One of the most common causes of wrong stock figures is re-keying sales twice. Here is how DavoBooks keeps inventory and sales moving together, and how to set it up correctly.
Stock records and sales records drift apart for one simple reason: somebody has to type the same transaction into two places. DavoBooks removes that step by linking invoice lines to real stock items, so a sale and its quantities are the same event.
Start with clean stock items
Every product you sell from stock should exist as a stock item with a unit of measure, a selling price and an opening quantity. Invoice lines are then built by selecting the item rather than typing a description, which means prices fill in automatically and the quantity is known.
- Use one item per sellable unit - avoid vague items such as 'miscellaneous'.
- Record the opening quantity before you start invoicing, otherwise the first deduction has nothing to deduct from.
- Keep the unit of measure honest. If you buy in cartons and sell in pieces, set the conversion up once rather than dividing it in your head at the counter.
What happens when the invoice is settled
When you confirm payment against an invoice, DavoBooks allocates the payment to the invoice and reduces the stock quantities that were attached to its lines. The same pattern applies at the point of sale, where completing a sale updates inventory and the ledger together.
Because the deduction is tied to the payment rather than to the moment an invoice was drafted, your stock figure reflects goods you have actually been paid for, and your receivables figure reflects what is still outstanding.
When to adjust stock manually
Manual adjustments still have a role: breakages, samples, stock counts and supplier corrections. Keep them deliberate and few, and always record a reason so an auditor can tell a correction apart from a mistake.
- Do a physical count on a fixed schedule, not only when something looks wrong.
- Adjust one item at a time with a written reason.
- Review low stock alerts weekly so you reorder before you run out.
The result
When sales, stock and payments update each other, three reports you already rely on become trustworthy at the same moment: stock valuation, gross profit and customer balances. That is the difference between month-end being a rebuild and month-end being a review.