Sometimes you need to take stock out of your saleable inventory without removing it from the system entirely — for example, to quarantine faulty or damaged goods, or to set items aside as demo stock. The Offline Inventory screen in the Back Office lets you do this. Items moved to Offline Inventory are no longer shown as available to sell in-store or online, but the system still keeps a record of them.
This article covers the following topics:
1) Accessing Offline Inventory
2) Adding an item to Offline Inventory
3) Moving stock out of Offline Inventory
4) Creating an inbound transfer for returned items
Accessing Offline Inventory
In the Back Office main menu, expand Stock Management and click Offline Inventory:
Using Offline Inventory with multiple stores
If you have a multi-store Cloud POS group, you'll see a warning if you try to move stock into the Offline Inventory of a store you're not currently logged in as. For example, if you're logged in as Store A but try to move stock belonging to Store B, you'll be asked to confirm before continuing.
Adding an item to Offline Inventory
There are two ways to move an item into Offline Inventory.
From the item card:
1) Open the item's card and go to the Inventory section:
2) Click the + button next to the Stock in Offline Inventory figure:
3) Check that the correct store is selected, along with the correct quantity. Choose the appropriate reason code from the dropdown menu, and add a comment explaining why the item is being moved. Then click Move Stock To Offline Inventory at the bottom of the panel:
From the Offline Inventory screen:
1) On the Offline Inventory screen, click Add Item on the bar near the bottom of the screen:
2) If you're a multi-store retailer, check that the correct store is selected at the top of the screen.
3) Use the search filters or wildcard search to find the item you want to add:
4) Click Select next to the item to open the details panel.
5) Check that the correct store, quantity and reason code are set, add a comment if needed, then click Add Stock To Offline Inventory.
Moving stock out of Offline Inventory
Once an item is sitting in Offline Inventory, you have three options for what to do with it:
- Move it back to Main Inventory, so it becomes available in-store and online again.
- Mark it as Returned to Supplier, so you can track it until it comes back.
- Mark it as Demo stock.
Marking an item as Demo removes it from stock
Unlike moving an item back to Main Inventory or marking it as Returned to Supplier, marking an item as 'Demo' removes it from stock completely. Only use this option once you're sure the item is no longer part of your saleable or trackable inventory.
To move stock out of Offline Inventory:
1) Use the filters on the Offline Inventory screen to find the item(s) you're looking for.
2) Tick the box to the left of each item you want to action:
3) Choose the relevant option from the buttons near the bottom of the screen:
Creating an inbound transfer for returned items
Once a faulty or damaged item has been fixed or replaced by your supplier and sent back to you, you can bring it back into stock using an inbound transfer.
1) On the Offline Inventory screen, click Show Items Returned to Supplier, then tick the box next to the item(s) you want to bring back into stock:
2) Click Create Inbound Transfer for Item. You'll see a confirmation message once the transfer has been created:
3) Click the link in the confirmation message to open the transfer, or navigate to it yourself via Purchasing & Transfers, then Transfers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a returned item go straight into Offline Inventory?
Yes. If a customer returns a faulty item at the Point of Sale, you can send it straight to Offline Inventory as part of processing the return, rather than adding it to Offline Inventory separately afterwards. See 'How do I process a return?' for details.
Do items in Offline Inventory still count in my reporting?
Items marked as 'Demo' are removed from stock completely and will not count as saleable stock. Items sitting in Offline Inventory for other reasons, such as being faulty or awaiting return to a supplier, are still tracked by the system — they're simply excluded from what's shown as available to sell in-store and online.
