Inventory Setup
Index
Site Settings - click here for help
Add
New Item - Edit/View Items - click here
for help
There are two parts to setting up inventory tracking. You must first go into Site Settings to the section called Inventory Settings. These overall catalog settings determine what will be displayed to the customer and if you will be notified when quantities fall below an established minimum. Below you will find an explanation of the fields found in this option. The second part is where you will enter inventory quantities for the items you want to track. You do not have to track inventory for every item, only the ones you choose. You will enable inventory tracking and enter quantities by using the Edit/View Items option and then clicking the Inventory tab on the top of the screen.
When you enable inventory tracking for an item, the customer will be forced to the Details page for that item so that they can view the available inventory number. If the quantity available is zero (0), and you have elected not to allow ordering if you are out of stock, the "Add to Cart" button will not be displayed. If you have a quantity greater than 0 in stock, the customer will be allowed to add the item to the order, however if they exceed the available inventory level, an error message will be generated advising that the quantity ordered exceeds what is available.
There is a situation when the initial inventory check is done and the order is allowed to proceed and another order with approved inventory levels is being generated at approximately the same time. If the combined orders exceed the inventory level, the second order to be processed will fail and be treated as an incomplete order in your View Orders option.
If you have elected to track and display inventory levels to the customer for an item with options e.g. size, color etc. then the quantity or the In Stock/Out of Stock message for each option will be displayed in parentheses next to the option name in the drop down box.
Any unsuccessful or incomplete orders that have items with inventory tracking will have that inventory returned to stock for future orders.
Inventory Settings - in this section you will be able to select general inventory settings for the catalog as a whole. Inventory for the actual items will be entered, tracked and modified in the Edit/View Items Options for that product.
Email
Notification for Inventory Reorder:
check this box if you
would like to receive an email notification whenever the quantity available for
any product falls below a minimum quantity that you set for an item.
Send to Email: enter the email address where you would like to receive the notification for inventory reorder. You may enter multiple email addresses of people who will be receiving the email inventory reorder notification by using a semicolon and space to separate the entries.
One Notification Per Product for
Minimum Qty: Only send one email notification
when inventory falls below the minimum qty. This applies to all products in
your catalog. You can check this box to limit the number of notifications
you receive when an item falls below your minimum quantity. This may be
overridden in the Edit/View Items option, Inventory tab.
Inventory Display Options: in this section you will
have several options for inventory display to the end customer. Any inventory
message is only displayed to the customer when the Details button for
that item is clicked.
Display In Stock, or Out
of Stock message
"Out of Stock" message:
(only displayed when product is out of stock and ordering is not allowed) – check this box if you want
to display the ‘In Stock’ or ‘Out of Stock’ message. In the next field you can enter
the message you wish to appear when an item is out of stock. Remember that this
is a generic message that will be displayed for every product. The ‘In Stock’
message is only displayed to the customer when the Details button is
clicked. The 'Out of Stock' message is only displayed to the customer when the Details button is
clicked and ordering is not allowed.
Display Quantity
Available:
check this box if you want the actual in stock
quantity displayed to the customer. Quantities for inventory are only displayed
when the
Details button is
clicked and you have checked Inventory Tracking for that item.
Do not display inventory
status to customers:
check this button if you do not want any
inventory status displayed to the customer but you still want to track
inventory in the admin portion of your cart. The system will default to this
option.
"Out of Stock" Options: in this section
you will determine how the catalog will handle items that are ‘Out of Stock’.
The two options are outlined below.
Display product in
catalog, but do not allow ordering:
click this box if you
want to display an item that is ‘Out of Stock’ but do not want to allow
customers to order. The ‘Out of Stock’ message will appear on the Details page. You may
choose this option when the out of stock item would delay shipping the rest of
an order or if the time period for restocking is over your internal limit for
delivery of items.
Display product in catalog
and allow ordering:
click this box if you still want to allow
ordering of ‘Out of Stock’ items. You may choose this option if the items are
readily available for shipping but are not physically on your shelf. No 'Out of
Stock' message will appear since you are allowing them to order. The system will default to this
option.
Add New Item or Edit/View Items
To set
inventory tracking for an item you must go to the Add New Item or Edit/View
Item options. Once you have either entered basic product information for a
new item or have reached the Item Basics screen, click on the Inventory
tab at the top of the screen. You will need to enter inventory quantities
for every item that you want to track.
Inventory
can be tracked for all items without options and for items that have only 1
option. At this point we are unable to track inventory for items with multiple
options, e.g. a shirt that has sizes and colors. A message will be
displayed advising that inventory cannot be tracked with multiple options. The
screen will display the following message:
For items with no options the screen will appear as follows:
To track inventory for an item, click the box called Track Inventory for this Item. The screen also indicates the last date and time that inventory has been updated by the user. System updates to the QTY fields when an order is processed will not be reflected here.
Override Catalog Minimum Qty Notification For This Product And Send Email For This Item Directly To: This email field allows you to enter a different email address(s) than what is currently entered in Catalog Settings. This can be used if you have different product managers who are responsible for a category of items, they can receive separate notifications when their inventory is below the minimum quantity.
Only Send 1 Email for This Item When Inventory Falls Below Minimum Qty: Click this box when you want to override the entries in Catalog Settings for limiting the number of emails to one notice when inventory falls below your minimum quantities.
There are only 2 fields where you can make an entry, Minimum Quantity and Modify Qty. All other inventory quantity fields are maintained by the system. Listed below is an explanation of each of these fields.
Qty in Stock – this is the number of items currently in stock for this product.
This number will be increased or decreased when you make an
entry in Modify Qty or when orders have been filled. It excludes
unprocessed orders. If you do not initially make an entry in Modify Qty and you
have set the field for tracking inventory, this will become a negative number
if there is an order for this item.
Qty Reserved – this is the number of items
that is reserved for unprocessed orders (New Orders). If there are no pending
orders, the Qty will be zero. If there are pending orders, the number will
equal the total of any orders with this item. This number will change as orders
are marked filled.
Qty Available – this is the number of items
available for filling orders. It is equal to the Qty in Stock
minus the Qty Reserved. It may be either a positive or negative
number depending on whether you allow orders to be placed for an item out of
stock.
Minimum Qty - if you wish to maintain a
minimum quantity for this item, enter this number in the Minimum Qty field. If
you have checked the field for sending an email on Catalog Settings and
your minimum quantity in stock goes below this number, you will receive an
email advising that it is time to reorder.
Modify Qty – use this field to enter an initial or additional quantity for an item. It can be a positive or negative number. This entry will increase/decrease the Qty in Stock field.
If an item has 1 option, there will be inventory fields for
each option you have created. This is how the screen will appear.
