Inventory - Updating Negative quantity on hand/Less Than Zero

While uncommon, due to certain inventory handling workflows, it is possible for an item to have an on hand inventory that appears in the negative. The Less than Zero report will help to identify and fix these inventory issues.

While it isn't possible to physically have a negative quantity of items on hand, FieldStack may show an item having negative quantity. For example, if an item didn't appear to be in stock but was sold in a store or sent from inventory, the quantity would become negative; it will not block you from selling or sending an item that is not showing in inventory as this could affect a customer purchase or time-sensitive task. 

Items with a negative quantity should be updated to have a quantity of 0, otherwise they would have inaccurate inventory after receiving or customer buybacks. For example, if an item showed -2 quantity but in reality there were none, receiving 3 would make the final quantity 1 (when it should actually 3). Updating the negative quantity beforehand would accurately show 3 of the item after receiving.

Items with negative quantity can be found on the Less than Zero report, and quantity can be updated using Receive Mode (more details below).

Using the Less than Zero Report

The Less than Zero report generates a list of items that show a negative on hand quantity. Regularly reviewing this report and updating the items on it will help maintain correct inventory.

The report is found in the POS tab under the POS Reports section.

There are two options for how to generate the results: 

• Run Printable Report will display the results in a printable format
• Run will display the results in a grid that can be filtered and formatted

Example: printable report format

Example: grid report format

Updating the negative quantity

To update the quantity, use Receive Mode to receive as many as needed to bring the negative quantity to 0 (or the known correct number in stock). 

• Verify the available stock before fixing the negative quantities, in case some items are actually found on hand. 
• If your chain has condition settings in place, make sure to receive the quantity for the correct item condition (new or used) since these are different in the system.