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Stock Management
Getting started with Stock Management
Getting started with Stock Management
Rebecca avatar
Written by Rebecca
Updated over a week ago

In this article:

Why use Stock Management?

Stock Management is not mandatory for running your business with Abacus. However, there are two main reasons why you may consider using stock management:

  • Keep track of stock levels

  • Follow the cost of your goods - so you can adjust recipes, suppliers, and procedures to improve profit margins

  • Keep track of historical purchases, wastage, sales, and stock movement for bookkeeping and tax purposes

  • Order from suppliers and respond to any changes in the order

  • Understand the necessary inventory required to operate your business effectively

Depending on your type of business, you may also want to manage your stock using "working items" and "recipes". In any case, it's best to know the basics first.

There are different platforms and devices that are optimised for different stock management processes:

  • Backend: for in-depth insights into stock levels and stock movement

  • POS: for on-the-go updates (like quick stock ins and stock checks)

  • Stock Management App: for stocktaking processes

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Basic Stock Management setup

  1. Enable your stock items - no items can have their stock managed if they are not set up as stock items

  2. Create suppliers - you need suppliers to make stocking in easy, and to put through any purchase orders

  3. Create stock locations - you will have one by default. You can create more if you have multiple places where you want to manage your stock.

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More advanced Stock Management

In your product's details, you can also set up:

  • Safety Stock: this is the minimum amount of stock that you want as a buffer so stock does not run out unnoticed. If your stock falls below this threshold, it will be highlighted in red on the Stock Management page

  • Stock Factor: this is the number of units in a product. We highly recommend that you have in-person or remote training if you want to set this up for your business.

For example, if you have a 3L bottle of milk, but want to measure the usage per litre, you will make the stock factor 3, so each unit is 1L.

If you want to track ingredients, this requires a more advanced setup, and we advise you have a training session with our team to find the best setup for you.

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How to manage stock

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How to understand stock numbers

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