Know Exactly Why Your Stock Changed
A stock figure on its own tells you where you are. A movement history tells you how you got there. TrueSKU keeps both: the current quantity, and the record of every change behind it.
A stored quantity versus an audit trail
Many systems simply store a number against each SKU and overwrite it when something happens. When that number is wrong, there is nothing to investigate: you can't tell whether a delivery was missed, a sale was counted twice or someone made a correction.
TrueSKU treats each change as its own recorded movement. The current stock is the result of those movements, so any figure can be traced back to the events that produced it.
What each movement records
- What changed: the SKU (its code and name as they were at the time), the direction and the quantity, and the stock before and after.
- Why: the reason and the workflow that created it: a sale, a purchase order receipt, a stocktake correction, a manual or API adjustment, a return, a warehouse transfer or the SKU's opening balance.
- When: the time the change took effect, which for a stocktake correction is the time the count started.
- Who or what: the user the change was made under.
- Where it came from: a reference to the source record where there is one, such as a purchase order, a stocktake or a returns case, and the warehouse it affected.
A realistic sequence
Opening stock of 50, a delivery of 20, four sales and one adjustment give 65. The table is an example for illustration, not customer data, and the references are made up.
| Source | Change | Stock after | Reference (example) | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening balance | +50 | 50 | SKU created | A user |
| PO receive | +20 | 70 | Purchase order PO-1042 | A user |
| Sale | −4 | 66 | Four orders, each with its own reference | Sales processing (automatic) |
| Manual adjustment | −1 | 65 | Reason: damaged | A user |
50 + 20 − 4 − 1 = 65. If the shelf said 66, you would know the gap was an adjustment or a miscount on one of these lines, and not have to guess where to start.
Finding what you need
The stock movements page lets you:
- search by SKU, name or reference;
- filter by source (sale, purchase order receive, stocktake, manual adjustment, API adjustment, return, transfer and more), by direction, by warehouse and by date range;
- sort by date, item, quantity, source or reference;
- look at a single SKU, or follow a link from a stocktake to the movements it caused;
- see a chart of one SKU's stock over time;
- export what you are looking at as a CSV file, and read movements through the API.
How it fits with the rest of TrueSKU
- Stocktakes are recorded as movements, referenced to the stocktake, so a count can be traced as easily as a sale.
- Purchase order deliveries are recorded per delivery, with who booked them in and when.
- Stock that comes back through a returns case only goes back on sale when an item is assessed as resellable, and that is recorded the same way.
How useful the history is depends partly on what people enter. A manual adjustment carries a reason; adding a short note makes it easier to understand later.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see who changed a stock figure?
Every movement records which user it was made under and which workflow created it, such as a sale, a purchase order receipt, a stocktake, a manual adjustment or an API adjustment, with a reference to the source record where one exists.
Can I look at the history of one SKU?
Yes. Open the stock movements page for a SKU to see only its movements, and use the history chart to see how its stock moved over time.
Can I export the history?
Yes. The stock movements page exports the movements you are looking at, with your filters applied, as a CSV file. Movements can also be read through the API.
Does it work with more than one warehouse?
Yes. If you use multiple warehouses, each movement records the warehouse it affected and you can filter the history by warehouse.
Is this an accounting ledger?
No. It is a stock ledger: quantities and their causes. It is not a replacement for your accounts.