Tracking Inventory¶

Know exactly what you have, where it is, and where it went — every receipt, issue, transfer, and adjustment in one place.

What You'll Learn¶

• How to record inventory transactions (receipts, issues, transfers, adjustments, and more)
• How to track filament spools by individual spool weight
• How to run cycle counts to reconcile physical stock with system records
• How to use the reconciliation report to detect ledger drift on a per-item basis
• How to review and action held transactions that require approval

Prerequisites¶

• Staff access to FilaOps
• At least one product in your catalog (see Managing Your Product Catalog)
• At least one location set up (see System Settings)

Understanding Transaction Types¶

Every inventory movement in FilaOps is recorded as a transaction. The system supports these types, each appearing as a color-coded badge throughout the interface:

The system also records internal types you will see in the transaction history but cannot manually create: reservation (materials allocated to a production order), reservation_release (allocation reversed), shipment (automatic issue when a sales order ships), and reconciliation_baseline (physical count posted through the reconciliation tool).

The Inventory Transactions Page¶

Navigate to Inventory > Transactions in the sidebar. This page is your main ledger for recording and reviewing all inventory movements.

Recording a Transaction¶

1. Click + New Transaction.

2. Fill in the required fields:

   • Product — Select the item (required). Choose from the dropdown, which lists products by SKU and name.
   • Transaction Type — Choose from Receipt, Issue, Transfer, Adjustment, Consumption, or Scrap. Defaults to Receipt.
   • Location — Where this transaction occurs. If left blank, defaults to your primary warehouse (Main Warehouse).
   • Quantity — The amount in the product's inventory unit (supports decimals).
   • Cost per Unit — Optional. The unit cost for this transaction; used for COGS and costing reports.

3. Add optional details:

   • Reference Type — Link the transaction to a source document: Purchase Order, Production Order, Sales Order, or Adjustment.
   • Reference ID — The numeric ID of the linked document.
   • Lot Number — For lot-tracked materials; enables traceability back to a supplier batch.
   • Serial Number — For serialized items.
   • Notes — Free-text notes explaining why this transaction happened.

4. Click Create Transaction.

Filtering Transactions¶

Use the three filter dropdowns above the transaction table to narrow the list:

• Product — Show transactions for a specific item.
• Type — Show only receipts, issues, transfers, etc.
• Location — Show transactions at a specific location.

The table reloads automatically when you change a filter.

Reading the Transaction Table¶

Pending Approvals¶

When a transaction would drive available stock negative (on-hand minus already-allocated), FilaOps holds it for review rather than rejecting it outright. Held transactions are excluded from COGS calculations until a staff member resolves them.

The Pending Approvals panel appears at the top of the Inventory Transactions page. It is collapsed by default — click the header to expand it and see the count of transactions waiting for action.

Reviewing a Held Transaction¶

Each held transaction row shows the product SKU and name, transaction type, quantity, linked reference, the user who created it, and any notes. You have two options:

• Approve — A browser prompt asks for a reason. After you enter a reason, the transaction is applied to the on-hand quantity immediately.
• Reject — A modal asks for a void reason. The transaction row is kept for audit purposes but on-hand is never changed. Rejected (voided) transactions are excluded from all future calculations.

Reconciliation — Items Needing a Count¶

The Reconciliation panel (on the Inventory Transactions page, below Pending Approvals) compares each item's stored on-hand quantity against the running sum of its transaction ledger since the last physical baseline. Items where stored on-hand differs from the ledger sum are flagged as drifted. Items that have never had a physical count posted are flagged as uncounted.

Reconciliation Table Columns¶

Toggle Show drifted items only to hide clean rows. Click Refresh to reload the data.

Posting a Physical Count for One Item¶

For drifted or uncounted items, click Count to open a count entry dialog:

1. The dialog shows the item's SKU, name, and current stored quantity.
2. Enter your Counted quantity — the number you physically found on the shelf.
3. Optionally enter Notes (for example, shelf count, bin A3).
4. Click Post count.

