product's own page, on its Movements tab.

Each of the two requires its own permission: Initial Stock Movement and Found Items Movement. If you can open New Movement but Initial Stock or Found Inventory is missing, you do not have that permission. Saving that entry is also refused through any other route. Ask whoever manages your team's permissions.

Record initial stock

You can record initial stock once per product, and only while the product has no movements at all. As soon as anything else exists against the product, the option closes permanently. This check covers your whole organisation, so a product's opening stock goes in at one warehouse only.

1. Open Inventory, then Movements.
2. Select New Movement, then Initial Stock.
3. Pick a supplier if you want to shorten the product list.
4. Pick the product. Inactive products are not offered.
5. Wait for the eligibility check under the product field to finish. If the product is not eligible, the message says whether initial stock was already set or other movements already exist. The Unit Cost box is switched off, and Add Initial Stock stays greyed out.
6. Choose the warehouse.
7. Enter the quantity.
8. Enter the unit cost. The field is labelled with your organisation's currency. A cost is required; a blank is refused. You can enter 0, but only if the stock genuinely cost nothing, because 0 is kept as a real cost.
9. Set the operation date to the date the quantity is true for. It cannot be in the future.
10. Add a comment if it helps.
11. Select Add Initial Stock.

Initial stock recorded before a cost was required can have no cost at all. Its cost layer on the product page is marked Cost missing, those units are valued at 0, and the Inventory Valuation report shows how many products are affected.

Record found inventory

Found inventory is for stock you had already written off. For the product and warehouse you choose, the amount you can add is capped at everything ever recorded there as stock-out, minus everything already brought back, whether as found inventory or as an adjustment.

The drawer shows these figures under Found Inventory Limit: Total Stock-Out (all time), Already added as Found Inventory, Already brought back by adjustments when there are any, and Max Allowed. The cap holds however the stock comes back, including through an approved stock count.

A find dated in the past can only bring back stock-outs recorded up to that date that have not already been brought back. Its allowed quantity can therefore be less than Max Allowed shows. A find above the cap is refused, and the message says how many units can be recorded.

Use found inventory only for stock that was recorded as gone and has turned up. Goods that genuinely arrived without being recorded are not found inventory: receive them as a delivery on a purchase order, so they come in at what they cost. If recorded as found, they would be valued at the cost of earlier stock-outs and would cancel consumption that really happened.

1. Open Inventory, then Movements.
2. Select New Movement, then Found Inventory.
3. Pick a supplier if you want to shorten the product list.
4. Pick the product. Inactive products are not offered.
5. Choose the warehouse. The Found Inventory Limit figures apply to that product at that warehouse.
6. Enter the quantity. It cannot exceed Max Allowed, and a past date can allow less.
7. Set the operation date. It cannot be in the future.
8. Use the comment to record where and how the stock was found.
9. Select Add Found Inventory.

A find also lowers your cost of goods sold. The Cost of Goods Sold report shows it as Corrections (found inventory) in the period of the find; it does not restate an earlier period.

When Max Allowed is zero, the quantity box and create button are disabled, and the drawer says all stock-out has been accounted for. That means found inventory is the wrong tool for what you are seeing. If you hold more than StockBold shows and nothing was written off, the units came in without being recorded: receive them on a purchase order. To bring the whole warehouse in line after counting it, use Stock Counts, under Inventory.

Locked years

Both entries are refused if the operation date falls in a year your organisation has locked. The error names the year. Change the date, or ask someone with the Lock/Unlock Years permission.

Record several movements

For initial stock, pick the next product before saving again. The product you just saved now has a movement and is no longer eligible.

Import initial stock

You can also enter initial stock while importing products from a file. Those fields are optional and ask for the total value of the quantity, rather than a cost per unit, in your organisation's base currency.

Once a row gives a quantity, its value is required. A blank or invalid value refuses the row with an error, and 0 is accepted as a real cost of nothing. Importing initial stock requires the Import Movements permission; without it, the products still import and the stock figures are skipped.