Glossary
Available inventory
Also called: On hand vs available
Available inventory is the stock a customer can still buy. It is what you hold on hand, minus what is already promised to other orders.
Shopify shows both. People read the wrong one all the time.
The four states
- On hand is everything physically in the building
- Committed is on hand but already sold, waiting to be picked
- Unavailable is damaged, or reserved for something else
- Available is what is left, and the only one your storefront sells from
On hand 40, committed 12, available 28. All three numbers are correct at once. Available can go below zero, but only if you have allowed backorders on that line.
Which one to trust
Available, for anything a customer sees. On hand, for anything you are counting.
A stocktake counts on hand, because the twelve committed units are still on the shelf until somebody picks them.
Where it goes wrong
Somebody sees available 28 during a count, finds 40 on the shelf, and adjusts the number down by twelve. Twelve real units are now invisible, and the next order for them fails.
The other one is a picked order that never got marked fulfilled. The units are committed for weeks, available stays low, and the line looks like a stockout while the stock sits in a box by the door. Check your oldest unfulfilled orders before you reorder anything.
Related terms
Stockout
Also called: Out of stock
A stockout is running out of something a customer wanted to buy. The lost sale is usually the smallest part of the cost.
Backorder
A backorder is an order for something you do not have in stock yet, taken on the promise that it is coming.
Stock accuracy
Stock accuracy is how often the number on screen matches the number on the shelf, counted line by line rather than in total.