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Stock Locations and Ledger Posting

Before stock can move, a company needs locations; before stock can reach the general ledger, it needs its accounts and the switch that turns posting on. Both live on the Stock console's Set-up tab, and the Stock vs GL tab checks afterwards that the inventory account agrees with the stock valuation.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → ERP - Operations:

  • Stock — the console: Set-up (locations and stock accounting) and Stock vs GL
  • Stock Accounting — the per-company settings; the row with no company is the group default
  • Stock Locations — the locations datastore

Architect Panel → ERP - Reference Data:

  • Location Types — stock, transit, quarantine, scrap, work in progress, customer and supplier

Admin Panel → Inventory & Production:

  • Stock — the same console for inventory and finance staff

Locations

  1. On the Stock console, go to Set-up and click New location on the Stock locations card.
  2. Enter a short Code (for example UK-MAIN) and a Name, and choose the Type: Stock, In transit, Quarantine, Scrap, Work in progress, Customer location or Supplier location.
  3. Optionally choose Inside (a parent location) and an Address reference.
  4. Under Counts as, tick Available to promise and pick, Planned against by MRP and, only if you really need it, May go negative.
  5. Click Create location.

Only Stock-type locations count as available. Keep a Quarantine location for failed inspections. An ERP administrator can make a location Shared by every company, for example goods in transit between companies. The code is fixed once stock has moved through it.

Turning on ledger posting

Stock is always valued, but nothing reaches the ledger until posting is switched on per company. It ships switched off, so a chart without stock accounts does not fill up with posting failures.

  1. On Set-up, in Stock accounting, check the account boxes. Blank boxes show the group default: Inventory 1300, Work in progress 1310, Cost of sales 5100, Goods received not invoiced 2120, Stock adjustments and counts 5150, Scrap and write-offs 5160, Purchase price variance 5990, Labour and overhead absorbed 5170, Purchases (document receipts) 5000 and Revenue 4000. Production variance (work orders) and Standard cost revaluation are blank, falling back to the purchase price variance account.
  2. Set Posting starts on. Movements dated earlier are never posted; opening stock is carried by an opening journal.
  3. Tick Post stock movements to the general ledger and click Save stock accounting.

Stock accounting is set by ERP: Finance or ERP: Administration with write access to the company. Once journals have posted, changing posting, the start date or the inventory, WIP or GRNI account asks you to confirm, and you should move the old account's balance with a journal.

What each movement posts

  • Receipt: Dr Inventory, Cr Goods received not invoiced (a goods receipt on a document credits the purchase account instead).
  • Issue: Dr Cost of sales, Cr Inventory.
  • Consume and Produce: Dr WIP / Cr Inventory, and Dr Inventory / Cr WIP.
  • Count or adjust: against Stock adjustments; Scrap: Dr Scrap and write-offs.
  • Transfers post nothing. A reversal reverses the original journal.

Inventory, cost of sales, revenue, purchase and variance accounts come from the item, then its group, then these settings; the others come from the settings only.

When a posting fails

A ledger failure never undoes the stock movement. The message ends Not posted to the general ledger: with the reason, and the console header shows N movement(s) not yet in the GL. Fix the cause (a missing account, a closed period, or no post access) and click Post to the GL. It needs post access to the company and the ERP: Inventory or ERP: Administration role; a user with ERP: Finance alone can see the backlog but not post it from here.

Checking the ledger agrees

The Stock vs GL tab sets the inventory account balance beside the valuation from the cost layers, today. It shows the GL backlog, entries on the account that did not come from stock, and the Unexplained difference, then breaks it down By inventory account, Inventory by item and By location, with a drill-down into an item's movements and a list of standard cost revaluations. Post the backlog clears unposted movements.

Worked example

A company goes live on 1 October. Finance loads the opening stock value with an opening journal to 1300, sets Posting starts on to 1 October, ticks posting and saves. The storeman's first receipt posts Dr 1300 / Cr 2120. A week later the Stock vs GL tab shows a difference of 340.00 on 1300: the item drill-down reveals a manual journal to the inventory account, which finance reverses.

Recommendations

  • Create a Quarantine and a Scrap location on day one.
  • Agree the accounts with your accountant before ticking posting.
  • Never journal to the inventory account by hand; it breaks the reconciliation.
  • Check Stock vs GL at every month end.