What are Inventory Items?
Inventory Items are individual records in your inventory system that represent a specific physical inventory item. They contain important information such as the related Inventory SKU, location, amount remaining, and other relevant details.
Table of ContentsFields
The following are fields that you might see on an Inventory Item edit page. Some of the following fields are optional, so they might not display depending on your account configuration.
Facility
The Facility dropdown indicates which Facility this Inventory Item is located in. This field is required.
Location
The Location field indicates where within the Facility the Inventory Item is located. Entering a brand-new value in this field will create a new Inventory Location. This field is required.
Quantity Remaining
The Quantity Remaining fields are used to indicate how much of this Inventory Item remains in your inventory. If you used/sold half of this Inventory Item, you can change the percent field to 50%, or alternatively you can change the numerator field to indicate how many units are remaining if that's easier. Changing either field to 0 will indicate that this Inventory Item is no longer in stock.
Stock Adjustment
The Stock Adjustment field is used to indicate what type of change in stock is being performed. For more information on Inventory Stock Adjustment, click here.
Lot Numbers
Utilize Lot Numbers to enhance traceability and quality control for your inventory items. For more details on Lot Numbers, click here.
Price
The Price field indicates how much this Inventory Item will cost a customer. When this Inventory Item is added to a Sales Orders it will be the unit price of the line item.
Cost
The Cost field indicates the acquisition cost of each Inventory Item. It can be used to calculate profit. This field is optional and if you don't intend to use it for such a calculation you can leave it blank.
Price Type
The Price Type is used in Sales Order to determine how the unit price should be calculated. If "total" is selected than the unit price will match the Price field. If the "per unit" value is selected then the unit price will be the Price field divided by the number of units in this Inventory Item. Generally "total" is the right answer but if you're selling bulk supplies you might want to charge the customer a certain amount per unit (per ounce, etc.) rather than assuming that they're buying the whole Inventory Item.
Expiration Date
If you have Expiration Date enabled, this field is used to indicate when the Inventory Item would expire. This field is used in the Dashboard Widget to alert you if it's going to expire soon or if it has already expired. It is also used in Sales Order when a SKU/UPC is used, the Sales Order assumes that the soonest matching expiration dated Inventory Item is sold.
Weight
If you have the Weight fields enabled, this indicates how much the Inventory Item weighs. You may want to use this for reporting purposes. Eventually this value will be helpful for fulfillment as more features are added to Knowledge ERP.
Statues
- In-Stock items are available for use/sales.
- Out of Stock items have been sold/used and are no longer available. They remain in the system for historical purposes.
- Checked Out/Rented items have been checked out/rented either through a sales order or directly to one of your users.
- On Hold items have been assigned to an open sales order.
Placement
Here's where they fit in the structure (Inventory Items are in bold)
- Parent Inventory Category A
- Child Inventory Category A
- Child Inventory Category B
- Inventory SKU A
- Inventory SKU B
- Inventory Item A
- Inventory Item B
- Inventory Item C
- Inventory Item D
- Inventory SKU C
- Child Inventory Category C
- Parent Inventory Category B
As you can see, Inventory Items are the bottom layer of your inventory system. When adding Inventory Items into the system you assign them to an existing Barcode/Name in the system or create a new one. If you provide a new name (not one that is already in the system) and leave the barcode field blank Knowledge ERP will generate a unique barcode for you when you leave the Inventory Item.
Here's another example of how a video game store might organize their inventory: (Inventory Items are in bold)
- Console Games
- XBox Games
- Playstation 4 Games
- Destiny 2; Barcode 0123456789012346
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy; Barcode 0123456789012345
- added into system on 12/7/2024; 2/5 boxes remaining
- added into system on 12/14/2024; 5/5 boxes remaining
- added into system on 12/19/2024; 5/5 boxes remaining
- Middle-Earth: Shadow of War; Barcode 0123456789012347
- Nintendo Switch Games
- Console Systems
- Accessories
In the above example the video game store choose to have a parent Inventory Category of "Console Games" and then subdivide those into console games for various gaming systems. The game "Uncharted: The Lost Legacy" currently has 3 different Inventory Items that are in stock, each with their own Item Fields (Amount Left, Date Added, Location).