This feature is currently in beta and may not be available in your account.

Currently, available inventory may show a negative value due to:

• Unfulfilled sales
• Oversold products
• Inventory discrepancies

As negative values are a combination of physical stock, unfulfilled sales, and discrepancies, they can be misinterpreted as required order amounts or general errors, potentially resulting in inefficient ordering, overstocking, or confusion around actual stock levels.

What’s changing with on-hand inventory views?

To more accurately reflect the physical reality of available stock, available (on-hand) inventory will no longer show negative values due to unfulfilled sales created after the update. This update will be reflected on the following pages:

• Sell screen
• Products (including inventory adjustments, inventory movements, and product exports)
• Stock control (including purchase orders, transfers, and returns)
• Inventory reports

Once the feature has been released, negative inventory will only reflect overselling and inventory discrepancies like miscounts or manual adjustments.

For example, previously, if you had 0 Ceramic Teapots in stock and sold 3 to be delivered to the customer when the product is back in stock, your inventory (Available to sell) would show -3.

Now, your available inventory will show 0 to accurately reflect the amount of Ceramic Teapots physically in stock.

The 3 unfulfilled sale items will appear in a dedicated view on the new Special orders page, where they can be added to a purchase order.

Will my existing fulfillment sales data change?

Only new fulfillment sales created after the update will be affected by the change.

• Fulfillment sales created before the update: Existing unfulfilled sales with negative values won't change. You'll continue to see the negative values until those sales are fulfilled or closed.
• New fulfillment sales created after the update: Unfulfilled sales created after the update will no longer drive Available to sell values into the negative. Required order quantities will appear on the new Special orders page instead.

As you work through your older fulfillment sales, your inventory numbers will gradually reflect only what's physically on hand.

What’s changing with negative inventory?

Negative inventory will no longer include stock from unfulfilled sales. If available inventory is showing a negative value, it’s due to:

• Oversold products
• Inventory discrepancies

Quantities required to fulfill orders will be reflected on the new Special orders page, where you can view details and add products to a purchase order.

To correct negative inventory:

1. Review your inventory reports to identify the issue.

2. Perform an inventory count.

   If you have existing open fulfillment sales from before the update, avoid adjusting negative inventory to zero during a count, as this could impact stock reserved for those sales.

3. Make inventory adjustments as needed.

During the transition period, the inventory count page may show a different Available to sell value than other Retail POS pages, as inventory counts must reflect the actual database value to keep your records accurate.

What’s changing with unfulfilled sales?

When an unfulfilled sale that requires a special order is processed, details and required order quantities will be reflected on the new Special orders page.

On the Special orders page, you can view:

• List of products requiring fulfillment, grouped by outlet. You can filter the list by outlet or supplier.
• Total recommended order quantities at the product level (per outlet) that factor in all related unfulfilled sales, unreceived quantities on purchase orders, and inbound inventory from POs and transfers.
• Expanded product row details including sales information, customer details, required quantities, and notes per sale.

You can also add products to an existing purchase order or create a new one directly from the Special orders page.

For unfulfilled sales, cost of goods sold (COGS) will be recognized at the time of sale creation.

How will I know how much stock to order?

After the change has been rolled out to your account, you’ll no longer have to use a single negative inventory number to estimate what’s in stock or what needs to be ordered.

Tracking what’s in stock

On product and inventory pages, the Available to sell metric will show the amount of actual, physical stock on hand. Unless the product is oversold or inventory manually adjusted, this number will always be 0 or above for new fulfillment sales created after the update.

On the Inventory reports pages, you can filter results to view all SKUs or only in-stock, low stock, or out-of-stock SKUs (includes negative inventory).

Knowing what to order

For standard stock replenishment, you can create a purchase order from the Inventory > Stock control page.

To determine the order quantities needed for unfulfilled sales, the new Special orders page will show the quantity required to fulfill orders by sale and a total recommended order quantity by product that reflects already ordered and inbound inventory.

Learn more about the metrics used on the Special orders page by clicking Glossary in the right corner under the Search button.

To review recommended order quantities on the Special orders page:

1. Navigate to Inventory > Special orders.

2. Search by outlet or supplier or scroll down to locate the product (organized by outlet). At the product level, you can view the total Recommended order quantity or click the down arrow next to the product name to view details and quantities per sale.

   

To add products to a purchase order from the Special orders page:

1. Check one or more product boxes.

   

2. Click Add product to purchase order.

3. Select whether you want to Add to an existing purchase order or Create a new purchase order.

   

4. If you’re adding to an existing PO, select the order. If you’re creating a new one, enter the order details. Click Next.

5. Adjust the Quantity and Cost price, if needed.

   

6. Click Add products to order.

A confirmation message will appear on the Special orders page with a link to the associated purchase order.

The Special orders page can show up to 1000 products. You can process orders to view more.

How will this affect eCom inventory and pre-orders?

Currently, the eCom (E-Series) integration uses negative inventory quantities from Retail POS as the pre-order amount for certain configurations. As part of this release, the eCom pre-order amount logic will be updated to reflect the changes to available and negative inventory calculations in Retail POS.

No action is required. This update will happen automatically once the feature is rolled out to your account.

How will this be reflected in reports?

Reports that currently show negative inventory due to unfulfilled sales will show 0 once the feature has been rolled out, improving the detail and reliability of inventory data.

In applicable reports, you’ll be able to filter by the following metric calculations:

• Include all SKUs: Includes any SKUs with an Available to sell quantity.
• Only use in-stock SKUs: Only includes SKUs with an Available to sell quantity equal to or greater than 1.
• Only use low stock SKUs: Only includes SKUs where the Available to sell quantity is at or below the product’s reorder point.
• Only use out-of-stock SKUs: Only includes SKUs with an Available to sell quantity equal to or less than 0 (includes negative inventory).

Information related to unfulfilled sales will be available on the Inventory > Special orders page.

Will the product export CSV file change?

The inventory_[outlet_name] column in the product export file will be renamed to available_to_sell_[outlet_name]. This will continue to match the quantity shown in Retail POS and negative values will also no longer reflect inventory that needs to be procured. Otherwise, imports and exports will be unaffected by the change.

If products are imported with negative inventory to represent stock that needs to be ordered for unfulfilled sales, Retail POS will interpret the number as oversold stock. To ensure data remains accurate, use the special orders workflow.

Will API integrations be affected?

Existing API integrations will not be affected. The Retail API 2.0 will continue to return negative values to represent quantity to be procured. This means that in some cases, Available to sell values returned from the API and in the product may not match.

A new version of the API that returns separate values for Available to sell and Quantity required for fulfillments and services will be included in an upcoming release. If you have any custom integration logic or workflows that interpret negative inventory as required order quantities, they may need to be updated.

When will this feature be released?

This feature is currently in beta and will gradually roll out to customers throughout March and April 2026.

Once the feature is enabled in your account:

• On-hand inventory metrics names (Inventory or On-hand) will change to Available to sell on sales, product, inventory, and reporting pages.
• Negative inventory from unfulfilled sales will no longer be included in Available to sell values.
• New Inventory > Special orders page will be available to view and order products from unfulfilled sales.

Only new fulfillment sales created after the update will be affected by the change. As you work through your older fulfillment sales, your inventory numbers will gradually reflect only what's physically on hand.

If you’ve set up internal workflows, custom integrations, or custom reports that sort or export negative inventory for the purpose of ordering, it’s recommended to review and update your customizations as needed to reflect the change.