Track inventory levels

Inventory tracking in Service Buddy shows you exactly what’s on hand so you don’t run out in the middle of a job or over-order expensive parts.

View current stock levels

Click Settings in the left sidebar, then click Products & Services (under Company Management).
The list shows three stock columns for each item:
- Received Qty — total quantity received into stock.
- On Hold Qty — quantity reserved for open jobs or orders.
- Available Qty — what’s actually free to use (Received minus On Hold).
Use the search bar to find a specific item by name.

Update a stock count manually

If you do a physical count and the number doesn’t match Service Buddy:

Go to Settings → Products & Services and click the edit icon on the item.
Update the Received Qty field.
Click Update.

The new quantity takes effect immediately and is used for future auto-deduction.

Identify low-stock items

On the Products list, sort by Available Qty (ascending) to see the lowest stock first.
Items with zero or negative available quantity appear at the top.
Create a purchase order for these items — see Create a purchase order.

What happens next

When stock reaches zero, the item is still usable on quotes and invoices but quantity will go negative so you know you have oversold.
Use the Inventory Summary report (under Reports) to export current stock levels as a CSV for planning or audits.

FAQ

What’s the difference between Received Qty, On Hold Qty, and Available Qty?

Received Qty — total stock that’s been received into your warehouse (it’s the cumulative count, not the latest delivery alone).
On Hold Qty — stock reserved for jobs/invoices that are currently in progress.
Available Qty — what’s actually free to use right now (Received minus On Hold).

When you quote an install, the material goes On Hold; when the install completes and the invoice closes, it comes off Hold and is deducted from Received.

Why is my Available Qty negative?

Most often: an invoice deducted stock for items that hadn’t been received yet (someone billed for material before the PO landed). Check your open POs and confirm receipts are up to date. The negative will resolve as soon as the missing PO is received.

How often should I do a physical count?

Most retailers count quarterly at minimum, monthly for fast-moving items (padding, underlayment, tack strip, transition strips, thinset, grout). Big-ticket items like specific carpet rolls, hardwood lots, LVP cartons, or tile boxes deserve a count anytime there’s reason to suspect drift (a roll seemed to “disappear”, an installer pulled padding without logging it, a carton of LVP is missing).

How do I track partial rolls, cartons, and remnants?

Common patterns by product type:

Carpet by square yardage: track each roll as Roll #12 — Stainmaster Sand Dune with Received Qty = the remaining sq yd in that roll. Decrement as it’s used.
Hardwood, LVP, laminate, tile by carton or box: track each SKU at the carton/box level (Received Qty = 40 cartons), and use partial cartons as adjustments.
By piece: list each remnant or partial carton as a one-off product. More work, but precise for a remnant-heavy showroom.

There’s no built-in “roll tracking” feature — most retailers use one of the patterns above with a clear naming convention.

What if I drop a roll, break a box of tile, or find shrinkage during a count?

Update the Received Qty on the affected item to the actual on-hand number. Add a note explaining the adjustment so the audit trail makes sense (Q2 count — 3 sq yd shrinkage on Roll #12, Dropped box — 1 ctn LVP #8240 written off).

Where does the Low Stocks report live?

Under Reports → Low Stocks. It lists every item with Available Qty under the reorder threshold you’ve set per item. Most retailers run this weekly to drive the reorder list.

Can Service Buddy reorder automatically when stock is low?

Not directly — there’s no auto-PO feature. But the Automate Weekly Low Stock Report on the vendor record will email the vendor a snapshot of low items linked to them, which is most retailers’ replenishment trigger.