Feature
Purchase orders and sales orders against the same stock
An order system that does not touch stock is just a document folder. In SmartShelfKart a receipt against a purchase order raises the quantity, an allocation against a sales order reserves it, and a despatch releases it — so the position on screen is the position on the shelf.
Purchase orders: draft, send, receive, part-receive
A purchase order starts as a draft against a vendor. You add lines from the catalogue with quantities and agreed costs, and the order carries a status through its life rather than being a document that gets emailed and forgotten.
The part that matters is receiving. Suppliers routinely ship 80 of the 100 you ordered, and a system that only understands "received" or "not received" forces you to lie to it. Here a receipt is per line and per quantity: you record what physically arrived, stock rises by exactly that, and the order stays open for the balance. A second delivery closes it.
- Costs on the receipt feed price history, so you can see what you actually paid for a line over time rather than what the price list said.
- An open PO is visible against the product, so you do not double-order something already on its way.
- Reorder suggestions can be turned straight into a PO instead of being retyped.
Sales orders: allocate, despatch, bill
A sales order goes the other way. You take the order against a customer, allocate against available stock, and despatch — with the invoice created from the order rather than typed again.
Allocation is where the value is. Stock allocated to an order is committed: it still exists physically, but it is no longer available to promise to somebody else. Without that distinction two salespeople sell the same last unit, which is the single most common way a small business breaks a promise to a customer.
The Hold / Release pair covers the informal version of the same problem — a customer who has asked you to keep something back. Held stock is visible as held, with the reason and the person attached, and releasing it puts it back into availability rather than quietly changing a number.
Returns that unwind correctly
Returns are where hand-rolled systems fall apart, because a return is not the negative of a sale. Goods coming back may be resaleable, damaged, or destined back to the supplier, and each of those is a different outcome for the quantity.
| Return type | What happens to stock | What happens to money |
|---|---|---|
| Customer return, resaleable | Quantity goes back into available stock | Credit note against the customer |
| Customer return, damaged | Recorded as damage, not as sellable stock | Credit note against the customer |
| Return to vendor | Quantity leaves stock against the vendor | Recorded against the purchase |
Keeping damage separate from ordinary shrinkage is deliberate. If write-offs and miscounts land in the same bucket, the one number you most need — how much stock you are actually losing, and to what — becomes unreadable.
Vendors and customers carry their own history
Both sides of the order book are attached to a record that accumulates. A vendor shows what you have bought, at what prices, and how reliably orders were filled. A customer shows their orders, their invoices, what they have paid and what is outstanding — and a customer statement you can send when a conversation about money is needed.
The whole loop
Every arrow in that diagram writes a transaction. At the end of it, Profit & Loss can compute margin because it has both the cost you paid and the price you charged, from the same records, for the same units.
Questions
Can I receive a purchase order in parts?
Yes. Receipts are per line and per quantity. A partial receipt raises stock by what arrived and leaves the order open for the balance, so a split delivery does not require you to misrepresent what happened.
Does a sales order reserve stock?
Allocating against a sales order commits that quantity, so it is no longer available to promise elsewhere. Held stock works the same way for informal reservations, with the reason and person recorded.
Do invoices come from the sales order?
Yes. An invoice can be created from a sales order so lines, quantities and prices are not retyped. You can also raise a standalone invoice when there was no order.
Can I convert a low-stock alert into a purchase order?
Yes. The Reorder screen proposes quantities and those flow into a purchase order you can edit before sending.
How are returns to a supplier handled?
As an outward return against the vendor. Quantity leaves stock and the movement is recorded against the purchase, so the vendor record and the stock ledger both stay honest.
Start running your stock on something that adds up
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