Settings for Trading Products Into Negative Stock

Merchanter offers flexible configuration options to accommodate different business approaches to inventory management, particularly when dealing with potential stock shortages. The system provides three distinct methods for handling situations where order fulfilment would result in negative stock levels, allowing you to align system behaviour with your team's operational preferences and stock control procedures.

1. Allow negative stocks - You can configure the system to permit order picking and dispatches even when insufficient stock is available, operating on the assumption that your team will promptly receive incoming deliveries to balance these temporary negatives. 
2. Negative stocks with warnings - You can implement warning messages that alert users when their actions would create negative stock, providing reminders to arrange stock replenishment while still allowing them to proceed if necessary. 
3. No Negative Trading - For stricter inventory control, the system can be configured to completely block dispatches that would result in negative stock, requiring staff to either substitute products, create backorders for out-of-stock items, or cancel the dispatch until stock issues are resolved.

The right negative stock setting is like a good safety net—it should catch problems without tripping up your team's workflow.  System controls can be useful, but the limitations of ‘computer says no’ to dispatching an item when you are stood there with it in your hand, can lead to mis-recording of the dispatch and corrupting your stock control records.

This guide will walk you through locating and configuring these settings, explaining when each option should be implemented based on your business requirements and inventory management strategy.

Configuring Negative Stock Settings in Merchanter

Merchanter provides three distinct configuration options for managing how your system handles potential negative stock situations during order fulfilment. These settings allow you to balance operational flexibility with inventory control based on your business requirements.

Accessing the Configuration Settings

To modify these settings, ensure you are logged in with a user account possessing the Prime role. 
Navigate to Settings → Organisation Settings → Ledger Settings. In the window that appears, select the r Options tab and then the orders tab, where you will find the negative stock configuration options.

Configuration Option 1: Permit Negative Stock

When “Allow dispatching negative stocks” is ticked

Your team can freely pick and dispatch orders even when insufficient stock is available. The system will display a warning indicator on the order line, noting the stock shortage.

And during the picking or dispatch process, a similar warning appears on the line.

However, no barriers prevent the dispatch from proceeding, allowing the product quantity to go into negative figures with the expectation that stock will be replenished promptly to balance the inventory.

Configuration Option 2: Warn with Override Capability

With Allow dispatching negative stocks unticked and Allow overriding negative stock warnings ticked,

users encounter the same warning indicators on order lines and during picking/dispatch processes. However, this configuration adds an important control measure—a confirmation tick box that users must select to acknowledge they are intentionally dispatching the product into negative stock.

 If left unticked, the user will receive this warning. 

This approach maintains operational flexibility while ensuring staff consciously decide to proceed despite stock shortages, and hopefully helps them to remember that they will need to resolve the stock discrepancy promptly.

Configuration Option 3: Strict Block with Alternatives

When both “Allow dispatching negative stocks” and “Allow overriding negative stock warnings" are unticked,

The system implements strict controls against negative stock situations. Users see the standard warnings on order lines and during the picking or dispatching processes, but instead of override options, they encounter a pop-up notification preventing further progress.

At this point, staff must choose from three alternative actions: substitute the product with a similar available item if customer agreement is obtained, create a back order for the product to be processed once stock arrives, or cancel the process and seek guidance from other team members to resolve the stock shortage.

Each configuration offers different levels of control, allowing you to tailor the system to match your inventory management policies and operational workflows.