Why can the system make sales when there are not enough quantities in stock? Is there a way to make the system make sales according to the quantities available in stock only? I need it to be like If the stock is not enough,or it will refuse to make the invoice or at least notify you that you do not have enough quantity to make this invoice.
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Many users do not order inventory until it is sold. The suggestion about warnings is already in ideas.
Because negative inventory is normal business state for many businesses.
No. The system will let you enter what you want to enter. I see no benefit in software that is fighting their user. There are always going to be situations when (perhaps due to bookkeeping error) you know the item you are selling is in stock and you need to issue invoice to customer right away. You don’t have time to be correcting bookkeeping errors.
This is valid point. I think when selecting the item, then current qty count can be shown in the drop-down menu for information purposes.
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I believe it would be beneficial to have an option in the settings that allows or disallow for negative stock item balances, giving users the choice between the two options.
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@contabl2006, your idea actually does not make sense. Inventory item balances are the result of transactions you have entered. Selecting an option to disallow negative balances will not alter those transactions. To avoid negative balances, you must avoid or prevent transactions that cause the balance to be negative. And the developer has already explained why prevention will not be implemented. The suggestion already in ideas is to furnish a warning that a transaction would cause a negative balance so it can be avoided.
I understand this well. This option is only activated in two cases:
1- A new user who has not entered data yet.
2- An existing user who has entered data but there are no negative balances for inventory items.
In the case where the user has negative balances for any of the inventory items and wants to activate the option, the program must refuse to activate the option till the user modify prevent transactions that cause the balance negative.
Again, that does not make sense. Transactions should not be modified to eliminate negative transactions. Presumably, they were valid when created. Your two preconditions are irrelevant. Unless actual errors were made, negative balances are valid accounting results. Understand that account balances are not the same as physical inventory counts.
Good day every one:
I think, negative inventory allowance/disallowance or warning of below zero items while invoicing or selling is a logical inventory management functionalities and best practice in the stock management software world.
For example, Intuit - the maker of Qbooks - used to have a Warning alert only prior to 2015. from 2015 to date, the admin user has the ability to disallow all sales to negative inventory items across all users including him and vice versa.
To my experience, this feature has more benefits, including:
- Some times boor bookkeepers/buzz managers negligently make sales entries before they record purchases. Disallowing Negative Inventory in such a case will make them correct the process and enter purchases.
- Disallowing Negative Inventory or Warning will make alert of why this item is negative while it has a real physical availability and real time qty balance - this makes re-corrections easier.
- I think - though not too sure - that the negative inventory sales will improperly affect both the Inventory valuations in the Balance sheet as well as the Cogs @ Pnl.
Am advocate that such features will make Manager.io the first choice stock management program available.
In 2024 only, I missed a number of potential Inventory-centric small buzz due to this feature.
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That is not true. Yes, inventory cost accounting is affected, but not improperly. Obviously, purchases must eventually catch up with sales, regardless of whether the purchase is made only after the sale or accounting entries are simply delayed. When that happens, Manager makes all necessary adjustments to average costs of inventory on hand and costs of goods sold. In simple terms, everything comes out correctly in the end from an accounting perspective, although short-term physical inventory management may lag.
Let me be clear. A desire to disallow sales when inventory balance is negative is a valid point of view. But so is a desire to be able to sell inventory before having it on hand. The developer has consciously decided not to implement a blocking feature for reasons he has already explained. Instead, he plans to implement a warning. If you cannot live with that design choice, you should find other software.
I do not believe anyone experienced with sophisticated inventory management software would agree with that statement. Manager’s inventory capabilities simply do not compete with some of the more powerful systems on the market. Nor are they intended to. Manager is designed as a general purpose accounting program suitable for accounting and financial reporting for a wide range of financial entitites in most jurisdictions around the world. But it purposely is not tailored for any particular business sector. You will always be able to find more powerful tools dedicated to narrowly defined situations. The addition of negative-balance inventory sales restrictions, while useful, will not significantly reposition Manager as a powerful inventory management program. Too many other intricate features would also be necessary, including lot tracking, expiration dating, serial number recording, color and size alternatives, source monitoring, re-order projection, and so forth. Software that includes such capabilities is seldom integrated directly with primary accounting software, because the goals of each are so different.
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Sure. But the issue I have with this. It forces you to correct these issues at the wrong time.
Customer is waiting for the invoice to be issued. You can’t be telling customer: “Hold on, my accounting system doesn’t let me issue an invoice because my bookkeeping is a mess”
Accounting systems that prevent you to sell negative inventory do not actually support negative inventory at all. They are making a virtue out of necessity.
Quickbooks couldn’t handle negative inventory before, now they can. Xero still can’t handle negative inventory so their customers quickly scrample to enter dummy purchase invoices to increase inventory qty which is making even bigger mess.
I will implement ability to see current qty when selecting inventory item on new transactions. I suspect this is all what’s needed. Nobody actually wants to be prevented from issuing sales invoices when they need to issue one.
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This is one of the reasons why i love Manager. Tried ERPnext its a lot more customizable but at every point there is something stopping you. Cant even modify a simple transaction without too much hassle.
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To what extent can I trust the accuracy of the cost of sales in the presence of negative balances?
You can’t - how do you expect the system to calculate the cost of sale when you have negative inventory?
When you purchase inventory, the cost of sale will be updated
@contabl2006, I already answered your question.
I do not mention in my opinion/text that i can’t live with the software; how ever, every one has his own point of view. We have the right to request, suggest and advocate for features that we see adding value to the system , this is what this Forum is all about - It’s not me who is searching/finding an other software, I love Manager.io more than any software.
Perhaps I should have been more explicit in post #9 that my comment was not directed specifically at you, especially since you had just joined an ongoing discussion among 4 other forum members. If you reread the entire paragraph you quoted, you will notice that I started by acknowledging the validity of your apparent point of view. Only then did I call attention to the developer’s clear explanation of why he does not share your outlook. My quoted comment was advice that, if the feature is important to anyone, it is very probably not going to appear in Manager, so other software might be more satisfactory.
You are, of course, welcome to your opinion. I make no judgment about it. But I do like to steer forum members away from advocacy of positions contrary to the developer’s stated plans. It is just a waste of time.
@lubos, I agree much of your arguments/comments; however, it would be fine if at least we have some kind of " warning" - where the user is able to proceed his entry or makes any other necessary review regarding his alert.
Thanks
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@Burhania This is why I agree that current quantity should be shown when selecting item on new transactions.
Once that is implemented, let’s see what pain points are left to resolve.
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I agree with Lubos on the issue of showing the inventory balance in the case of a new transaction, but a problem will appear that in inventory kits, what will the scenario be in showing the balance, as it is possible that the combined item contains more than one item, which will be deducted from the quantities of the items in the inventory How will these items appear in one line?
That a nice suggestion