How to manage stock levels, alerts, and ideal quantities – Timely

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Tracking quantities of products sold is key for businesses who sell products in addition to delivering services. In this article, you will learn how to manage stock levels, alerts, and ideal quantities. For guidance on ordering stock, see our help guide How to create a stock order.

Timely note: this feature is only available to businesses on our Elevate and Innovate plans. For more information on viewing your current plan, see our help guide How to view your Timely plan. If you need to upgrade in order to add a supplier, see How to change your Timely plan for steps on how to do this.

How to adjust your stock levels

You can adjust the stock level for products at any time, this is great for adding new stock after receiving an order, or making any adjustments after you complete a stocktake. To adjust the stock levels of an individual product:

1 Head to setup from the main menu in your Timely account dashboard, and click products.

2 Make adjustments by clicking the adjust button next to a product. This will open a pop up for you to make your stock adjustment. Choose the location you want to adjust stock for, and decide what kind of adjustment you'd like to make:

Set stock level: set a new stock level
Add stock: add x amount of stock
Reduce stock: reduce stock by x amount

3 Once you've made your adjustment, choose an adjustment reason and click save.

Timely note: you can also adjust stock levels by choosing edit from the three dots on the right hand side and scrolling down to stock levels on the edit product page.

How to set threshold alerts

Once products are in stock, you can set an alert for when a product quantity drops below a certain level.

1 From the setup > products page, click edit next to the product and head to the stock section.

2 If a product is unlimited then the option to add an alert won't be shown.

3 As soon as a stock level is recorded, you can adjust the level in the alert field.

4 If you'd like to be able to sell a product, even when the system says it's out of stock mark the checkbox allow product to be sold even when it's out of stock.

5 To be notified by email when stock levels drop below this threshold check the send emails when available stock reaches the alert limit check box.

6 When you are ready, click save to apply your changes.

How to set your ideal stock levels

Once products are in stock, you can set the ideal level that you would like to maintain, these are referred to as ideal quantities. Having your ideal stock level set will allow you to create new stock orders with just a few clicks as Timely will know which products need topping up, and exactly how many to order. To do this:

1 Head to setup from the main menu in your Timely account dashboard, then click on the products option.

2 Choose the product you wish to change, and click edit, then head to the stock control section. Now you can enter the stock level in which you would like to maintain.

3 To do this, adjust the ideal field. When you are ready, click save to apply your changes.

Timely note: when a product reaches goes under the ideal level, it will show up when you select the top up filter when creating a new stock order. When you choose to add a product with an ideal quantity set, we will set the order quantity to the amount required to get your current stock levels back to that ideal quantity.

How to view stock change history

Every stock adjustment action will be recorded and viewable through the product history. The staff member who made these changes will also be included. To view the stock change history, go to the history section when editing a product. Whenever stock levels are changed, associated sales will be checked and the stock levels will be offset against these manual adjustments.

Timely note: when you add a product to an invoice, the stock level will be decreased accordingly once the sale is completed. Product sales will not show up as stock adjustments in the history.

How to report on stock levels

When it comes to tracking your stock levels, you have a couple of reporting options. These reports can be found by heading to the reports tab. There are two options:

Stock levels report

To view a list of all of your retail products and their current levels, choose the stock levels report (in the financial reports section). You can then select a location and click the view report button to generate the report.

The report will show you a summary of your current stock levels across your locations, as well as a detailed list of products. You will be able to view the quantity of stock available, the alert threshold, as well as the prices and value of stock on hand.

Timely note: this report can only be run for today's date, so it's not possible to view this report for a past date. We recommend regularly exporting this report in its current state, if you require that information for future list e.g. run the report on the first day of every month.

Stock movement report

The stock movement report allows you to track any changes in stock levels within a certain date range. This gives you a list of all your retail products and internal stock, then details their starting level and any increases or decreases during that date range.