Setting up a stock item

A stock item is anything you buy, keep and sell — bottled water, a spare part, a bag of flour. This page is about creating one correctly the first time: the four things every item must have, what the system fills in for you, and why.

Before you start

• You need the Inventory Master permission (ask an administrator).
• Your chart of accounts needs a sales (income) account, a cost of goods sold account and an inventory asset account. New companies have these already.
• Item categories save a lot of typing: a category can carry default accounts, so picking it fills the three account boxes at once (Setup → Item Categories).
• If you charge VAT or any other tax on most things you sell, mark that tax as a default on its own page (Items (other) → the tax → Apply this tax to new items by default). New stock items then start with it.

Steps

1. Open Inventory → Stock Items and click New.
2. General tab — the four things that are required:
   • Item Name.
   • Item Category — pick one. Besides filing the item, it fills the accounts below when the category has defaults.
   • Income Account — where sales of this item post (usually Sales or a Sales-… account for the department).
   • Cost Of Goods Sold Acc — where the cost of each sale posts.
   • Inventory Asset — the account that holds the value of your stock. It is filled with Inventory Asset for you; change it only if your accountant keeps stock in a different account.
3. Stocking tab — two choices are made for you and can be changed:
   • Inventory Type starts as Raw Material & Product. Choose Product or Raw Material for something you only consume in production, or Raw Material & Product for both.
   • Valuation Mode starts as Weighted Average, the method the reports and the stock value use.
   • Startup Quantity / As Of / Startup Stocking Dept are optional: fill them to bring in stock you already hold. If you enter a quantity, the Startup Stocking Dept (the store it sits in) is required — stock cannot exist nowhere. If your business has a default store, it is already filled in; change it if this item is kept somewhere else.
   • Items that manage expiry (the Manage Expiration box is ticked, or the item has a drug schedule) take their opening stock by lot, the same way a stock increase works on an Inventory Adjustment. Choose the Startup Stocking Dept first, then click the Startup Quantity (by lot) box and add each batch with its batch number, expiry date and quantity. The quantities add up to the Startup Quantity for you. Those lots are then available for first-expiry-first-out dispensing and the expiry reports.
   • Purchased, Consumable without sales and Expect returns in sales start ticked, as the desktop did: a stock item is normally bought in, may be issued without a sale, and may come back. Untick what does not apply.
4. Packages & Taxes tab — the base package is created for you. If any tax is marked as a default, it is already in the Taxes list and Taxable is ticked; remove it for a tax-free item.
5. Save, or Save & add new to keep going.

Tips

• Pick the category first: it fills the three accounts and saves three clicks.
• Nothing is saved until every required box has a value — the message tells you which one is missing and on which tab.
• Prices, barcodes and descriptions can all be added later; the accounts cannot be left for later, because the first sale or purchase posts to them.

Common problems

• "Item Category is required" — pick a category on the General tab. If the right one does not exist, use New category… in the dropdown.
• An item or service is missing on the invoice, POS or purchase screens — those screens list only items in categories your role may use. Give the item a category (services, fees and charges need one too), and make sure your role has that category in Setup → Security Groups.
• "Income Account is required", "Cost Of Goods Sold account is required", "Inventory Asset account is required" — choose the account on the General tab. If the box is empty after picking a category, that category has no defaults yet (Setup → Item Categories).
• "The selected … account does not exist in this company's chart of accounts" — the category's default points at an account that was deleted or belongs to a different company file. Pick the account by hand and fix the category's defaults.
• The Startup Quantity box is greyed out and says "⋯ lots" — the item manages expiry, so its opening stock is entered by lot. Pick the Startup Stocking Dept first; the box then opens the lot editor.
• "This item manages expiry, so the Startup Quantity is entered by lot" or "The opening lots add up to … but the Startup Quantity is …" — open the lot editor and make sure every batch has a batch number, an expiry date and a quantity, and that the lots together equal the quantity you meant to bring in.
• I forgot a lot, or typed the wrong expiry — after saving, correct it with an Inventory Adjustment: count the lot up or down there; the item setup page does not change opening lots once the item exists.
• The default tax did not appear — the tax item is not marked as a default, or is inactive. Open the tax under Items (other) and check both.
• I don't want the default tax on this item — untick Taxable or remove the row on the Packages & Taxes tab before saving; defaults are a starting point, not a rule.