11. Establish your Stock Levels

*** IMPORTANT *** This step can ONLY be completed AFTER you have created your Product IDs in Step #6.

Overview

A stocktake, or physical inventory, is the process of counting or measuring the stock at a company's location or sub-location. Import your initial stock quantities is as simple as copy and pasting from Excel. If you are concerned about establishing an Average Cost for all of your products and your beginning stock levels from day one, you should use a Purchase Order to establish your opening stock balances.

For a list of Finale Inventory's stock level fields and how they are calculated, CLICK HERE.

Basic stock import

• To import beginning stock levels without an Avg. Cost value, use Home>Import & Export>Import new stock take

If you only have a single location and your products do not have a lot or serial number tracking, you simply need a two column Excel file where the first column is the product id, and the second column is the quantity. Although it is not used the actual import, using an optional description column is helpful to allow you to make an easier association with the product.

Use a Blanket PO to Receive Stock

• If you want your stock to have an Average Cost established your beginning stock levels, you must use a bulk/Blanket Purchase Order to receive your stock levels in inventory at a set unit price. This will establish an Average Cost for each product and unit. Go to Home>New Purchase. You can use the Action menu, Import order items to create the PO. You can also import the shipment specifics like storage sublocations, Lot Ids or Serial numbers, using the Action menu on the shipment tab of the PO.

• How to video on importing items into a Purchase Order

• How to video on importing the Purchase Order shipment-specific Lot IDs or Serial Numbers or multiple store locations

Simple web entered Stock Take

• To adjust stock levels for just a few products, Use stock take to simply bring in stock levels – Home>Stock Take

Adjust Stock Levels One at a time

• To add stock for one product id at a time, use Home> Stock Change

How-to Video

Advanced stock import (multi-location or lot/serial tracking)

If you keep stock at multiple locations or your product requires a lot or serial number tracking, two additional columns are required in the Excel file. A sublocation column is to tag where the products are stored. Additionally, a lot id column is required to track the lot or a serial number of the product. 

Since there are multiple permutations, product ids may be listed in multiple rows in the Excel file. Although it is not used the actual import, using an optional description column is helpful to allow you to make an easier association with the product.

Next Step: 11. Create Purchase Orders