How to work out a restock cost and correct a stock count

Two jobs on What is Inventory? (Selling › Inventory) start from a product's row: pricing a restock before you commit to it, and fixing a stock count that is wrong. The second one changes your live Shopify store, so read it through before you use it.

How do you work out what a restock costs?

Read the Fill cost column. It is the Reorder figure multiplied by the product's unit cost, which is the Cost per item recorded on the product in Shopify.

The line above the list adds it up across every row on screen, such as 12 to restock · ~$8,450 to fill · ~$19,200 sales at risk. The last figure is roughly what the at-risk products would sell while you wait for a delivery, at your suppliers' lead times.

Those two figures together make the case. One is what the order costs, and the other is what not placing it costs.

Fill cost shows on the ranked views, At risk now, Everything low, All stock and your saved lists.

How do you price one supplier's order?

Filter to that supplier first, so the total is the total for that order. Open Everything low, press the filter button beside the search box, and choose the vendor under All vendors.

At Fairgreen Golf Co., Priya Raman filters to Portside Mills every Monday. The line above the list then reads as that week's Portside Mills order, and Draft N purchase orders turns it into one. See How to find out what you need to reorder.

Why is a fill cost blank?

For one of two reasons. Either the Reorder figure is zero, which is true of most healthy products, or the product has no Cost per item in Shopify.

Tideswell shows nothing rather than guessing. Fill in Cost per item for your main lines in Shopify, and their fill cost appears the next time the list loads.

What do you need before you correct stock?

Two things:

• Change stock, receiving and store settings in Settings › Permissions. It starts at lead, and the Correct stock button shows only to people who have it. See How to set who can do what.
• A Shopify connection that is allowed to change stock. If Settings › Integrations shows your Shopify store as Reconnect, with a note that receiving is failing, an admin presses Re-authorize permissions and approves the screen Shopify shows. See How to manage integrations, your workspace name and the audit log.

A correction changes your live store straight away. Orders and reports in Shopify see the new number the moment you confirm, so check it before you press the final button.

Where is the Correct stock button?

At the end of each row on Reorder now, and on the ranked views, Everything low, All stock and your saved lists.

Oversold and Dead stock rows have no button. To correct an oversold product, open Reorder now: it lists everything at 5 or fewer, oversold products first.

How do you correct a count?

1. Press Correct stock on the product's row. A small box opens in the row, showing the current figure, such as On hand 14 →.
2. Type the new on-hand number and press Update stock. Press Cancel to close the box without changing anything.
3. A box headed in red, Update Shopify stock?, lists the new number, the product, the location and the current figure.
4. Press Yes, set stock to make the change, or Cancel to go back.

A message then names the product, the new number and the location. Check it landed where you meant.

Enter a whole number. An empty box gives Enter a number. and a decimal gives Enter a whole number., and the confirm box opens once the number is whole.

Which number are you setting?

On hand: the physical count at the location that ships your orders. The red box names that location before you confirm.

The In stock column shows a different figure. It is on hand minus units already sold to orders that have not shipped yet, so count the shelf and enter what is physically there.

Why was my correction refused?

Because the stock changed between the page loading and your confirming. The message gives the current figure, and refusing means your count never overwrites somebody else's.

Reload the page so the row shows the new figure. Then decide whether your count is still right, and enter it again.

Being refused is the safe outcome. Otherwise two people counting the same shelf would have the second one silently win.

What if it says the stock updated but the audit record did not save?

Take the message at its word. It ends No need to retry.

The number reached Shopify. Only Tideswell's own note of who made the change was not kept, so leave the count as it is.

What if it says there are too many stock updates?

Wait a minute and try again. The message confirms nothing was changed, so trying again is safe.

When should you order rather than correct?

Correct a count when the number is wrong. Order when the number is right and too low.

An oversold product is often the first case: a breakage or a miscount rather than real demand. Checking saves buying stock you already have. See How to find items running out, oversold, or not selling.

When the shortfall is real, take it to a purchase order. See How to write a purchase order.

When should you count rather than correct?

When a whole wall or location is off, not one product. A count reviews every difference at once and posts them to Shopify together, instead of one correction at a time.

See How to count your stock.