POS transactions without stock

Overview

There may be an item in-store, available for sale, despite the system incorrectly showing zero stock. The POS will still allow you to make a sale even when there is no stock in Cin7 Omni. However, unlike other systems, Cin7 Omni does not go into "negative stock".

Instead, you have the option to deal with no-stock discrepancies in three different ways. You can:

Wait for the stock to be receipted in.
Use stock from another branch.
Assume that the discrepancy is an error and adjust in stock to make up the difference.

In order to handle these effectively, Cin7 Omni has a useful report that gives POS users the power to decide how they will account for the discrepancies.

Add the report to your dashboard

While logged in as an Administrator, from the left navigation, select Sales, then choose POS Reports.
Under the Stock Management Section, select Completed Sales Made Without Stock.
Select Extract Report to download the CSV version of the report.

The report will now show on your dashboard, with a running total of discrepancies in brackets at the end of the link.

Each line item that has been sold is itemized in the report. On the far right-hand side of the report, you have three possible solutions.

Wait for stock or use existing stock

Once a stock becomes available in the system you can return to the report and dispatch the sale retroactively.

Say, for example, you received a delivery of t-shirts but you have not yet marked the delivery Purchase Order as fully received. You sold one of the t-shirts "out of the box" to a customer in the morning but you intend to receive the Purchase later in the afternoon.

Looking at this report in the morning after making the sale, the line item for the t-shirt would appear, and Wait for Stock would be in the Solution 1 column. Because you know that you will receive the stock later, it is completely fine to leave this as it is.

Once you have received the stock, returning to the report will give you the opportunity to use some of the newly received stock. Choosing Dispatch Now will cause the line item to disappear from the list.

Use stock from another branch

If you've used stock from another branch (e.g., an adjoining warehouse), you can take stock directly from another branch using this solution.

By selecting an alternative branch, the stock will be immediately received out.

Adjust stock

This solution is the last resort and is typically used when the stock figures are wrong and an auto-adjustment needs to be created to account for the stock discrepancy.

You can adjust the stock now by selecting Adjust in Stock. This will remove the line item from the list.

Batch and Serial products can't be adjusted because they must have a batch or serial number assigned. If the product you are trying to sell is not in stock, the system cannot assign a batch number and therefore will not allow you to sell it. This is to ensure accurate tracking of batches.

Report workflow

It is a good idea to review this report at regular intervals, at the very least once a week. The goal is to avoid unnecessary auto-adjustments for stock that should have been dealt with via Branch Transfers or Purchase Orders.

If you find you are creating many adjustments, it may be a leading indicator that a stocktake is overdue. If the system is working correctly, there shouldn't be any need to make frequent stock adjustments.

If you are an Administrator, it is worth keeping a close eye on the Adjustments module to see how frequently stock adjustments are made.

FAQs

How will auto-adjustments affect my Accounting Software?

See the Auto-Adjustments article for additional information