FilaOps posts a reconciliation_baseline transaction, stamps the item's baseline timestamp and baseline on-hand, and refreshes the report. Future drift calculations start from this new baseline.

Material Spools¶

If you work with filament or other spool-based materials, FilaOps tracks individual spools so you can see exactly how much material is left on each one and trace material usage back to specific production orders.

Navigate to Inventory > Spools in the sidebar.

The Spools Table¶

Each row shows:

• Spool Number — Your unique identifier for this physical spool
• Material — The material name and SKU
• Weight — Current weight and initial weight in grams (e.g., 750.3g / 1000.0g), with a color-coded progress bar
• Status — Active, Empty, Expired, or Damaged
• Location — Where the spool is stored

Weight Progress Bar Colors¶

FilaOps automatically marks a spool as Empty when its weight drops below 50 g.

Filtering Spools¶

• Search field — Find spools by spool number, material SKU, or material name
• Status dropdown — Show only Active, Empty, Expired, or Damaged spools

Adding a Spool¶

1. Click + Add Spool.

2. Fill in the spool details:

   • Spool Number — A unique identifier (required). Cannot be changed after creation.
   • Material — Which material product this spool contains (required). The dropdown shows material-type products from your catalog.
   • Initial Weight (g) — The starting weight in grams (required). For a standard 1 kg spool, enter 1000.
   • Current Weight (g) — How much material is currently on the spool in grams. Defaults to the initial weight for a brand-new spool.
   • Location — Where the spool is stored. Recommended — spools without a location cannot update the inventory record when weight changes.
   • Supplier Lot Number — The manufacturer's lot or batch number; used for traceability.
   • Expiry Date — When the material expires (useful for hygroscopic materials such as nylon or TPU).
   • Notes — Any additional details about the spool's condition.

3. Click Add Spool (or Save in the modal).

Editing a Spool¶

Click Edit on the spool row to open the edit modal. From there you can update:

• Status — Active, Empty, Expired, or Damaged
• Location — Change or clear the storage location (sending an explicit empty value clears the location)
• Notes — Update or clear condition notes

Spool Usage and Traceability¶

Each spool maintains a complete history of the production orders that consumed material from it:

• From a spool, you can see every production order that used it and the grams consumed per order.
• From a production order, you can see which spool(s) supplied the material.

This bidirectional traceability is useful for quality investigations — if a finished part is defective, you can trace back to the exact supplier lot number and identify all other production orders that used the same material.

Cycle Counts¶

A cycle count is a physical inventory audit — you count what is actually on the shelf, enter those numbers, and FilaOps calculates the variances and posts adjustment transactions. This keeps your system quantities aligned with reality.

Navigate to Inventory > Cycle Count in the sidebar.

How Cycle Counts Work¶

graph LR
    A[Set count reference & default reason] --> B[Filter items to count]
    B --> C[Enter counted quantities]
    C --> D[Click Submit Count]
    D --> E[Review Variance modal opens]
    E --> F{Adjustments correct?}
    F -- Yes --> G[Confirm & Post]
    F -- No --> C
    G --> H[Adjustments and GL journal entries written]

Step 1: Set Up the Count¶

At the top of the page, configure your count session before entering any quantities:

• Count Reference — Auto-generated as Cycle Count YYYY-MM-DD. Edit this to add specifics, for example Cycle Count 2026-06-20 — Shelf A.

• Default Reason — Required for accounting compliance. Applies to all variances unless you override it per item in the table. Options are:

  • Physical count variance
  • Damaged/defective - scrapped
  • Found in alternate location
  • Data entry error correction
  • Theft/loss suspected
  • Received but not recorded
  • Shipped but not recorded
  • Sample/testing usage
  • Other - see notes

• Fill Current Qty — Prefills every Counted Qty field with the current system quantity. Click this first, then only change the items that differ. Located next to the Default Reason to prevent accidental fat-finger clicks near Submit Count.

