Inventory & stock
"How many do I have, where are they, what are they worth, and what do I need to reorder?" Most shops answer that with a stocktake and a guess. In BizOS, stock moves by itself as you issue invoices, hand material to technicians and receive goods, so the answer is on screen. Businesses with more than one godown or branch see how much is where, send stock between branches with the goods tracked on the road, and see what open orders have already promised away.
The screens
Inventory lives under Items & stock in the sidebar:
| Tab | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Items | The catalogue: search, filter by category, brand or supplier; quick filters for low and out of stock |
| Stock | Low stock, the movements ledger, and stock value at cost |
| Transfers | Stock sent between branches (shown only to a business with branches) |
| Equipment | Tools and equipment you own and get back |
| Lists | Categories, stock groups, brands & models, locations, suppliers, price lists, reorder lists, measurements and templates |
An item
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name, SKU, barcode | SKU and barcode are unique per business; barcode drives scan-to-bill |
| Unit | Pieces, metres, kilograms, litres, boxes and so on, or your own label |
| Type | Goods or service. Services never move stock |
| Category, brand, model | Optional facets; a model always belongs to a brand |
| HSN/SAC and GST rate | Printed on documents and used in the GST split |
| Sale price and purchase price | See Pricing & price lists |
| Low-stock threshold | The level that raises an alert; 0 means no alert |
| Measured by | An optional measurement profile, for items sold by Sq ft and the like |
| Default location and supplier | Pre-fill stock movements and reorders |
| Photo | Shows in the item picker and, optionally, on quote and invoice PDFs |
New item asks only for what you need to start selling: product or service, name, unit, sale price, GST rate and whether that price includes GST. Everything else is on the item’s Details tab, which you edit in place. Duplicate opens a new item prefilled from an existing one, so the same cable in six sizes is six quick edits, not six forms; SKU and barcode are left blank because they are unique.
Put your services in the catalogue too
Create “Visiting charge”, “Installation, split AC” or “Labour per hour” as service items. They pick like any other line, price consistently and carry the right SAC code, without ever touching stock.
The stock ledger
Every change is a movement, and movements are never edited:
| Kind | Raised by |
|---|---|
| Opening balance | Setting up, the import wizard, or the Tally import |
| Stock in | Receiving goods, with supplier and bill number |
| Sale out | Issuing an invoice |
| Job consumption out | Handing material to a technician for a job |
| Return in / return out | Material coming back (including a credit note), or going back to a supplier |
| Transfer | Between locations, or between branches through transit |
| Adjustment | A stocktake correction, with a reason |
| Write-off | Damage or loss, with a reason |
Each movement records the quantity, the location, the unit cost at that moment, who recorded it and what it references, so “why is this item down 12?” is always answerable.
Why cost history never changes
An outbound movement snapshots the weighted-average cost at the time it happened. Restating history later would silently change last month’s margins, so a reversal is a new compensating movement instead. The same snapshot is what the profit on a bill uses.
Locations and godowns
Every business starts with one stock location, and a business with one never sees a location picker. With the Stock Plus module you can add more locations (a godown, a van) and move stock between them instantly. Counts and negative-stock checks are per location: a stock adjustment is what is on that shelf.
How does BizOS track stock per branch?
A business with branches (an add-on BizOS support sets up) keeps stock per branch:
- Each branch has its own stock location, made when the branch is opened.
- A document moves stock at its branch. A bill, credit note or job at the Anna Nagar branch moves Anna Nagar’s stock. Stock-in and adjustments land at a location you pick, at a branch you work at.
- The item page shows Stock by branch: quantities only, never cost, plus any stock in transit.
- Stock screens count the branches you look at. A branch-limited member, or anyone viewing one branch through the branch switcher, sees that branch’s quantities in the item list, the pickers, low stock and stock value. Someone looking at the whole business sees the total.
- Each branch can have its own reorder level: set Reorder level by branch on the item. With no level set, the item’s threshold applies to each branch.
How do I send stock to another branch?
- 1
Create the transfer
Under Items & stock, Transfers, choose New transfer: send from your branch, to another branch, the items and quantities, and the transporter and vehicle if needed.
- 2
Dispatch it
Dispatching numbers the transfer from the sending branch delivery challan series and moves the goods from its shelf into transit. They are still on the books, just on the road.
- 3
Receive it
The receiving branch records what arrived, in one go or in parts. Each receipt moves goods from transit onto its shelf.
