Maintaining Items

Can BigLedger raise purchase orders when stock runs low? Yes — from a minimum and maximum you type per location on the item’s stock record, counted in its base unit, and only when a replenishment run or the low-stock e-mail is set up to read them. This page covers that record: reorder levels, units, inventory categories and the serial tools. To create an item, see Maintaining the Item Master.

The thing to understand first: there are two item records

The document item (Doc Item Maintenance) is the commercial record: price, tax code, e-Invoice classification, the units you buy and sell in, and whether a document line can pick it. The merchandiser owns it; its guide is document item maintenance.
The inventory item (Inventory Item Maintenance) is the stock-keeping record that ledgers, balances, serial numbers and costs hang off. The inventory controller owns it, and this page is about it.

Creating a Basic Item in Doc Item Maintenance creates and links the inventory record for you, so always start there.

An item created directly in the Inventory Item Maintenance applet has no document item. Its FI Item Code field on the Main tab is blank, and it cannot be put on any document — not a sales order, not a purchase invoice — until somebody links a doc item to it from the other side. If you have an item that exists in stock reports but cannot be found when raising an invoice, this is why.

Meet GadgetSphere

GadgetSphere sets up a wireless earbud, GS-AC-EB100 (about RM 128). It arrives in cartons of 24 at the Klang Valley fulfilment centre and sells singly at 22 branches. Head office wants the carton recognised, reorder levels at the fulfilment centre and the three busiest branches, and to know when any of them runs low.

Finding the item

Inventory > Inventory Item Maintenance > Items

Export is how you audit levels. It exports the search result with every location’s minimum and maximum. Filter first: with no advanced search it takes the current page only, and it stops at 10,000 rows. Stock Availability, with its Min and Max columns switched on, shows the same levels across items.

There is no delete button. Retire an item by setting its status.

Step 1: Put the item in the right categories

There are two category lists, and they are not shared. A category made in one applet does not appear in the other.

List	Kept in	Read by
Document-item categories	Doc Item Maintenance › Item Category tab	Category-based price rules, at the till and on sales screens (pricing rules)
Inventory categories	This applet › Category Groups and Categories	Stock Level Monitoring, which alerts against levels set per category on its own template — not the item levels in Step 3

For the earbud, put it in the accessories category on the doc item, or the accessories promotion never matches it — with no error.

The inventory item’s own Item Category tab is a trap. Add and Remove change the screen, but nothing is saved (see Step 4). So an inventory category created today holds no items, and a monitoring template that uses it reports nothing. Until that changes, watch an item with its own levels (Step 3).

Step 2: Add alternative units of measure

Doc Item Maintenance › the item › Multi UOM tab — then check Item Edit › Multi Uom here.

Add units on the doc item. In the build served on 16 October 2026, a unit added or edited there is copied to this record with its ratio and barcode. A unit added here stays here: a stock take will scan it, but the sales invoice and purchase order unit lists read the doc item and will not show it.

For the earbud: base unit PCS, carton CTN at ratio 24 with the carton’s barcode.

Stock is counted in the base unit. A purchase invoice for 10 cartons stores the ratio and a base quantity of 240 on its line, and the ledger moves 240. Balances, levels, the low-stock e-mail and replenishment all work in pieces.

Step 3: Set reorder levels per location

Item Edit > Location tab

Type Min Qty and Max Qty in the grid. Leaving a cell saves both levels for that row with no message, so reopen the tab to confirm. For many items, use Min-Max Quantity Import File.

Type levels in pieces. The earbud’s levels:

Location	Min Qty	Max Qty	In cartons
Klang Valley fulfilment centre	96	288	4 to 12
`GS-KV-01`	12	36	½ to 1½
`GS-KV-03`, `GS-PEN-01`	8	24	⅓ to 1

A level is stored exactly as typed; no job works it out from sales or lead time. Choosing it is the planner’s job: what the location sells while a delivery is on its way, plus a margin. A level of 0 means “no level”.

What happens when the stock falls

On Saturday GS-KV-01 sells 20 and drops from 30 to 10.

What	When	What it does with 10 against 12 / 36
The sale	At the till	Moves the ledger. Nothing compares the balance with the level, and no order is raised
Low-stock e-mail (Settings › Email Notification here)	At its next scheduled run	Lists `GS-KV-01`: 10 is below 12. At exactly 12 it would not. You create this job; with no locations or recipients it sends nothing, silently
Stock Replenishment run	When started, or when its event comes round	Proposes 12 − 10 = 2 (minimum setting) or 36 − 10 = 26 (maximum setting)

Read every replenishment line before you generate. The run:

orders in PCS at ratio 1, never in cartons. When the fulfilment centre falls to 80, it proposes 288 − 80 = 208 (8⅔ cartons). Set Quantity To Approve to 216 (9 cartons) before GENERATE PO.
does not subtract stock already on order or in transit; it shows them on the line.
when it moves stock between locations, offers a branch that was not short the source’s whole balance.

Import with full rows. A blank minimum or maximum in the import file becomes 0 and switches that level off. Export, edit the export, then upload it.

Step 4: Fill in the details that other things read

Item Edit > Main tab

Read this tab; do not edit it. Its Save button never enables, so the fields on Main and Dimensions are maintained on the doc item. Two fields mislead:

GL Code here is read by nothing that posts. A journal takes the account from the document line, which copies the doc item’s GL code.
EAN Code here was copied once. The till scans the doc item’s barcode; the stock take and this listing scan this one. If they drift, fix the doc item and ask support for the scan-code alignment run.

Type and Sub Item Type cannot be changed after creation on either item screen. If an item was set up as the wrong type, it has to be retired and replaced — so check the type before you create, not after.

On Manage Image and Company, Add writes nothing (Company even shows Success). Do both on the doc item.

Step 5: Use the tools when something looks wrong

Trace Serial No — every movement of one serial number. Open it when a customer returns a unit under warranty and you need to know when and to whom you sold it.
Stock Card (a tab on the item) — the ledger lines for one location and date range. When a balance or an alert looks wrong, this finds the document that moved it.
Stock Aging Report — its Qty and Amount cells currently come back blank (see the reference page). Use Stock Report instead.

What success looks like

Location tab: levels at the locations you intended, in pieces — 12 / 36 at GS-KV-01.
Stock Availability with Min and Max columns on shows the same figures, so they were saved.
Multi Uom here and on the doc item both show CTN at ratio 24.
Doc item’s Item Category tab has the category your price rule uses.
Settings › Email Notification lists every location you gave a level, and its Last Run Time moves after the next scheduled run.
FI Item Code on Main is filled in. If it is blank, search Doc Item Maintenance for the code before you create anything.

Common mistakes

What goes wrong	What you see	The fix
Item created in the inventory applet only	It exists in stock reports but cannot be picked on any document; FI Item Code is blank	Create items from Doc Item Maintenance
No category on the doc item	Category price rules never match, with no error	Set it on the doc item’s Item Category tab
Levels typed in cartons	Alerts and orders come far too late	Retype the levels in pieces
Carton added only here	The count scans it; purchase orders do not offer it	Add units on the doc item
Expecting an order when stock falls	Nothing happens	Set up the low-stock e-mail and a replenishment event
Generating replenishment unread	Odd quantities, pieces instead of cartons, stock sent to branches that were not short	Set Quantity To Approve on every line first
Import with blank columns	Levels drop to 0 and stop alerting	Export, edit, re-import full rows
Editing Main, Company or Manage Image here	Nothing is saved	Edit on the doc item