Reading the stock movement trail
Every change to every item, what each movement type means, and how to trace a discrepancy.
Stock Movements is the ledger. Every change to every item lands here with a type, a quantity, a timestamp and — where it came from a job or an order — a reference back to it. Nothing changes stock without leaving a line.
The movement types
| Type | Caused by | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase | Receiving a purchase order | In |
| Manual Adjustment | A stock-take correction or opening balance | Either |
| Production Usage | Materials consumed by a job | Out |
| Waste | Paper spoiled and logged on a job | Out |
| Ink Refill | Filling a printer's tank | Out |
| Module Rollover | A whole ream or bottle finishing | Out |
| Reservation / Release | Materials held for a job, then freed | Neither — held, not spent |
| Return / Transfer | Stock sent back, or moved between locations | Either |
Module Rollover is not a second deduction
It is the whole ream or bottle coming off the unit count once its last piece is spent. The pieces themselves were already accounted for. See Partial reams and bottles.
Tracing a discrepancy
When the shelf and the screen disagree, work backwards from the ledger:
- 1Open the item and read its stock history newest-first.
- 2Find the last point where you know the figure was right.
- 3Read forward. Each movement should match something that really happened.
- 4The gap is usually one of: a delivery received but never entered, a job finished without a recipe, or ink poured in without a refill being recorded.
Correct with an adjustment, never by editing history
Movements are a record of what happened. Fix a wrong figure with a new manual adjustment carrying a note explaining why. That way the correction itself is auditable — and if the same discrepancy recurs, the notes tell you where the process is leaking.
Common causes of drift
- Products with no recipe. Jobs finish and deduct nothing — see Building a product recipe.
- Waste never logged. Spoiled sheets go in the bin but stay on the books.
- Ink poured without a refill entry. The one action that moves ink stock; skip it and stock never falls.
- Deliveries received late. Stock arrives physically days before it is entered.
Open Stock Movements
Related guides
Adding inventory items and opening stock
Create the materials you buy, set their unit and cost, and record what you already have on the shelf.
Partial reams and bottles
Why a whole unit only comes off the books when its last piece is spent — and what the "is it safe to say" prompt means.
Receiving stock
Full and partial receipts, batch references, and how received quantities reach your stock.