Step 2: Filter What to Count¶

Use the four filters to narrow which items appear in the table:

• Location — Count only items at a specific location, or leave blank to include all locations.
• Category — Filter by product category (for example, count only filament, or only finished goods).
• Search — Find specific items by SKU or name; press Enter or click Search.
• Show zero quantity items — Toggle on to include items with zero system quantity; useful for finding stock that is physically present but not yet recorded.

Step 3: Enter Counted Quantities¶

The inventory table shows every item matching your filters:

Rows with a variance get a yellow-tinted background. The Counted Qty input border turns yellow when the entered value differs from System Qty, making it easy to scan for in-progress entries.

Step 4: Submit and Review¶

When you finish entering quantities, click Submit Count. The button is disabled until at least one item has a non-zero variance. FilaOps opens the Review Variance Before Posting modal — nothing is written until you confirm.

The modal shows:

• A summary: number of adjustments, total variance value in dollars, and separate up/down dollar amounts.
• Items counted at system quantity (zero variance) are collapsed to a single note — they require no adjustment.
• A scrollable per-item table showing every adjustment that will be posted:

From this modal you have two choices:

• Go Back — Dismiss the modal and return to your count entries. Nothing has been written; all entries are preserved.
• Confirm & Post — Post all adjustments immediately. Inventory on-hand quantities and GL journal entries are written at this point.

Step 5: Read the Results¶

After a successful post, the page shows a results summary panel:

• Total Items — Number of items submitted (only items with a non-zero variance are posted as adjustment transactions)
• Successful (green) — Items processed without errors
• Failed (red) — Items that could not be processed

The results table shows only rows with a non-zero variance or a failure so you can quickly spot any problems. The inventory table refreshes with the new on-hand values.

Cycle Count Best Practices¶

• Count by area, not all at once — Use Location and Category filters to count one section at a time. This is faster and reduces the chance of double-counting or missing items.
• Count high-value items more often — Finished goods and expensive materials deserve weekly or monthly counts. Low-value consumables can be counted quarterly.
• Investigate large variances — A variance of 1–2 units is usually a counting error. A variance of 50 units points to a process problem such as unrecorded shipments, theft, or a systemic data entry gap.
• Use specific reasons — "Physical count variance" is a catch-all. Reasons like "Shipped but not recorded" or "Received but not recorded" help you trace and fix the upstream process gap.
• Count during quiet times — Avoid counting while production is running or orders are being picked and packed. Activity during the count leads to incorrect results.

Tips & Best Practices¶

• Record transactions in real time — Do not batch a week's worth of receipts and enter them on Friday. Real-time recording keeps your available quantities accurate for MRP and order fulfillment.
• Always link to a reference — When recording a receipt, link it to the purchase order. When recording an issue, link it to the sales order. This creates a complete audit trail.
• Use lot numbers for traceability — If a customer reports a quality issue, lot numbers let you trace the problem back to a specific supplier batch and identify all other affected production orders.
• Assign locations to spools — A spool without a location can be tracked for weight, but weight adjustments to a location-less spool do not update the inventory on-hand record. Assign a location to every spool for accurate totals.
• Weigh spools, do not estimate — A kitchen scale is your best tool for spool tracking. Guessing leads to mid-print failures.
• Run cycle counts regularly — At minimum, count your top 20% of items (by value) every month. This catches variances before they compound into bigger problems.
• Check the Reconciliation panel periodically — After automated events (production completion, shipments), open the Reconciliation panel to verify there is no unexpected drift between stored on-hand and the transaction ledger.

What's Next?¶

With inventory tracking in place, you can automate replenishment and plan ahead:

• Ordering Supplies — Create purchase orders when stock runs low
• Material Planning (MRP) — Let FilaOps calculate material requirements automatically
• Running Production — Track material consumption during manufacturing

Quick Reference¶