Introduction to the Inventory Module

Introduction to the Inventory Module

The Cin7 Core module covers all processes involving management of your stocks and services. Cin7 Core offers the following features to help make your inventory operations smooth and efficient. All inventory documents and email templates can be customised to suit your business requirements.

Is there a feature you would like to see or an improvement that would help your business? Please make feature requests on our forum; requests are reviewed based on popularity and importance for inclusion in future development releases.

Inventory User Permissions

Cin7 Core offers fine-grained control over user permissions. Grant users full or read-only permission to the different features of the inventory module, and create roles with pre-defined permissions to assign to users.

Cin7 Core allows you to set the following permissions for the inventory module (Settings → Users and Roles):

These permissions are available under Inventory.

Stock Transfers

Stock transfers let you move stock between two of your locations. They are accessed from Inventory → Transfers.

  • Stock Transfers – List & Tasks: (Read-only) View the stock transfer list, stock transfer details and stock transfer tasks assigned to you. (Full Access) New stock transfers can be created and authorized.

  • Stock Transfers – Undo: List & Tasks permission must be granted.Undo stock transfer tasks.

    • Note: Transfers can only be changed or cancelled using Void and Undo after they have been completed if no transfer items have been used in sale/production or other stock movements.

  • Stock Transfers – Void: List & Tasks permission must be granted.Void stock transfer tasks.

    • Note: Transfers can only be changed or cancelled using Void and Undo after they have been completed if no transfer items have been used in sale/production or other stock movements

 

Stock Adjustment and Stocktake

Stock Adjustments can be used to update/correct the quantity and price of products in your Inventory. Adjustments could be required for entering new stock, removing damaged or stolen stock, data entry error and so on. The Stocktake feature allows the user to verify the quantities and the condition of the stock physically in a specific location/warehouse. They can be accessed from Inventory → Stocktake/Inventory.

  • Stock Adjustment Tasks: (Read-only) View the stock adjustment list, stock adjustment details and stock adjustment tasks assigned to you. (Full Access) New stock adjustments can be created and authorized.

  • Stocktake Tasks: With read-only access, view the stock adjustment list and stock adjustment task details. (Full Access) New stocktake tasks can be created and authorized.

  • Stock Adjustment & Stocktake – Undo: Tasks permission must be granted.Undo stock adjustment/stocktake tasks. If only one Tasks permission is granted, the user will only be able to open task details and use Undo for that type.

  • Stock Adjustment & Stocktake – Void: Tasks permission must be granted.Void stock adjustment/stocktake tasks. If only one Tasks permission is granted, the user will only be able to open task details and use Void for that type.

 

Products & Families

Products, product families and services are created and managed from the Inventory module. The Prices info, Suppliers, Movements/Service Usage and Bill of Materials tabs are found on the product/service details screen (Inventory → Products →[selected product]).

  • Products & Families: (Read-only) View the list and details of products, services and product families. (Full Access) Create new products/services/product families and edit existing item properties.

  • Product – Prices info: (Full Access) Set and change prices on the Price TierProduct tab. (Read-only) View price information.

  • Product – Suppliers: (Full Access) Add new suppliers for this product, set fixed supplier prices and last supplier prices, specify if the product is drop-shipped by the supplier (if Optional/Always Drop Ship is specified in the product document header). (Read-only) View supplier info for the product.

  • Product – Movements & Service Usage: View all movements or usage for the product/service.

  • Product – Bill of Materials: (Full Access) Add a bill of materials to an item. Edit bill of material components/labour costs. Specify auto-assembly/auto-disassembly. (Read-only) View the Bill of Materials tab for a product if applicable.

 

Product Availability

Cin7 Core allows the user to view availability for all of their products, including what has been allocated to sale and work orders.

  • Product Availability: View the product availability screen.

  • Product Availability – Stock Value: Can add the Stock Value column to the product availability screen.

    • Note: You will have to add this column through the table settings to make it visible.

  

Lot Recall

Track lot/batch/serial number usage from Purchase/manufacturing through to Sell. Prepare recall letters for customers in case of a Recall event. This is accessed through Reports → Inventory → Lot Recall.

See Introduction to users and Manage roles and User permissions explained.

Products and Services

Managing your products and services is the main function of the Inventory module. Learn more about Product and Service Management.

Create Products and Services

Create, edit and manage your products and services. Enter product details including pricing, dimensions, supplier information, etc. Product details can be imported and edited in bulk using CSV files. The products and services you buy and sell are stored in your inventory. You will need to populate your inventory before carrying out any purchases and sales if using Cin7 Core for the first time.

Learn more about Creating Products and Services.

