Overview
"Adding stock" means telling ninoPOS how many of a product you actually have. When your stock numbers are correct, your reports, low-stock alerts, and stock valuation are all correct — and your cashiers can never accidentally sell something you don't have.
There are three ways stock enters ninoPOS. Each one is for a different situation. Pick the right one and your records stay clean:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ A. RECEIVE FROM A SUPPLIER (Purchase Order) │ │ You bought goods. Create the order, then "Receive Items". │ │ → USE THIS FOR EVERY NORMAL DELIVERY. │ │ │ │ B. OPENING / INITIAL STOCK (when creating a product) │ │ Setting up ninoPOS for the first time — count what you │ │ already have on the shelf and type it in once. │ │ │ │ C. STOCK ADJUSTMENT (manual correction) │ │ Fixing a mistake, a stock count, damage, or loss. │ │ → NOT for supplier deliveries. │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
- A supplier delivered goods you bought → use A. Receive from a supplier. This is the everyday method.
- You are setting up a brand-new product and already have some on the shelf → use B. Opening stock when you create the product.
- The number in ninoPOS is wrong, or you did a physical count, or goods were damaged/lost → use C. Stock adjustment.
Before You Start
You cannot add stock for a product that has not been created yet. If the product isn't in your catalog, create it first — see Adding Products to Your Catalog. Once the product exists, come back here.
Stock is tracked per store and warehouse. ninoPOS keeps a separate count for every location. Each store you create automatically gets one warehouse. When you add stock, you always choose where the stock is going. If you pick the wrong store or warehouse, the stock lands in the wrong place — and the shop that actually has the goods will still look empty.
Whenever ninoPOS asks for a Unit Cost (what you paid the supplier per unit), fill it in. This is how ninoPOS calculates the value of your stock and your profit on each sale. If you leave the cost at 0, your inventory valuation and profit reports will be wrong.
A. Receive Stock From a Supplier
This is the method you will use most often. Whenever you buy goods from a supplier, you create a Purchase Order (a record of what you ordered), and then you Receive the items when they arrive. Stock only goes up when you receive it — never when you just create the order. This lets you order today and receive next week, and it keeps a clear record of what is still on the way.
Create order Approve Receive Items
(choose supplier → the order → (type how many
+ warehouse) to confirm actually arrived)
│
▼
✅ STOCK GOES UP HERE
You can reach the same purchase order screens two ways in the sidebar:
- Purchases — the top-level menu item. Click the New Purchase Order button.
- Inventory → Purchase Orders — the same list, inside the Inventory group.
Both open the same form and create the same kind of order, so use whichever is easier to find.
Go to Purchases in the sidebar and click New Purchase Order (or Inventory → Purchase Orders, then the same button). This opens the New Purchase Order form.
Click Add Item (or use the Scan button with your camera) and fill each row. Each line has these columns:
| Column | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Product * | Type at least 2 letters to search, then pick the product. If it doesn't appear, it hasn't been created yet. |
| Qty | How many units you are ordering. |
| Unit Cost | What you pay the supplier per unit. This fills in from the product's saved cost, but you can change it for this order. |
| Disc % | Optional supplier discount on this line. |
| Tax % | Optional tax on this line. |
The Total for each line and the order totals (Subtotal, Discount, Tax, Total) are worked out for you at the bottom.
Click Create Purchase Order. The order is saved and you land on its detail page. Your stock has NOT changed yet — this is only a record of what you ordered.
On the order page, click the green Approve button. An order must be approved before you can receive it — you'll see a reminder banner if it isn't approved yet. (Approving may require a manager, depending on your role.)
When the goods physically arrive, open the order and click Receive Items. A receiving panel appears with a row per product:
- Receive Qty — type how many units actually arrived (already filled with the pending amount; change it if the delivery was partial).
- Reject Qty — how many arrived damaged or wrong and are being sent back. Rejected units do not enter stock.
- New selling price (optional) — if your cost changed, you can set a new selling price here. Leave blank to keep the current price.
- For products that track serial / IMEI numbers or batches / expiry dates, extra boxes appear so you can enter them at receipt.
Click Confirm Receipt. You'll see "Stock updated successfully" — the received quantity is now added to the destination warehouse. If you only received part of the order, the rest stays as "pending" and you can receive it later.
If the order has no destination warehouse set, ninoPOS cannot update stock and the Confirm Receipt button stays disabled. Edit the order to add a warehouse first.
B. Set Opening (Initial) Stock When You Create a Product
When you are setting up ninoPOS for the first time, you already have goods sitting on your shelves. Instead of raising a purchase order for stock you bought long ago, you type your current count directly on the new-product form as opening stock. Use this once per product, at setup.
Go to Products & Services → Products (or Inventory → Products) and click Add Product. This opens the Create New Product form. Fill in the product details as described in Adding Products.
In the Track inventory box, keep the switch turned on. (For a Service or Digital product there is no stock to track, so these fields are hidden.) When tracking is on, the stock fields appear.
Enter the product's Cost Price (in the Pricing section higher up the form) so your opening stock has a correct value. Cost price is optional to save, but leaving it blank makes your stock valuation read zero.
Click Create Product (or Save & add another to immediately start the next product). ninoPOS creates the product and records your opening stock in the chosen store as the starting balance. After this, don't keep editing opening stock to add deliveries — use method A or C instead.
C. Manually Add or Correct Stock (Stock Adjustment)
A stock adjustment is for fixing the number — after a physical stock count, when goods are damaged, expired, lost, or found, or to correct a data mistake. It is not for recording supplier deliveries.
Go to Inventory → Stock Adjustments and click New Adjustment. This opens the New Stock Adjustment form.
Click Add Item, search for each product, and fill the Quantity After Adjustment.
Quantity After Adjustment is not "how many to add". It is the exact number you want the product to have after the adjustment. If you have 40 on the shelf and count 3 more, enter 43 — not 3. ninoPOS shows the current on-hand next to each item and asks you to confirm before saving, exactly because this replaces the count rather than adding to it.
Click Create Adjustment and confirm the pop-up. Note that an adjustment updates the actual stock when it is approved — depending on your setup it may need a manager to approve it before the count changes.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
| Mistake | Why it's a problem | Do this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Using a Stock Adjustment for a supplier delivery | You lose the supplier record, cost, and purchase history — and your purchase reports are wrong. | Use A. Receive from a supplier (a purchase order) for anything you bought. |
| Selecting the wrong store or warehouse | Stock lands in the wrong location. The shop that has the goods still shows empty. | Double-check the store/warehouse before saving. |
| Treating "Quantity After Adjustment" as "amount to add" | It replaces the count, so entering 3 wipes your stock down to 3. | Enter the full new total (e.g. 43, not 3). |
| Leaving Unit / Cost price at 0 | Stock valuation and profit reports read zero. | Always enter what you paid per unit. |
| Expecting stock to rise when you create a purchase order | Stock only rises on receipt — the order alone changes nothing. | Approve the order, then click Receive Items. |
Related Articles
- Adding Products to Your Catalog — create a product before you add its stock
- Receiving Goods from Suppliers — the full receiving flow in detail
- Stock Adjustments — corrections, counts, damage and loss
- Purchase Orders — ordering from suppliers
- Managing Stock Levels — view and monitor your inventory