Module 09 — Warehouses & Stock Management

Audience: Customer Success & Sales Agents
Goal: Explain how warehouses work in SmartSell, how to manage central stock, move stock to branches, and perform stock resets.

1. What Is a Warehouse in SmartSell?

A Warehouse is a central stock holding point — separate from branches. It is used by businesses that receive stock in bulk at one location and then distribute it to multiple branches (shops).

Key differences between a Warehouse and a Branch:

Example: A distributor receives 500 units of cooking oil at their main depot (warehouse) and distributes 100 units each to five retail branches. The warehouse tracks the remaining 200 units.

Not every business needs a warehouse. Small single-location businesses can manage stock entirely at the branch level.

2. Accessing Warehouses

Warehouses appear on the Dashboard as separate cards alongside business cards.

Each warehouse card shows:
- Warehouse name
- Main Warehouse badge (if it is the primary warehouse)
- Warehouse code
- Number of inventory items
- Total inventory value
- Location (city, country)

Tap a warehouse card to open the Warehouse Detail screen.

3. Warehouse Detail Screen

The Warehouse Detail screen shows all inventory held in that warehouse:

For each product:
- Product name
- SKU
- Current quantity in the warehouse
- Reorder point
- Unit cost
- Total value (quantity × unit cost)

4. Adding Stock to a Warehouse

Stock is added to a warehouse from the web portal, where managers can record incoming stock from suppliers.

On mobile, the warehouse detail is primarily for viewing current stock levels and navigating to stock resets.

5. Transferring Stock from Warehouse to Branch

Stock transfers from warehouse to branch are managed from the web portal.

The transfer process:
1. Log in to the web portal
2. Navigate to Inventory → Warehouse → select the warehouse
3. Initiate a Transfer
4. Select the destination branch
5. Select the products and quantities to transfer
6. Confirm the transfer

Once confirmed, the warehouse quantity decreases and the branch inventory increases by the transferred amount. A stock movement record is created on both sides.

Agent Note: When helping a customer who says "I sent stock to my shop but it's not showing," ask:
1. Was the transfer confirmed in the web portal?
2. Has the mobile app been refreshed (pull to refresh on the relevant screen)?
3. Was the correct branch selected as the destination?

6. Stock Movements

Every change in stock — whether from a sale, a transfer, a manual addition, or an adjustment — generates a stock movement record.

Access stock movements from the Business Detail screen → Stock Movements.

Each movement record shows:
- Product name
- Movement type (color-coded):
- Green = Inbound (stock added)
- Red = Outbound (stock removed via sale or transfer)
- Quantity change (+/-)
- Stock balance before the movement
- Stock balance after the movement
- Reason or notes
- Reference number and type
- Date and time
- Employee who recorded the movement

Filters:
- Branch selector
- Movement type
- Search by product name or SKU

Use case: A manager notices the stock count for a product is lower than expected. They open Stock Movements, filter by that product, and trace every change to find the discrepancy.

7. Stock Reset

A Stock Reset is used when the physical count of stock does not match the system count and the manager wants to correct it all at once. It is a destructive action — it sets stock levels to zero (or a specified count) and creates a new baseline.

Warning: A stock reset cannot be undone. Use it only when a full recount has been done and the current system numbers are confirmed to be wrong.

How to perform a stock reset (Branch):

From the Business Detail screen, navigate to Manage Stock, then look for the stock reset option, or go directly via the business menu.

1. Select the branch to reset (required)
2. Enter a reason (required — e.g. "Annual stock count reconciliation")
3. Add notes (optional)
4. Tap Reset
5. A confirmation alert appears: "Are you sure you want to reset stock for [Branch Name]?"
6. Confirm — the reset is executed

On success, a summary shows:
- Number of items reset
- Total value of inventory before the reset

How to perform a stock reset (Warehouse):

From the Warehouse Detail screen, tap Reset Warehouse Stock. The same fields apply: branch/warehouse selection, reason, and confirmation.

Agent Note: If a customer says "I accidentally reset the wrong branch," the data cannot be recovered automatically. This is a critical situation — escalate to your team lead or support engineering immediately.

8. Stock Search

From the Business Detail screen, tap Manage Stock to access the Stock Search screen.

This screen allows searching across all products in a branch's inventory:
- Type at least 2 characters in the search bar to trigger results
- Select the correct branch from the branch selector
- Results show product name, SKU, current quantity, reorder point, and unit cost

Tap any product to open the Add Stock modal and enter a quantity to add.

Summary

Previous Module → 08 — Reports & Business Analytics
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