Product Families

A Product Family is used to have variations of a single product, e.g. different sizes and colours of a clothing item. Each variant in a product family will have a unique SKU. Multiple variants from a product family can be added to a sale or purchase order in bulk. Deleting a product family also deletes or deprecates all variants of that family.

Learn more about Product Families.

Non-Inventory Products

Non-inventory products are allowed to be purchased or sold without checking for their availability in stock. Since these products do not affect inventory, they cannot be reordered, backordered, restocked or unstocked.

Examples of non-inventory items include:

  1. items purchased for a specific job and then quickly sold or invoiced to a customer

  2. items that your organisation sells but does not purchase, including Bill of Material (BOM) items

  3. items that your organisation purchases but does not resell (including office supplies)

  4. items that your organisation purchases and resells but does not track in inventory.

 

Learn more about Non-Inventory Products.

Import an Inventory List

When dealing with many inventory items, it may be difficult to create them individually. You have the ability to upload the inventory list via a CSV file template. This is especially useful when setting up Cin7 Core for the first time. This function can also be used to edit product details in bulk. NOTE: This does not update the quantity of inventory. See Inventory Costs and Quantities below.

Learn more about Importing an Inventory List.

Product Segmentation

Cin7 Core offers several ways to segment and group your products and services. These segmentation options can be used to filter your inventory, for example, when printing a price list, doing a stocktake or stock transfer, or preparing to list products on a sales channel.

Learn more about Product Segmentation.

Additional Attributes

Due to a large number of different requirements from system users selling a variety of products through Cin7 Core, it is quite often that there will be a need to collect and store additional information that is not in the default fields on an inventory item record.

For you to best describe your items, we have included the ability to create custom fields or Additional Attributes that can be used to describe your products.

Learn more about Additional Attributes.

Delete Products

Cin7 Core has two options for removing products from your inventory. Products can be deprecated, which removes them from active inventory (cannot be selected for purchase/sale/production, etc.) but keeps a record of their information. Deprecated products can then be deleted to completely remove all of their records from the system. Only products which have NOT been used in any transactions or operations (purchase, sale, inventory, production, etc.) can be completely deleted.

Learn more about Deleting Products.

Manage Price Tiers

Cin7 Core lets you set up to 10 price points for each individual product. Customers are assigned a price tier which sets what price they can buy products for. Price Tier names are set up in General Settings while Price Tier values are managed from the Inventory module.

Price tiers can be assigned to customers on the customer details screen or to a sale order in the document header. The sale order price tier takes priority over the customer price tier.

Setting prices at the product level is optional since they can also be set and modified at the purchase or sales level. Price Tier amounts can be set manually or calculated using markup rules, including the option to dynamically follow changes in supplier pricing.

Learn more about Pricing and price tiers.

Set Custom Product Prices

You can set custom prices for the products in your inventory for selected customers. Custom prices take precedence over regular product prices and price tiers. Custom prices can be set up one product at a time from a product's or a customer's details page. They can also be set up for several products at once by uploading a CSV file in the required format via Cin7 Core's Import module. Once set up, a product's custom price can be edited or deleted at any time from either a product's or a customer's details page.

Learn more about Setting Custom Product Prices.

Add a Supplier to a Product

Adding Suppliers to a product is a prerequisite for using the Dropship, Low Stock Reorder and Backorder functionalities, but is optional otherwise. This specifies a default supplier or suppliers for a product.

Learn more about Adding a Supplier to a Product.

Additional Units of Measure

The additional units of measure function allows more than one unit of measure to be specified for a product or service. For example, if the same bottle of wine is sold as an individual bottle, a case of 6, and a case of 12.

The additional units of measure functionality can be used in the following situations:

  • to automatically disassemble a case into singles if purchased in cases and sold as singles

  • to automatically assemble a case from singles if sold as a case and is kept in stock as singles

  • to do the unit of measure conversion if purchased in kg and needs to be converted to lb, etc.

 

Functionally, this is identical to adding a bill of materials to a product and selecting auto-assembly.

Learn more about Additional Units of Measure.

Bill of Materials

A Bill of Materials specifies the component products that make up a finished product. Adding a Bill of Materials is a required step for using the assembly and disassembly Production functions. Bills of Materials are added and managed from the product screen.

Learn more about the Bill of Materials.

Fixed Assets

The term fixed assets generally refers to the long-term assets, tangible assets used in a business that are classified as property, plant and equipment. Cin7 Core allows you to add new fixed assets to your inventory, register/unregister fixed assets and calculate depreciation for fixed assets.

Note: If you are using Xero as your accounting system, this function will not be available in Cin7 Core. You can manage your fixed assets through your accounting system.

Learn more about Fixed Assets.

Inventory Quantities and Costs

Set Stock on Hand

Once your inventory is populated, you have the ability to also upload Stock on Hand figures for your current stock.

