Overview
This guide is about watching your stock — knowing how much you have of each product, where it is, and when it is running low. It is different from adding new stock. To bring stock in (buy more, receive a delivery, or count what is on the shelf), see Stock Adjustments and Adding Products.
In ninoPOS you never have to update stock numbers by hand for normal trading. Every sale, purchase, transfer and adjustment changes the stock automatically. Your job is to monitor the numbers, set a warning level for each product, and act when something is low.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ INVENTORY (left sidebar) │ │ ├── Stock Levels ......... See how much of everything │ │ │ you have, per warehouse │ │ ├── Low Stock Alerts ..... See what is running out and │ │ │ reorder it │ │ └── Inventory Reports .... Deeper analysis: valuation, │ │ movement, fast/slow movers │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Inventory menu is available to staff with a Manager role or higher. If you do not see the Inventory menu, ask your business owner or admin to give you access.
1. Viewing Your Current Stock
In the left sidebar, click Inventory to open the group, then click Stock Levels. The page is titled Stock Management.
At the top you will see four summary cards that give you the big picture at a glance:
| Summary card | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Total Products | How many products you are tracking stock for. |
| Stock Value | The total money value of everything you hold, calculated at cost price. Shown in your business currency. |
| Low Stock Alert | How many products have dropped below their warning level. |
| Out of Stock | How many products have reached zero. |
Under the summary cards is the Stock Levels tab, showing one row per product per warehouse. The columns are:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Product | The product name, with its SKU (code) underneath. |
| Warehouse | Which warehouse or store location this quantity is held in. |
| Quantity | The total physical quantity you hold. |
| Available | How much you can actually sell right now (Quantity minus Reserved). |
| Reserved | Stock already promised to an order but not yet handed over, so it is held aside. |
| Unit Cost | The average cost of one unit. |
| Total Value | Quantity × Unit Cost — the value of that line. |
| Status | A coloured badge: OK, Low, Out, or Excess. |
If a customer has placed an order that is not yet completed, that stock moves into Reserved. You still physically have it, so Quantity stays the same, but Available goes down so you do not accidentally promise the same item twice.
Finding and filtering products
Above the table you have two tools:
- Search products… — type a product name or code to jump straight to it.
- Status dropdown — filter the list to show only one status: All Status, OK, Low Stock, Out of Stock, or Excess.
The circular refresh button (top right) reloads the latest numbers, and Import Stock lets you upload stock quantities from a file.
Seeing what happened to a product's stock
On any row, click the ⋯ (three dots) button on the far right, then choose View Movements. A window titled Stock Movement History opens and lists every change to that product's stock — sales, purchases, transfers and adjustments — with the date, who did it, the amount (+ or −), and the running balance (before → after).
Choose View Product from the same menu to open the full product page.
Bottled Water 500ml — Main Warehouse [PURCHASE] GRN-1042 12 Sep, by Amina +120 30 → 150 [SALE] POS-8891 13 Sep, by John -6 150 → 144 [TRANSFER] TRF-0203 13 Sep, by Amina -50 144 → 94 [ADJUSTMENT] Recount 14 Sep, by Owner -2 94 → 92
The other two tabs
The Stock Management page also has two more tabs next to Stock Levels:
- Valuation — shows a valuation summary (method, total value, total quantity, average cost) and the value held in each warehouse.
- Expiring Soon — lists products with batches expiring within the next 30 days (the tab title shows the count).
2. Understanding Per-Store and Per-Warehouse Stock
ninoPOS tracks stock per location, not as one big pile. Every store you create automatically gets one warehouse, and the same product can hold different quantities in different places.
PRODUCT: Cooking Oil 1L │ ├── Main Warehouse ........ Quantity 200 (Status: OK) ├── Downtown Shop ......... Quantity 8 (Status: Low) └── Airport Kiosk ......... Quantity 0 (Status: Out) The Stock Levels table shows a separate row for each location, so you always know WHERE the stock is — not just how much you have in total.
A product can be perfectly stocked at your main warehouse but empty at a busy shop. Because ninoPOS shows the quantity for each location, you can spot this and move stock where it is needed. To move stock between locations, use Stock Transfers.
3. Setting Low-Stock Warnings (Reorder Levels)
A "low stock" warning only works if ninoPOS knows what "low" means for each product. That number is the product's Minimum Stock Level (its reorder point). You set it on the product itself:
Go to Products & Services → Products, open a product to edit it, and fill in its Minimum Stock Level. This is the quantity at which you want to be warned to buy more.
Once set, ninoPOS compares it to the live quantity and raises an alert the moment stock drops to or below that level. Products with no reorder level set will not raise an alert.
Set the reorder level high enough to cover the time it takes your supplier to deliver. If a delivery takes a week and you sell 5 units a day, a reorder level of 5 is too low — you will run out before the new stock arrives. A level of around 35–40 would be safer.
