What is stock initialisation and why is it necessary?
Stock initialisation is used to calculate the initial stock levels of the items in the shop. This is done because Pickware introduces a new stock management system for articles that differs from the Shopware standard system and overwrites it. Pickware's inventory system distinguishes between three different stock levels for each item:
- Physical stock – The quantity of physical items currently in a warehouse whose stock is configured to be available for sale.
- Reserved stock – The ordered quantity of this item which has not been shipped yet.
- Available stock – The difference between the physical stock and the reserved stock. This controls the availabilty of the item in the shop. A manual change can therefore lead to inconsistent data.
If you have not created any items in your shop before the installation, you do not need to carry out the stock initialisation. Regardless, we recommend that you still read through the background information on stock initialisation below. You can find more information in this blog post.
How does stock initialisation work?
After installing Pickware ERP, you should receive a notification in the top right corner of the Shopware backend that your inventory has not yet been initialised.
A correct inventory management as well as the correct order status is a basic requirement before using Pickware and be able to initialise your stock without errors. Specifically, the following points must be checked:
- Orders should only have the status Open if none of the items have been shipped yet.
- Purchase prices and stock levels must be set correctly, as Pickware ERP also provides you with a stock overview. Of course, you can also manually adjust the stock entries and purchase prices afterwards.
- Orders that have already been shipped must have the order status Completely shipped, otherwise Pickware will schedule them for shipment again. The status Completed is not sufficient.
If your shop meets all the above conditions, you can start the stock initialisation by clicking on Edit now in the notification. The exact steps to be taken are as followed:
- The Shopware stock is adjusted directly after the order is received and therefore reflects the available stock of Pickware.
- The reserved stock of an item refers to the accumulated quantity in all orders that have not yet been shipped.
- The total of the reserved stock and the available stock finally results in the physical stock.