Inventory & POSProduct
Inventory tracking for small business, with low-stock alerts
Nefin Team5 min read
Most small businesses keep stock in a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet is wrong by lunchtime. Someone sells the last two boxes, nobody updates the sheet, and you find out when a customer asks for a third.
In Nefin, stock isn't a separate list you keep up to date. It moves when the documents you already create move: an invoice takes items out, a supplier bill puts them back, and anything at its reorder level is flagged for you.
- Coffee beans, a stock-tracked item, have 14 on hand at an average cost of 9.00 and a reorder level of 10.
- Invoice INV-1043 for 6 bags is marked as sent: a sale movement takes stock from 14 to 8.
- 8 is below the reorder level, so the item's status turns Low and a banner reads 1 item below reorder level.
- Bill B-0318 for 24 bags at 10.00 is marked received: stock rises to 32, the average cost becomes 9.75 and the value 312.00.
- The status returns to OK, and the item's movement log lists the sale (−6, 8 after) and the purchase (+24, 32 after).
Turn on tracking for an item
Every product or service you sell or buy is an item in Nefin, with a default price, its VAT rates for sales and purchases, and the accounts it posts to. Things you hold on a shelf are of type Item; tick "Track inventory for this item" and two things change: Nefin starts counting it, and you can give it a reorder level.
Services can't track inventory, which keeps consulting hours and delivery charges out of your stock list. Stock tracking and the inventory pages are included from the Professional plan up.
Stock moves when documents do
You don't type stock counts in. Each tracked line on an invoice or bill moves stock the moment that document becomes real, and drafts never touch it:
| What you do | What happens to stock |
|---|---|
| Mark an invoice as sent | Each tracked line takes its quantity out |
| Mark a supplier bill as received | Each tracked line adds its quantity, and the average cost updates |
| Void an invoice or bill | Its movements are reversed |
| Edit an invoice or bill that's already out | The old movements are reversed and the new lines recorded |
| Adjust stock by hand | Stock goes up or down by what you enter, with your note |
So the same invoice you send a customer is what tells Nefin six bags of coffee left the shelf, and the bill you enter from your supplier is what puts twenty-four back.
Low stock, at a glance
The reorder level is the quantity at which you want to buy more. When an item's stock falls to that level or below, Nefin flags it in three places:
- The Inventory page shows the item's status as Low, and its stock badge turns amber. At zero or below, the badge turns red.
- A "Low stock only" filter on the same page lists just the items that need ordering.
- The Low Stock banner on your dashboard says how many items are below their reorder level and names them. Click it to open the filtered list.
Counts, breakage and corrections
Real shelves drift from the numbers: a broken jar, a sample given away, a box found at the back. Use Adjust Stock for those. Pick the item, enter a positive quantity to add or a negative one to remove, and write the reason. The adjustment is valued at the item's current average cost.
Know what your stock is worth
Nefin values stock at weighted average cost. Each purchase on a bill is blended into the average at its unit price before VAT, and sales go out at the current average, so you never have to decide which box was sold first. The coffee in the animation shows how it works:
| Step | On hand | Average cost | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting stock | 14 | 9.00 | 126.00 |
| Invoice sells 6 | 8 | 9.00 | 72.00 |
| Bill buys 24 at 10.00 | 32 | 9.75 | 312.00 |
The Inventory page shows this for every tracked item: stock on hand, average cost, value, reorder level and status, with a search box when the list gets long.
Every change has a reason
Each movement is kept in a log: the date, the item, whether it was a purchase, a sale, a void or an adjustment, the quantity, the unit cost, the stock after it, and the invoice or bill number behind it. Filter it by type or open it from the Inventory page. When a count doesn't match, you can follow the item's history line by line instead of guessing.
One thing to know if you also run Nefin POS: till sales post to your books, but they don't change stock counts in Nefin today. Stock follows invoices, bills and adjustments.
What lands in your books
When an invoice with tracked items is sent, Nefin posts a second entry next to the usual invoice entry: the cost of what you sold, at average cost, debited to 5000 Cost of Goods Sold and credited to 1200 Inventory. A stock adjustment posts the same pair of accounts in the direction of the change. Voiding the invoice reverses both entries along with the stock.
