There are 2 ways to configure stocks in Magento 2: to set up general settings for all the products or to deal with each product individually. For best results these two ways can be combined.
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1. Stock configuration for all the products
Go to STORES in the left sidebar of the admin panel and in the section SETTINGS choose CONFIGURATION.
Then expand CATALOG tab and click INVENTORY.
Choose your options in sections STOCK OPTIONS and PRODUCT STOCK OPTIONS. If you want to make fields editable just uncheck USE SYSTEM VALUE.
STOCK OPTIONS:
Decrease stock when Order is placed – this option will allow the system to decrease the quantity of stock when an order is placed.
Set Items’ Status to be in Stock When Order is Cancelled – enable to place items from cancelled orders back in stock.
Display Out of Stock Products – display out of stock products in the catalog page.
Only X left Threshold – when the quantity of products is lower than this value the information about last remaining inventory amount will be displayed on the product page.
Display products availability in Stock on Storefront – allows to show “In stock” and “Out of stock” messages on the product page.
PRODUCT STOCK OPTIONS:
Manage Stock – this option is enabled by default and used to count products in stock. It can be disabled if you sell products that can’t run out of stock.
Backorders – allows to place orders even if the product is out of stock.
Maximum Qty allowed in shopping cart – maximum number of products that can be placed in a single cart.
Out-of-Stock Threshold – the stock level at which “Out of stock” will be displayed on a product page.
Minimum Qty allowed in shopping cart – you may set minimum quantity for different customer groups (wholesalers, retailers etc).
Notify for Quantity Below – if the quantity is less than number entered in this field the information about the product will be added to LOW STOCK REPORT (see section 5 of this article).
Enable Qty Increments – gives the possibility to specify the number of the items that can be purchased, for example if the number is 5 then customer will be able to buy 5, 10, 15 etc items of the product.
Automatically Return Credit Memo Item to Stock – when the order is cancelled the products automatically return to inventory.
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2. Stock configuration for a single product
To configure the stock level of a separate product go to CATALOG in the left sidebar of the admin panel and choose PRODUCTS.
You will see the list of all products created in your store. Click on the necessary product and the card of this product with all the detailed information will be opened. There are 2 fields related to inventory there: QUANTITY and STOCK STATUS. You may find other options by clicking ADVANCED INVENTORY under QUANTITY field.
Please note. Once you create additional sources (described in the section 4 of this article the fields QUANTITY and STOCK STATUS will be replaced by special section SOURCES.
In the ADVANCED INVENTORY card you may change all the fields. To make them editable you need to uncheck USE CONFIG SETTINGS.
Manage Stock – this option is enabled by default and used to count products in stock. It can be disabled if you sell products that can’t run out of stock.
Qty – stock quantity of a product.
Out-of-Stock Threshold – the stock level at which “Out of stock” will be displayed on a product page.
Minimum Qty allowed in shopping cart – minimum number of products that can be placed in a single cart.
Maximum Qty allowed in shopping cart – maximum number of products that can be placed in a single cart.
Qty Uses Decimals – allows non-integer number of a product to be ordered.
Allow Multiple Boxes for Shipping – allows to sell the product separately, in many boxes.
Backorders – allows to place orders even if the product is out of stock.
Notify for Quantity Below – if the quantity is less than number entered in this field the information about the product will be added to LOW STOCK REPORT (see section 5 of this article).
Enable Qty Increments – gives the possibility to specify the number of the items that can be purchased, for example if the number is 5 then customer will be able to buy 5, 10, 15 etc items of the product.
Stock Status – allows to manually set product as out of stock.
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3. Managing stocks
If you have only one website you may skip this section as DEFAULT stock will do for your needs. But if you have more than one website (for example, for different countries) you may need to create more stocks as each website can only have a single stock assigned to it. At the same time the stock may be assigned to more than one website.
To create a new stock or manage existing stocks go to STORES in the left sidebar of your admin panel and in section INVENTORY click STOCKS.
To make changes to the existing stocks click EDIT. To create a new stock press button ADD NEW STOCK.
Here you may specify the name of the stock, assign it to the website in the section SALES CHANNELS and assign sources to it (see more about sources in p.4 of this instruction).
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4. Managing sources
A source is a place where a product is physically located: brick-and-mortar stores, warehouses, huge distribution centers etc. Once the sources are added you may set the quantity of the available products per any single source.
To create new sources go to STORES in the left sidebar of your admin panel and in section INVENTORY click SOURCES.
Here you may add new sources or manage the existing ones. If you do not need different sources you may use only DEFAULT one which is already created. Otherwise press button ADD NEW SOURCE.
Then enter the necessary data about your store. Only 4 fields are required: NAME, CODE (unique ID used when assigning to stock and exporting-importing data), COUNTRY and POSTCODE. Then save your changes.
Once you create new sources you should assign them to the appropriate stock (see section 3 of this article). Please note that you can’t add newly created sources to the DEFAULT stock. This could be the only reason why you may still need to create a new stock if you have only one website.
To assign stocks go to STORES – STOCKS in your admin panel and click EDIT on the necessary store.
The expand section SOURCES and press button ASSIGN SOURCES and choose the necessary sources from the list.
The sources in this section are placed in order of priority (from top to bottom). To change the order use drag-and-drop button to the left of the source code.
Please note if you created a new stock for your current website (where there are already products) you should change sources for all the existing products in your admin panel. Otherwise you will not see your products in your website.
You may do it manually for every single product in its product card (CATALOG – PRODUCTS in the admin panel)
Or you may change the source for all the products. To do it go to CATALOG – PRODUCTS and press FILTERS button to choose the products you wish.
Then select all the products that were previously filtered
And in dropdown ACTIONS choose TRANSFER INVENTORY TO SOURCE
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5. Reports
5.1. In the list of products in admin panel (CATALOG – PRODUCTS) there are 2 columns named QUANTITY PER SOURCE (or just QUANTITY if you have only one source created in admin panel) and SALABLE QUANTITY. Both show the actual quantity of products left. And both are updated automatically when products are sold. The only difference is that the first column is updated when the order is completed. And the second one – when the order just created (status of order – pending).
You may sort you products by QUANTITY. To do it you just need to click on the column name in the table. To change the sorting order click once more. Please note that you can’t sort products by QUANTITY PER SOURCE (when you have more than one sources created in admin panel).
5.2. If you want to export data to csv or xls files you may use LOW STOCK REPORT.
But before creating it it’s necessary to refresh the statistics. To do it go to REPORTS – LOW STOCK in your. admin panel.
Select all the items
Choose the update period (lifetime or last day) and press button SUBMIT.
Now you may create your report. Go to REPORTS – LOW STOCK in admin panel. Here you may find the list of products which stock quantity is lower that the number set in NOTIFY FOR QUANTITY BELOW field (see section 1 of this article above).
5.3. But you will see here only products with low stock. To see the quantities of all products you may use export option (SYSTEM – EXPORT). Here you may export STOCK SOURCES report (short report where you will see the quantities) or PRODUCTS report (with detailed information about all the products).
