Set Up Articles for Inventory Management

Inventory management in bessa allows you to link stock levels directly with your sales articles. This way, inventory is automatically updated with each sale, and you maintain oversight of your stock.

Enabling Inventory Management

Inventory management is configured in the Warehouse management tab when creating or editing an article.

Stock management: Enable this checkbox to activate stock tracking for this article.

Once enabled, the following functions are available:

• View stock levels per warehouse

• Book stock manually (stock up, stock out, stocktaking, transfer)

• Track bookings in the Stock History

The Warehouse management tab only appears with the Warehouse Management permission. In the article list you can show the Stock management column to see which articles have their stock tracked.

Simple Inventory Management

For articles sold as whole units, setup is straightforward:

1. Create or edit the article

2. Open the Warehouse management tab

3. Enable Stock management

4. Save the article

The inventory level is then automatically reduced by the booked quantity with each sale.

Example: You sell wine bottles as whole units.

• Article "Grüner Veltliner 0.75L" with inventory management enabled

• Each sale deducts 1 bottle from stock

Main Article and Recipes

For more complex scenarios – e.g., when a product consists of portions from a larger package – use the Main Article Link.

Concept

The main article link allows you to automatically reduce the inventory of a "main article" (e.g., a wine bottle or coffee package) when portion articles (e.g., 1/8 wine or espresso) are sold.

Important:

• Inventory management is only enabled on the main article

• Portion articles are linked via Select main article and Volume content

• Inventory management should not be enabled on the portion article itself

Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1: Create Main Article

Create an article of type Inventory for the base product:

1. Create new article

2. Type: Inventory

3. Name: e.g., "Coffee Package 1kg"

4. Warehouse management tab:

   • Enable Stock management

   • Volume content: the content of the package, e.g. 1 (for 1 kg)

5. Save

Step 2: Create Portion Article

Create the sales article and link it:

1. Create new article

2. Type: Article (Standard)

3. Name: e.g., "Espresso"

4. Warehouse management tab:

   • Stock management: not enabled

   • Select main article: Coffee Package 1kg

   • Volume content: 0.008 (= 8 grams)

5. Save

Calculating Volume Content

The Volume content is set on both articles: on the main article the content of the package, on the portion article the content of one portion. With every sale, bessa deducts the ratio of the two from the main article.

Formula: Deduction from main article = volume content of portion article ÷ volume content of main article

Practical Examples

Example 1: Wine by the Glass

Goal: A wine bottle is sold by the glass, and bottle inventory should be automatically updated.

Main Article (Type: Inventory):

• Name: Grüner Veltliner 0.75L

• Stock management: Enabled

• Volume content: 0.75

• Current Stock: 24 bottles

Portion Articles (Type: Article):

Result: After selling 6x 1/8 wine, exactly 1 bottle (6 × 0.125 = 0.75 L) is deducted from stock.

Example 2: Coffee Recipe

Goal: Track coffee bean consumption per cup.

Main Article (Type: Inventory):

• Name: Coffee Arabica 1kg

• Inventory Management: Enabled

• Current Stock: 5 packages

Portion Articles (Type: Article):

Result: Selling 125 espressos deducts 1 kg of coffee (125 × 8g = 1000g) from stock.

Example 3: Cocktails (Multiple Ingredients)

Goal: For cocktails, all ingredients should be deducted from inventory.

A recipe has no quantity per ingredient: each article in the recipe is booked exactly once per cocktail sold. The quantity therefore lives in a portion article of its own for each ingredient, linked to the bottle via Select main article and Volume content.

Main Articles (Type: Inventory, stock management enabled):

Portion Articles (Type: Inventory, stock management not enabled):

Recipes: The cocktails are created as regular articles, and each gets an article option of type "Stock" containing the portion articles:

Result: One Cosmopolitan sold deducts 0.057 bottles of vodka (0.04 ÷ 0.7), 0.03 bottles of Triple Sec, 0.015 litres of lime juice and 0.03 litres of cranberry juice.

Example 4: Burger with Components

Goal: With each burger sold, all ingredients should be deducted from inventory.

Here the main articles count in pieces: the volume content of the main article is the number of pieces in the package, the volume content of the portion article the number of pieces per burger.

Main Articles (Type: Inventory, stock management enabled):

Portion Articles (Type: Inventory):

Recipes (article option of type "Stock"):

Result: One Double Cheese deducts 0.1 packs of buns, 0.1 packs of patties (2 of 20), 0.03 kg of lettuce and 0.04 packs of cheddar (2 of 50).

Viewing and Managing Stock Levels

In the Warehouse management tab of an article, you'll find the Warehouse Stock section with a table showing current stock per warehouse.

Available Actions per Warehouse Row:

The booking dialogs are the same as in the warehouse view, see Edit Stock Levels in the Manager.

The Refresh button (🔄) reloads current stock data.

Avoiding Common Mistakes

Article Type "Inventory"

For pure inventory items that are not sold directly, use the article type Inventory. These articles:

• Do not appear on the order screen

• Are not printed on receipts or invoices

• Serve exclusively for stock tracking

More details on all article types can be found under Article Types.

Related Topics

• Articles

• Article Types

• Article Options

• Inventory Management

• Edit Stock Levels in the Manager

• Stock History

• Assigning Price Levels to Articles

FAQ

Can I manually correct stock levels? Yes, via stocktaking (☰ symbol) you can set the stock to a new value. The difference is recorded as a stocktaking booking.

What happens with a cancellation? When a sale is cancelled, the inventory level is automatically increased again.

Can an article have multiple main articles? No, an article can only be linked to one main article. For complex recipes with multiple ingredients, use Article Options of type "Stock". Each ingredient in it is a portion article of its own with its own main article, see Example 3 above.

Are negative stock levels prevented? When selling at the Sales Point, only if the warehouse's Allow negative stock level option is disabled, see Stock Levels When Selling. Manual bookings can always take the stock below zero. Review negative stock regularly and correct it via stocktaking.