Getting started
How inventory works in Rocket ERP
Where stock lives, which unit it is counted in, what moves it and how every movement reaches the books. Read this first.
3 min readLast updated
In this article
Rocket ERP keeps one item catalog for the whole company and tracks the quantity of each item in every warehouse of every branch. This article explains the few ideas the rest of the Inventory articles rely on.
Items, warehouses and branches
An item is anything you buy, make, sell or count. It belongs to one category, has an item type and carries its prices, units and tax.
A warehouse belongs to exactly one branch. Your administrator creates warehouses under Administration › Organization › Inventories; see Set up warehouses.
Stock is held per item, per branch and per warehouse. The same item can sit in five warehouses with five different balances.
One base unit
Every item has a base unit, the first unit you give it. Stock is always stored in that unit. You can add bigger or smaller units, such as a carton of 12, and use them on documents. The system converts each line to the base unit before it touches stock. See Units of measure.
What moves stock
Action | Where | Effect on stock |
|---|---|---|
Opening quantity | New item form | Adds stock to one warehouse |
Purchase invoice | Purchasing | Adds stock and updates the average cost |
Sales invoice or withdraw order | Sales, Inventory | Removes stock |
Quantity adjustment | Inventory › Items | Sets a new on-hand figure |
Item transfer | Inventory › Transfers | Moves stock between warehouses |
Work order | Manufacturing | Consumes materials and adds finished goods |
Each of these writes a line in the item's movement log, with the user, the warehouse and the source document. Open the item profile and its Logs tab to see why a balance changed. See The item profile.
Stock and the books
Each warehouse has its own stock account in the chart of accounts. Movements that change the value of your stock post a journal entry for you:
An opening quantity and a quantity adjustment post the value of the difference against the branch stock variance account.
A received transfer moves the value from the source warehouse account to the destination warehouse account.
A revaluation posts the change in value to the gain or loss account you choose.
Stock is valued at the item's cost price, which the system keeps as a moving average. See How average cost is calculated.
Where to start
Ask your administrator to create the branches and warehouses you need.
Create your units, categories and brands.
Create your items, with their opening quantities.
Record purchases, sales and transfers as they happen.