Negative inventory has launched for Lightspeed Retail

AsakoLS · June 2019

Negative inventory is finally here!

For all Lightspeed Retail customers that have an account that was created before June 25th, 2019, negative inventory can be enabled at your convenience from your account settings.

Head over to Settings > Optional Modules and you will see an option to enable negative inventory. We recommend that you log out and back in again for the change to apply immediately.

Enabling negative inventory means no more auto-adding or auto-receiving stock. When items are oversold or oversent on a transfer or vendor return, inventory will go negative. Then receiving/adding inventory add from the negative value.

To find your items that are negative, we’ve introduced a new Negative Inventory report. Here, you can quickly find your items that are currently negative, the reason why it went negative, and if any stock is incoming on a PO or Transfer. We recommend checking this report first: Our beta testers loved this new report to help them decide how to resolve their negative inventory.

You can also go to any item listing and sort ascending on the Quantity on Hand column to show items with negative quantities at the top of the listing.

We decided to allow existing Lightspeed Retail customers the option to enable negative inventory so that it can be turned on at their convenience and when it makes sense for their business; perhaps at the start of a new month, or after an inventory count, at the end of their fiscal year, etc. Eventually all accounts will be migrated to negative inventory, but this will be in about a year with several notices beforehand.

To learn more about the negative inventory feature, please head over to our Help Center: https://retail-support.lightspeedhq.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020565353?flash_digest=e402bce3c9eda7ff0364930f99c8925976531858

Thanks to everyone for their feedback and their commitment to making this a reality!

Sincerely,

The Lightspeed Retail Product Team

gregarican · June 2019

We first activated Lightspeed Retail over a year ago. I just checked this area and don't see this option flag. Please see below. Any idea where it's located?

gregarican · June 2019

Please disregard. I found it. Settings --> Optional Modules. Thanks for this!

AsakoLS · June 2019

@gregarican Thanks for catching my mistake! I've updated my original post to reflect the correct location.

NickS · September 2019

Can anyone explain to me the way auto-add is supposed to work? I have just been trying to reconcile my total inventory figures in LS to our accounting package, Xero. Several items have been auto-added - this means my LS inventory is higher than my Xero figure. What happens with auo-add - does it get reversed automatically as well? How do I sort out my double-entry bookkeeping?! Negative inventory sounds more intuitive as it is presumably ring fenced and prompts employees to reorder to rectify the discrepancy. Auto-add goes unnoticed and just means my reconciliations are even harder. Can you sell something that has been auto-added? Where did this items come from - magic?

All answers gratefully received!

Nick

roberto_pansera · September 2019

Hey @NickS ,

Before Lightspeed starts to support the negative inventory, the auto-add feature was the way the system could sell items that the inventory had no quantities on the system. The system auto adds the item to complete the sale and them the inventory back to zero.

You can generate a report to see all the items that were auto-added:

Selling out of stock items and the Auto-Add & Auto Check-In feature

Regards

Roberto

NickS · July 2020

Hi @roberto_pansera

With Negative Inventory now well and truly a feature I have a few follow up questions:

Negative inventory often occurs because the checking in of a PO has not been completed. There are occasions when an item has been sold - so we have a situation where there is negative inventory, followed by a Cost of Goods Sold entry being raised and sent to our accounting software (Xero). Once the item is properly checked in from the vendor invoice it could be that the actual cost is different to the default cost (the latter being used in the absence of anything else). I am trying to get my head around this situation. I think the COGS entry is going to be incorrect come what may as that went across to Xero at default (the actual purchase will be checked in at actual from the vendor invoice meaning both inventory value and COGS in Xero are incorrect. Not sure if LS corrects itself so the inventory figure at default is reversed and replaced with the inventory figure at actual - thus netting out and there no longer being a negative inventory balance. Not sure what happens with regard to the margin / COGS though.
Total inventory value - should i be adding any negative inventory total to my Asset report total (and lay-by report total) to come up with the total value of inventory on hand?! I assume so as this is what will be represented in my accounting software (as the COGS figure will have been deducted from my accounting inventory balance awaiting receipt of the purchase invoice - notwithstanding any complication from the default / actual cost issue noted above).
Despite running Asset, Negative Inventory and Lay-By reports at the end of a period I discovered that one item of negative inventory (sold before the end of the period despite not having any in stock) that I could clearly identify and could see was made as an accounting entry to COGS / inventory in Xero was NOT on the Negative Inventory report. How could this omission have occurred?

This probably isn't the place to raise all these queries, but I am hoping it will draw attention to some important aspects of ensuring accurate reporting and consistency with accounting records.

Thanks,

Nick

VintageWineGuy · July 2020

I'll throw another negative inventory wish out there - allow Assemblies to create negative inventory.

I know this isn't the best practice, but its the reality of our business - we often need to create Assemblies quickly to get products sold before all the items are fully checked in. However, you cannot create an Assembly if there is not enough inventory in the system. It would be helpful if Assemblies would just create negative inventory for the items and allow you to create the assembly.

This comes up a lot because Assemblies themselves can go negative, but we can't build new ones until the items are positive.

VD_LS · July 2020

Hey @VintageWineGuy ,

I'll note it in our internal tool!

Thank you very much for the suggestion!

NickS · August 2020

Maybe not the right place, but could i ask that the negative inventory report multiplies out each item by the cost used and the whole report then has a total?

Thanks,

Nick

VD_LS · August 2020

Hey @NickS ,

Thanks for the feedback! I'll note it down, as well.

Enjoy your day!

Negative inventory has launched for Lightspeed Retail

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