- 4
Close it short if needed
If something never arrives, either side closes the transfer: the rest is returned to the sender or written off.
Inside one GSTIN, a transfer is not a sale, so it travels on a delivery
challan valued at cost, with no tax. To a branch on another GSTIN, it is
a supply between two registrations, so BizOS makes it a tax invoice from its
own transfer-invoice series (STI- by default): valued at cost unless you type
a value, GST at the item’s rate, and included in the sending
GSTIN’s GSTR-1 export. It is not an ordinary invoice, so it never counts
as sales or dues. A tax-invoice transfer that arrives short can only be closed
as written off.
A transfer can carry an e-way bill number you generated on the GST portal; BizOS reminds you when a dispatched consignment is worth ₹50,000 or more and has none, but files nothing.
Committed stock from open orders
If you use sales orders, stock promised on open orders shows as committed: the item page reads On hand · On order · Available, per branch. It is a warning, never a reservation; billing is what moves stock. A sales order short at its branch says so and offers to send stock there from a branch that has it.
Low stock and reordering
The low-stock list shows everything at or under its level, for the branches you are looking at, and low stock also shows as an alert on the dashboard.
From there, build a reorder list (Stock Plus): pick a supplier, add the items and quantities, and send it on WhatsApp as a readable message. With open sales orders, the suggested quantity takes them into account. The list then tracks itself (draft, sent, partially received, received) as stock-in against it arrives.
Bringing your catalogue in
The import wizard takes an item list with brands, categories, prices and opening stock from a CSV or Excel file. Barcodes come in too, so scan-to-bill works from your first day. If you are on Tally, the Tally integration imports items, stock and godowns once, after which BizOS keeps the quantity and Tally is kept in step; see Tally stock & godowns.
Stock and offline billing
Once your catalogue has synced, item search, barcode lookup and pricing in the web app run from a local copy on the device, so billing doesn’t wait on the network. Two devices billing offline can oversell the last unit, which is accepted deliberately: a blocked sale at the counter costs more than a stock correction. Movements post at sync exactly as they would online. See Speed & offline billing.
Who can do what
| Role | Access |
|---|---|
| Owner, Admin, Manager | Everything: items, stock movements, transfers, suppliers, reorder lists, price levels |
| Accountant | Look up items, stock, movements, stock value and price levels; no changes |
| Office staff | Look up items, stock and price levels (so bills price correctly); cannot add items or move stock; no cost or stock value |
| Field technician | Item names, units and stock on hand only; no cost, prices, suppliers or stock value |
Common questions
- Does stock update automatically when I bill something in BizOS?
- Yes. Issuing an invoice in BizOS moves its stocked lines out, and BizOS tells you how many items are affected before you confirm. Handing material to a technician on a job moves stock out too, and returns and credit notes move it back.
- Can BizOS track stock in more than one godown or branch?
- Yes. BizOS keeps stock per location. With Stock Plus you can add godowns and vans, and with the Branches add-on each branch has its own stock, its own reorder level, and stock screens that count that branch.
- How do I transfer stock between branches in BizOS?
- Create a transfer under Items & stock, Transfers, and dispatch it. BizOS keeps the goods in transit until the receiving branch records them, prints a delivery challan, or a tax invoice when the other branch is on a different GSTIN, and lets either side close a short transfer.
- How does BizOS calculate my stock value?
- At weighted-average cost, updated each time you receive stock at a cost. Outbound movements snapshot the cost at that moment, so historical margins stay fixed rather than being restated later.
- Does BizOS show stock already promised to customers?
- Yes. With sales orders, BizOS shows On hand, On order and Available for each item and branch. Committed stock is a warning, not a reservation; stock moves only when the order is billed.
- Can I send a reorder to my supplier on WhatsApp from BizOS?
- Yes. Build a reorder list from the low-stock list or by hand, pick the supplier, and send it as a readable WhatsApp message. BizOS then tracks the list as draft, sent, partially received and received as goods arrive.
- Can I use a barcode scanner with BizOS?
- Yes. BizOS items carry a barcode, and the rapid billing layout is built around a scan bar: scan, quantity, scan, with the item resolved from the local catalogue so there is no network wait.
- Do I need inventory to use BizOS?
- No. A business that only sells services can ignore inventory and bill with service items or free-text lines. Inventory in BizOS is there when stock matters, not imposed when it doesn't.