Inventory and parts overview

What this does

Two screens under Inventory in the sidebar, and one panel inside every work order, cover parts:

Inventory is the stock list: every part you keep on the shelf, with cost, retail price, quantity on hand, a minimum, and a location. It is what the In Stock search on a work order reads from.

Parts Orders is the board for parts you don't have: needed, ordered, shipped, received, per vendor, optionally tied to the job that wants them. Cores and warranty claims live here too.

Source Part, on a work order line, is where the two meet. From one panel you pull a part from stock, look at what the shop has paid for it before, or (with PartsTech connected) get a live quote and turn it into an order.

The one rule about stock

Stock on hand moves when a part you stock moves. There are four ways that happens: a stock transaction you record on the Inventory page, Pull on a work order line, receiving a parts order line that is linked to a stocked part, and completing a job that used one.

The last two are a pair. An order line linked to a part adds to stock when it arrives and comes back out when the job is finished, so a part bought for one job passes through and nets to zero — you can see it land and see it leave, instead of it never existing.

A line that is not linked to a stocked part changes nothing, at either end. That is the right answer for a part you bought for one car and will never stock: it goes on the invoice and never touches the shelf. The order form says which of the two a line is, and you can change it before you save.

So the Inventory page is worth maintaining for parts you actually keep — oil, filters, brake pads, shop supplies, whatever you buy in bulk — and linking an order line to one of those is what keeps the count honest.

Where the money goes

A Purchase transaction on the Inventory page records unit cost against the part but posts nothing to the books; the bill from the vendor is what creates the expense. Receiving a linked order line is the same: it moves the count and records the cost, and posts nothing. Parts orders likewise post nothing; bill them in Accounts Payable when the vendor's invoice arrives. The part's cost flows to the job line (cost_price) when it is pulled from stock or ordered, which is what job costing reads.

Who does what

Owner, General Manager, and Service Manager manage inventory (add and edit parts, record transactions). Service Writers can view stock and create and work parts orders. Technicians can view parts orders. See Roles and permissions.

Not the same thing

Money Out → Purchase Orders is a separate, accounting-side document: a formal order you send to a vendor and bill against. A parts order on the Inventory side is the shop-floor version tied to a job. They don't talk to each other and both call themselves purchase orders in places; when someone says "PO," ask which.