Stock Transfers
Move inventory between business units — where transfers live, the fields, the statuses, and what happens on approval.
A stock transfer moves inventory from one business unit to another. No stock is created or destroyed — the total quantity and total inventory value across the business remain unchanged. The only change is which unit holds the stock. No journal is posted: an item carries one average cost across the business, so moving quantity moves value with it.
Where Transfers Live
Transfers are managed from the Stock tab of a business unit (Operations → Business Units → open a unit → Stock → Transfers). The tab has three sub-tabs — Inventory, Transfers, Allowed Items — and three actions:
| Action | Who starts it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer Stock | The sending unit | Opens the Bulk Stock Transfer dialog: one destination, or several destinations each with their own item lines. See Stock Transfers Between Centers for the dialog. |
| Request Stock | The receiving unit | Creates a transfer request to another unit ("Requesting from", "Need by", the items and quantities, notes). The source unit fulfils it by issuing a Transfer Note, which becomes a Pending transfer. See Requesting stock. |
| Import | The sending unit | Intended to bulk-create a transfer from a spreadsheet. It does not currently work — see the warning below. |
From an item's page under Inventories, the Transfer Request shortcut (pick a location first) deep-links to that unit's Transfers sub-tab with the item pre-filled.
The button opens the import dialog, but the import type it asks the server for does not exist, so the upload fails with an unknown-import-type error and nothing is created. Create transfers with Transfer Stock instead. This is a defect, not a permission or file problem — a different spreadsheet will not fix it.
Transfer Fields
| Field | Required? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | Yes | Single Destination, or Multiple Destinations (one block per destination, each with its own item lines). |
| Transfer Date | Yes | The date the physical transfer occurs (defaults to today). This is the movement's business date. |
| Notes | No | Free-text reason, routing instructions, or context for this transfer. |
| Destination | Yes | The business unit receiving the stock. The sending unit is the one whose Stock tab you are on. |
| Items to Transfer | Yes | One line per item with the quantity. Only items stocked at the sending unit are offered; the available quantity is shown per line and the dialog validates each quantity before submit. |
What Moves, and When
A transfer changes where quantity sits, not what it is worth. Because an item has one average cost across the business, there is nothing to reclassify — the Inventory account total is unchanged and no journal is written. Value per location is always quantity × the item's average cost.
Transfer Status Lifecycle
| Status | Meaning | Stock Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | Created (by Transfer Stock, by fulfilling a request, or by import) and awaiting approval by the receiving unit | No stock impact — the source still shows full stock |
| Completed | Approved by the receiving unit | Source stock decreases and destination stock increases at that moment |
| Cancelled | Cancelled while Pending, or a Completed transfer that was deleted | No stock impact — a deleted Completed transfer reverses its movement by becoming Cancelled |
Every transfer is numbered TRF plus a six-digit sequence (TRF000001), allocated per business at the moment it is created, so it can be quoted on a delivery note or in a phone call.
Transfer requests have their own statuses — Submitted, Fulfilled, Cancelled, Rejected — and, unlike transfers, are created without a reference number. See Requesting stock.
Approving a Transfer
The receiving unit approves. On its Stock tab → Transfers → Receiving, each Pending transfer has Approve and Cancel; the sending unit sees the same transfer under Sending. Approving flips the status to Completed — that is the only point at which stock moves. History lists completed transfers, and the view action prints, downloads or shares the Transfer Note (pending) or approval note (completed).
If you discover an error after approval, the transfer cannot be edited. Either delete it (it becomes Cancelled and its movement is reversed) or create a reverse transfer from the destination back to the source.
Common Transfer Scenarios
Warehouse restocking outlet: Central warehouse ships goods to a sales outlet that is running low. A bulk transfer document covers all items being shipped in the same delivery run.
Inter-branch stock balancing: One branch has excess stock of a slow-moving item while another branch is out of stock of the same item. A transfer balances the inventory without purchasing more.
Correcting a wrong receiving location: Stock was booked into the wrong unit on the goods receipt. A transfer moves it to the correct unit. Because this is a correction, the date should match the original receipt date.
Production unit replenishment: Raw materials are held in the main warehouse and need to be moved to the production unit before a production batch begins — the production unit can raise a Request Stock for exactly what the batch needs.
Related
- Requesting stock — the other direction: asking a unit to send stock
- Stock transfers between centers — the Transfer Stock dialog in detail
- Allowed items — which items a unit can hold at all
- Stock overview — per-unit quantity after a transfer completes
- Movement history — the transfer-in and transfer-out rows
- Business units — the units on either end