# How inventory works

Where your stock is counted, what moves it, and why every movement carries a reason

Source: https://getolet.com/resources/help/inventory/inventory-overview/
Updated: 2026-10-15

Stock in OLET is counted per outlet, not per store. A product that has 12 at Main Street and 3 at the Airport kiosk has two separate numbers, and every screen that shows stock tells you which outlet it belongs to.

## Which products are counted

A product is counted only when **Track inventory** is on for it. Open the product, go to the **Inventory** tab, and the toggle is at the top of the section.

- **Tracking on.** OLET creates a stock record for the product at every active outlet, and every sale, receipt, transfer, return, and adjustment changes it.
- **Tracking off.** The product still sells normally, it just has no number to keep. Services, deposits, and anything you never run out of belong here.

Turning tracking off writes the remaining stock down to zero, so turn it off deliberately rather than as a way to hide a number you do not trust.

Two product shapes behave differently. A **variant product** is counted on each of its variants, never on the parent, so you order and count the individual variant. A **composite product** is counted through its components, so selling one reduces the components it is built from. On the product's **Components** tab, a read-only **Calculated cost** line per outlet sits under the **Total**, worked out from what the components cost at that outlet. It shows a dash when no component has a cost yet. See [Product variants](/resources/help/catalog/product-variants/).

## What moves stock

These are the things that change a stock number, and nothing else does.

| What happens | Effect on stock |
|---|---|
| A sale on the register | Down at the register's outlet |
| A refund on the register | Back up at that outlet |
| Receiving a purchase order | Up at the receiving outlet |
| Sending and receiving a transfer | Down at the source, up at the destination when it lands |
| Sending a supplier return | Down at the outlet |
| A manual adjustment | Up or down at one outlet, with a reason attached |
| An online order shipping from Shopify, when OLET is the stock master | Down at the shipping location's outlet, recorded as **Sale - Shopify** |
| A Shopify refund that puts items back on the shelf, when OLET is the stock master | Back up at that outlet, recorded as **Return - Shopify** |

You cannot type a new stock number directly. Even a correction goes through an adjustment, which is what keeps the history readable. See [Stock adjustments and reasons](/resources/help/inventory/stock-adjustments-and-reasons/).

## Why every movement carries a reason

Every one of those changes writes a line to the product's movement history: how much, which way, at which outlet, on which date, and who did it. Months later that history is what answers "we are 6 short, when did that happen".

That is also why an adjustment makes you pick a reason from a list you control. A count of adjustments is not useful. A count of adjustments labeled **Damaged** is.

## Where to find each job

The **Inventory** menu in the back office holds the documents that move stock between you and somewhere else:

- [Purchase orders](/resources/help/inventory/purchase-orders/), for buying stock in.
- [Reorder list](/resources/help/inventory/reorder-list/), for seeing what has hit its reorder point and turning it into an order.
- [Receive inventory](/resources/help/inventory/receive-inventory/), for booking in what has arrived.
- [Transfers](/resources/help/inventory/transfer-stock-between-outlets/), for moving stock between your own outlets.
- [Supplier returns](/resources/help/inventory/supplier-returns/), for sending stock back.
- [Stock adjustments and reasons](/resources/help/inventory/stock-adjustments-and-reasons/), for correcting a number in place.

Purchase orders, the reorder list, transfers, and supplier returns are each a separate feature. This feature depends on your plan. Check Settings > Billing to see what your plan includes.

## What next

- Set a product up to be counted: [Create a product](/resources/help/catalog/create-a-product/)
- See where your outlets come from: **Outlets and registers**