Skip to content

Inventory — Workflow

Overview

The Inventory feature supports day-to-day inventory operations (requests, entries, movements, adjustments) and—once fully validated—will connect with Purchasing and Cost Centers for automated receiving and costing.

For the user-facing screens involved in this feature, see: Transactions.

Scope of this documentation

This documentation covers what is implemented today.

Items marked as Planned / Upcoming describe intended future behavior and may change.

Roles involved

  • Requesters

    • Request inventory items for a project or department (inventory requests).

  • Inventory / Warehouse staff

    • Register inventory entries, move items between locations, and perform adjustments when required.

  • Purchasing and Cost Center stakeholders (Planned / Upcoming)

    • Integrations may enable receiving from Purchase Orders and cost center impacts for departments/projects.

Core concepts

Inventory is built on catalogs

Inventory operations depend on two core catalogs:

  • Products: where items are created (SKU, UoM, type, category, attributes, etc.)

  • Warehouse: where warehouses and internal locations are defined

Warning

You cannot meaningfully use Inventory Management unless Products and Warehouse/Locations are configured.

Status lifecycle

Many inventory records are status-driven (as shown in the UI). Common statuses used in Inventory include:

  • PEND — Pending

  • RDY — Ready

  • FINA — Finalized

  • REJC — Rejected

  • CANC — Cancelled

  • PURC — Purchasing-related status (used in some records)

Info

For system-wide status guidance, see: Status

Note

For the global SARA model of record lifecycles and pipelines, see: Workflows & Pipelines

Workflow

Workflow steps

  1. Inventory requests (issue to project/department)
  2. Inventory entry (receiving into stock)
  3. Movements (internal transfers)
  4. Adjustments (controlled add/remove)
  5. Pending items (planned)

Note

This feature follows SARA’s standard record lifecycle model.

See: Workflows & Pipelines

Inventory requests (issue to project/department)

Used when stock is requested from inventory for a project or a department. This flow typically includes request creation, review/processing, and delivery/issuance of material to the requester.

Inventory entry (receiving into stock)

Used to add stock into a warehouse/location.

  • Implemented today: manual entry

  • Planned / Upcoming: receiving from Purchase Orders, partial receipts, returns

Movements (internal transfers)

Used to move stock between locations (for example: from a receiving area to a rack/bin).

Adjustments (controlled add/remove)

Used to add or remove stock manually (for corrections, controlled removals, or operational needs).

Warning

Adjustments should be restricted to authorized roles due to their impact on quantities and future costing.

Pending items (planned)

Planned / Upcoming: expected items that are pending arrival based on purchasing activity (e.g., open Purchase Orders not yet received).

Setup & dependencies

  • Products and Warehouse/Locations must be configured before Inventory Management can be used effectively.

  • Location hierarchy is not strictly enforced by the system, so consistent modeling is recommended.

Note

Configuration and permission assignment are maintained through: Control Panel

Exceptions & operational notes

  • Adjustments should be restricted to authorized roles due to their impact on quantities and future costing.

  • Some functionality is intentionally marked as Planned / Upcoming (e.g., Pending Items from open Purchase Orders).

Permissions

Permissions

Access and actions are permission-driven. See: Permissions