Note: This operation should only be performed when initially setting up Cin7 Core. You should not be using this function to update stock balances if you already have stock figures in the system. Cin7 Core uses actual accounting costing methods by uploading the stock on hand template multiple times; we'll create new instances of the products rather than updating existing quantities.

Learn more about setting Stock on Hand.

Stock Adjustments

Stock Adjustments can be used to update/correct the quantity and price of products in your inventory. Adjustments could be required for entering new stock, removing damaged or stolen stock, data entry error, and so on. Stocktakes will cause transactions to be generated and synced to your accounting records. If the stocktake is not 'real' (i.e. in the case of correcting a data entry error), this can be skipped.

Learn more about Stock Adjustments.

Stocktakes

The Stocktake feature allows the user to verify the quantities and the condition of the stock physically in a specific location/warehouse. This process can be performed in a pre-defined schedule, such as annual, or a specific cycle count – weekly, monthly, quarterly. Stocktakes will cause transactions to be generated and synced to your accounting records. If the stocktake is not 'real' (i.e. in the case of correcting a data entry error), this can be skipped. Locations where a stocktake is in process are locked until the stocktake is over; no transactions or operations that can affect stock levels can take place.

Learn more about Stocktakes.

Average Cost

Average Cost in Cin7 Core is used for informational and estimating purposes only. It is displayed next to the price values on each Product screen. It can be edited using the Inventory List feature.

NOTE: Average cost in Cin7 Core does NOT affect your P&L statement. All COGS calculations are done using accounting costing methods such as FIFO or FEFO. Cin7 Core doesn't use the average cost method for P&L calculations at all. Once authorized, the invoice cost is available and distributed to all sales parcels (assuming you sold this product already) on FIFO (or Special) basic, and the accounting records are updated accordingly.

Learn more about Average Cost.

Costing Methods

Costing Methods affect how the total value of your inventory in your accounting records is calculated over the course of time. Cin7 Core uses actual accounting costing methods such as FIFO and FEFO. If your products have batch numbers or serial numbers, you must select a costing method that reflects that. The costing method cannot be changed if you have non-zero stock on hand.

The Costing Method assigned to each product will affect whether the system automatically picks stocks to fulfil an order or whether the stock can be selected by the user. The costing methods that allow the user most control in picking stock are Special - Batch, Special - Serial Number.

Learn more about Costing Methods.

View Product Availability

Cin7 Core allows the user to view the availability of their products, including what has been allocated to sales and work orders. On hand, available, on order and allocated quantities are shown.

In case the stock is currently on order, Cin7 Core informs users of the expected delivery date of the ordered stock. Customers can then decide whether to back-order (see Backorders for more information) or opt for an alternative if the incoming stock is not expected to be available soon enough.

Learn more about Viewing Product Availability.

Stock Transfers

Stock transfers let you move stock between two of your locations.

Learn more about Stock Transfers.

Inventory Write-Off

This function is used to write off stock and services that have been lost, stolen, damaged, given away or used internally. In accounting terms, Inventory Write-Offs are functionally identical to Stock Adjustments.

Learn more about Inventory Write-Off.

Print Price Lists

Cin7 Core has the ability to print price lists for your customers for your entire inventory or by category. Price List templates can be fully customised and multiple price tiers displayed.

Learn more about Printing Price Lists.

Picking Stocks

Learn more about Picking Stocks.

Material requirements planning (MRP)

Materials requirements planning (MRP) and supply chain management features allows our users to incorporate their supply chain strategies into their Cin7 Core inventory management.

MRP considers demand from sales and supply from stock on hand, transfers, production, assembly and suppliers to generate supply management suggestions. Use MRP to compare actual and forecasted sales demand with available and potentially available stock supplies, then determine when products should be produced in-house, bought from suppliers, and delivered from distribution centres.

Learn more about Materials requirements plannings (MRP).

Generate reorder suggestions

Cin7 Core allows forecasting of future product sales and generating email alerts to reorder products from merchants. You can track inventory levels for each of your locations and configure the Inventory Velocity Report to run at scheduled intervals so that you can be kept informed when there is a need to reorder a product.

Learn more about Generate reorder suggestions.

Cin7 Core POS Ordering

Learn more about Cin7 Core POS Ordering.

Managing Products in Sales Channels

Cin7 Core allows product management in your sales channels on a product's details page, specifically under the Channels tab. Here, you can view the product's quantities in Cin7 Core and, if applicable, in your sales channel stores, and see if a product is already listed in your sales channel store or not. In addition, you can list, unlist or remove a product from a store, and update the product information as shown on a store. You must have your products set up first before you can post them to a sales channel.

Learn more about Managing Products in Sales Channels.

Was this article helpful?

Have more questions? Submit a request