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Negative stock issue

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:50 am
by acorbin
When inventory is oversold, I have noticed that the qty on hand always shows zero. Can the software show negative stock.
without it inventory control is reduced.

Look forward to your response

Re: Negative stock issue

Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 5:37 pm
by Abacre
Right now it's a normal behavior: we don't allow negative stock quantities.
But we can make an option allowing it.
What does it mean negative quantities? Why is it important to you?

Re: Negative stock issue

Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:11 pm
by acorbin
Negative stock just means that if you sell more stock than the on hand qty. That the software will show a negative qty.

For example. On hand qty says 5, but you sell 10, the on hand qty will now show negative five (-5) instead of zero (0).

It then creates self correcting possibles if done like that.

The ability to allow stock/inventory to go negative because if you don't allow it control will be reduced. For example, suppose you had sold 5 menu items of sodas , but did not receive a new purchase of 10 sodas because of some administrative delay. This means that you have oversold by 5 sodas. The problem with the current functionality is that when you receive the 10 sodas, it will show that you have 10 sodas on hand an only be corrected by a stock when you only really have 5. This problem count, which will then show a short of 5 sodas which is very misleading. It will make it more difficult to determine if the items were stolen and just bad paper work.

Many other systems handle the issues in the following ways:

1) Either allow the stock to go negative or
2) Disallow the ability to sell stock with no on hand qty.

They both have their disadvantages. The first will show negative stock valuations until inventory is corrected.
The second would impact customer service if items that are really in stock cannot be sold because of data entry delays.

But the advantages out weight those disadvantages, because they both reduce the possibility of fraud by presenting a more accurate picture of stock position.

Based on my experience in retail the ability to run negative stock greatly enhances stock control.

I would highly recommend that you implement as soon as possible.

PS. I have a client using your software thats requires that feature.

Allan Corbin
Retail Technology Consultant

Re: Negative stock issue

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2015 5:34 am
by Costas
Hi, i have the same problem as stated in the previous post, regarding the fact that the system doesn't register negative on hand quantities in case you oversell an item. but it will allow you to mistakenly oversell. (eg on hand quantity is 1 but will allow you to sell 2 even if you have dis-select the option " Allow selling items with zero on hand quantities" in preferences menu.

Did any update of the software corrected this issue? if not how to avoid overselling an item?