Moving kits and sets between warehouses

Transferring Kits and Sets Between Warehouses: How to Avoid Negative Stock. Rules for Working with Auto-Assembly Kits and «Goods in Transit»

In retail, especially in building supply stores, electronics stores, auto parts stores and furniture stores, selling products as sets and transferring them between retail locations is a routine but technically complex process. 

The assembly and internal transfer modes are designed to help the owner control the movement of assembled products from the central warehouse to the end customer without losing sight of any component. 

However, entrepreneurs often have practical questions when using these modes. The most common questions are: 

Below, we explain the software logic in detail to provide comprehensive answers to these questions and establish reliable inventory records.

1. Inventory Recording Features for Assembled Products: Kits and Auto-Assembly Kits

Torgsoft supports several types of kits: a standard kit, a kit with serial numbers and a kit with automatic assembly, also known as an auto-assembly kit.

An auto-assembly kit is a convenient tool that is automatically assembled in the required quantity directly at the time of sale, when the «Pay» button is clicked, if there are not enough finished kits in stock but sufficient quantities of the required components are available.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Kits:

• How can I find out how many auto-assembly kits can still be assembled from the available components?

Entrepreneurs often need to quickly assess whether there are enough parts to assemble a set. For this purpose, the product card contains an «Availability...» action on the «Assembly» tab. Clicking it opens a form that shows the number of finished kits already available in the warehouse, the number of kits ready for assembly based on the components available in stock and detailed information about each component.

• Can an auto-assembly kit create negative stock?

The sale of an auto-assembly kit follows the software’s general settings: if selling into negative stock is prohibited and there are not enough components for assembly, the kit will not be assembled. 

2. Transfers Between Warehouses: Receiving «Goods in Transit»

When stores are located far from one another, the «Goods in Transit» mode is used to control transfers. The sender creates an internal transfer and marks it as goods in transit, while the recipient must physically check the goods and accept the document in the system.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About «Goods in Transit»:

• How does the «Keep the sender for goods in transit» checkbox work?

If this checkbox is enabled when the document is accepted, the software follows this algorithm: it creates a reverse document from the «Goods in Transit» warehouse to the sender’s warehouse and then creates a direct document from the sender to the final recipient. In this case, adjustment documents for surpluses or shortages are not created: the goods are returned to the sender under the original document and are then transferred to the recipient only in the quantity that was physically checked.

• Why is an internal transfer duplicated?

This is one of the most common problems and can create confusion in stock balances. Duplication most often occurs because of human error:

1.  The sender creates a transfer, and the recipient accepts it.
2.  The sender then decides to «edit» the transfer: they open the already closed document, unlock it and add more goods.

1.  As a result, part of the goods has already been accepted, while the added goods have not. Partial acceptance of a document is not possible, so the transfer is split into two. This can be corrected by cancelling the document acceptance and accepting it again.

3. How to Avoid Negative Stock Balances for Components and Finished Sets

To prevent transfers of kits and standard products from disrupting management records, follow these rules:

1. Prohibit sales and transfers into negative stock. Check the following setting: Settings - Parameters - Inventory - What to do when there are insufficient goods in the warehouse. Select «Prohibit sales into negative stock». 

2. Use double document verification. To reduce theft and kit stock discrepancies during logistics operations, Torgsoft allows a document to be checked twice. First, it is checked by the sending warehouse employee during order assembly, and then by the store when the goods are received. After verification, access to repeated verification can be blocked so that dishonest employees cannot retroactively change the quantity of accepted goods.

3. Do not change document dates retroactively. If you create an active internal transfer and then change its date to a future date, the static warehouse calculation will not show the correct quantity of goods until that date arrives. In such cases, always use deferred internal transfers that are not active and do not write the goods off from the warehouse until the transfer is actually processed.

4. Synchronise cost recalculation. If you transfer components or materials for production or assembly, remember the FIFO method. After every new receipt of components, open Warehouse - Warehouse Status and recalculate the cost. This directly affects the correct cost of the finished kit. If the calculation is not performed, negative stock balances in previous periods may distort the analytics.