I started reviewing the program recently, and I faced some issues. I didn’t know if the program had the solution inside. In this topic, I will mention one issue: When I’m creating a new Sales Invoice, I choose an item that has zero quantity in the inventory, but the program allows me to enter any quantity and proceed with creating the invoice and completing the selling process. Also, from the Sales Invoice page, there is no way to know the inventory quantity.
Seatch the forum - this has been discussed many, many times
Sorry, I didn’t find it.
It’s a loooong read.
I think what you’re seeing is actually intentional behaviour in Manager, although I agree that it can be confusing if you’re coming from an accounting system that prevents selling when stock reaches zero.
Manager allows inventory to go negative. In other words, having Qty on Hand = 0 does not prevent you from entering a Sales Invoice for, say, 5 units. The reason is that negative inventory can be a legitimate business situation — for example, a business may sell an item before the corresponding goods receipt has been recorded. Manager therefore doesn’t enforce a rule that sales must always be limited to the current stock balance.
As far as I can tell, there also isn’t currently a built-in setting that forces Manager to reject a Sales Invoice when there isn’t enough inventory, nor does the Sales Invoice entry screen display the current stock balance beside the item. This has actually been discussed as a feature request in the Manager forum, including requests for a warning when inventory reaches zero and displaying Qty on Hand while invoicing.
For now, the practical workaround is to check the inventory position from Inventory Items before invoicing. You can drill down into the quantity to see the transactions affecting that item and investigate the current stock position.
One other thing worth checking is whether you’re looking at Qty Owned or Qty on Hand. They aren’t necessarily the same. Manager’s guide explains that Sales Invoices affect Qty Owned, while Delivery Notes affect Qty on Hand (depending on the workflow you’re using).
So, in short:
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Zero stock does not stop a Sales Invoice.
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Negative inventory is permitted by design.
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There isn’t currently a hard “don’t sell below available stock” control.
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Inventory Items is where you should check the stock position.
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If preventing negative stock is important for your business, you’ll need an operational control/workflow around invoicing rather than relying on Manager to block the transaction.
I do bookkeeping and accounting-system setup for small businesses, and one of the things I help with is setting up Manager workflows so that inventory, invoicing, purchases and bookkeeping stay properly connected. If anyone is struggling with the inventory side of Manager, I’d be happy to share some practical workflows that I’ve found useful.