Stock Transfer Journals
Stock transfer journals can be used to fix a variety of errors concerning serial numbers, batches and locations.
To make a transfer journal:
- In the Transactions list, select the Journals sidebar tab and click the New toolbar button or press Ctrl-N/⌘-N
The Journal entry screen is displayed.
- Enter the transaction date and description
- Click on the Transfer tab
- In the Contra field, enter a general ledger code
The net dollar difference of the credits and debits created by the journal will be posted to this account, which would normally be some sort of expense account.
In practice, if you are transferring the same item but just correcting for an invalid location or serial/batch number, the journal will always have a net value of zero.
- Type the code of the item in Code field of the first line
- Type the quantity of the item to adjust in the Qty column
A negative quantity indicates that that many of the item is to be removed from stock; a positive quantity indicates that that quantity will be put into stock.
- Enter the serial/batch number (if any) into the Serial/Batch field
This is the serial/batch that will be removed (if Qty if negative) or added to stock.
- Enter a location (if any) in to the Location field
This is the location from which the item will be removed from (if the Qty is negative) or put into stock.
- Continue adding lines for items that need to be transferred/corrected
If you are moving the same item between locations (or fixing a batch/serial number) the total of the journal should be zero (as no value is being created or lost). If however you have moved more items out of stock than in, then you are effectively doing a stock write-off (and conversely a stock creation if more items are coming in than going out). In this case the total of the journal will be non-zero, and the contra account will be debited (for a “stock creation”) or credited (for a “stock write-off”) by this value.
For example in the transaction below we are writing off 2 chrome widgets, and creating 3 bronze ones. The difference in value of these will be credited to the designated contra account (stock adjustments).
