Try an inventory workflow

Follow one product, Ceramic Mug, through a week at Bright Home Supplies. Use a training system. You need:

• a warehouse with three locations (for example A-01-02, DISPATCH as the default, and DAMAGED);
• an active product;
• a role with view, add, adjust, transfer, reserve, release and stock-count permissions;
• business-unit access to the warehouse.

Start with zero stock and no reservations. After each step, check the numbers on Inventory Balance: filter by Product Ceramic Mug.

The week

#	Day	What happens	What you do	Page
1	Mon	Opening stock: 200 mugs on shelf A-01-02	Add stock: Opening_stock, 200, ref OPENING-2026	Add stock
2	Mon	Prepare stock for the week's orders	Transfer 50 from A-01-02 to DISPATCH, ref TN-0001	Move stock
3	Tue	A customer asks you to hold 10 mugs	Reserve 10 at DISPATCH, CUSTOMER_HOLD / AYESHA-K	Reserve
4	Wed	3 mugs are dropped and cracked on A-01-02	Adjust: Decrease, Damaged, 3, notes "dropped during put-away"	Adjust stock
5	Thu	The customer cancels the hold	Release 10 at DISPATCH, CUSTOMER_HOLD / AYESHA-K	Release
6	Fri	Count shelf A-01-02: 145 found	New count, line A-01-02 counted 145, post	Count stock

The numbers after each step

After step	A-01-02 (On Hand / Reserved / Available)	DISPATCH (On Hand / Reserved / Available)	Total on hand
1	200 / 0 / 200	0 / 0 / 0	200
2	150 / 0 / 150	50 / 0 / 50	200
3	150 / 0 / 150	50 / 10 / 40	200
4	147 / 0 / 147	50 / 10 / 40	197
5	147 / 0 / 147	50 / 0 / 50	197
6	145 / 0 / 145 (variance −2)	50 / 0 / 50	195

Check the history

Open Inventory › Stock Movement, filter Product Ceramic Mug. You should see, oldest first:

1. OPENING_STOCK +200 (ref OPENING-2026)
2. TRANSFER_OUT −50 at A-01-02 and TRANSFER_IN +50 at DISPATCH (ref TN-0001)
3. SALE_RESERVATION 10 at DISPATCH (ref AYESHA-K)
4. ADJUSTMENT_OUT −3 at A-01-02 (reason Damaged)
5. SALE_CANCEL_RELEASE 10 at DISPATCH (ref AYESHA-K)
6. ADJUSTMENT_OUT −2 at A-01-02 (reason Stock count)

And in Inventory › Stock Transfer Lines: one line, A-01-02 → DISPATCH, 50.

What you've learned

• Transfers change where stock is, not how much (step 2: the total stays 200).
• Reservations change Available, not On Hand (steps 3 and 5).
• Adjustments record why stock changed (step 4: Damaged).
• Counts fix the difference between the shelf and the system in one go (step 6: −2).
• Everything is in the history, with your references, so anyone can follow what happened.

Try these variations

Try	What happens
Transfer 60 from DISPATCH while 10 are reserved there (after step 3)	Refused: "Insufficient available stock for transfer." Only 40 are available.
Release 15 at DISPATCH (after step 3)	Refused: "Release quantity is greater than reserved quantity."
Add a second count line for A-01-02 on the same count	Refused: "Line already exists for this product/location"
Post a count with no lines	Refused: "Stock count cannot be posted without lines."