In the sidebar, open Inventory → Low Stock Alerts. This page (titled Low Stock Alerts) lists every product that has fallen below its reorder level, across all your stores.
Four summary cards at the top group the alerts by how urgent they are:
| Card | Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Total Alerts | Grey | All items that need attention. |
| Critical | Red | Immediate action needed — usually out of stock or almost gone. |
| Warning | Amber | Reorder soon. |
| Notice | Blue | Below optimal levels, but not urgent yet. |
The table below shows each low item with its Product, Store, Current quantity, Min Stock, an urgency Status badge, and the Supplier. You can narrow the list with the search box (Search by product, SKU, or store…), the urgency dropdown, and the store dropdown.
Acting on a low-stock item
On any alert row, click the ⋯ (three dots) on the right for three choices:
- Adjust Stock — opens a window where you toggle Add Stock or Remove Stock, enter a Quantity, add an optional Reason, and click Save Adjustment. Use this to record stock you found or received manually.
- Create Purchase Order — opens a window pre-filled with a suggested quantity to reorder and the product's supplier. Add notes and click Create Purchase Order to raise the order; you are then taken to the Purchase Orders page.
- View Product — opens the full product page.
The Export button downloads the alert list as a CSV file, and Refresh reloads the latest numbers.
The fastest way to restock: open Low Stock Alerts, find the item, click ⋯ → Create Purchase Order, check the suggested quantity, and confirm. You have raised a purchase order in three clicks. Learn more in Purchase Orders.
4. How Sales and Purchases Change Stock Automatically
You almost never edit stock numbers by hand. ninoPOS adjusts them for you every time something happens in the business:
ACTION STOCK GOES MOVEMENT TYPE
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Sell an item at POS .... DOWN ▼ SALE / OUT
Receive a purchase .... UP ▲ PURCHASE / IN
Transfer between stores .... DOWN here, TRANSFER
UP there
Record an adjustment .... UP or DOWN ADJUSTMENT
Mark items damaged/lost .... DOWN ▼ ADJUSTMENT
| When you… | ninoPOS automatically… |
|---|---|
| Complete a sale at the POS | Reduces the sold quantity from the selling store's stock. |
| Receive goods on a purchase order | Adds the received quantity to the chosen warehouse. |
| Transfer stock between locations | Reduces it at the source and adds it at the destination. |
| Refund or cancel a sale | Returns the quantity back into stock. |
| Record a manual adjustment or count | Corrects the quantity up or down and logs the reason. |
Every one of these leaves a trail. That is exactly what you see in the Stock Movement History window described earlier. Because the numbers update themselves, the quantity you see on the Stock Levels page is always the live figure.
If your on-screen quantity does not match what is physically on the shelf, do not overwrite it silently. Do a proper count and record the difference through Stock Adjustments or a physical stock count, giving a reason. This keeps a clean, honest record of what changed and why.
5. Reading Inventory Reports
For a deeper look, open Inventory → Inventory Reports in the sidebar. The page is titled Inventory Reports. Pick a report from the tabs across the top; each answers a different question:
| Report | Answers the question… |
|---|---|
| Stock Levels | How much of everything do I have across all warehouses? |
| Low Stock | Which products are below their minimum level? |
| Valuation | How much money is tied up in my stock, at cost and retail? |
| Movement | What has come in and gone out (IN / OUT / Adjustment / Transfer)? |
| Adjustments | What manual corrections were made, and why? |
| Transfers | What stock moved between my locations? |
| Product-wise | How is stock spread across individual products? |
| Warehouse-wise | How much stock sits in each warehouse or store? |
| Fast Moving | Which are my top-selling products? |
| Slow Moving | Which products have not sold recently (money sitting idle)? |
Filtering and exporting a report
Each report can be narrowed with filters such as a date range, warehouse, store, category and product. Set your filters, then click Refresh to run the report (or Clear Filters to reset). At the top of the page you can Export CSV to download the results into Excel or Google Sheets, or Print a paper copy.
- Slow Moving — spots stock that is not selling so you can discount it or stop reordering it. That is cash sitting on your shelf.
- Valuation — tells you how much money is invested in stock right now, which is useful for planning and for your accounts.
Common Questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need to update stock after every sale? | No. Sales at the POS reduce stock automatically. You only step in for corrections and counts. |
| Why is a product not showing in Low Stock Alerts? | It probably has no reorder level set. Add one on the product's edit page. |
| My total is right but one shop shows zero. Why? | Stock is tracked per location. The shop is empty even though the warehouse is full — transfer stock to the shop. |
| What does "Reserved" mean? | Stock promised to an unfinished order. It stays in Quantity but is removed from Available. |
| How do I add more stock? | Receive it against a purchase order, or record a stock adjustment. See the related articles below. |