ZZs4ZZ4Step-by-Step User Guide

Every task, from opening the screen to checking that your change landed. Follow the numbered steps exactly; the screenshot after each set matches the numbers.

ZZs4_1ZZ4.1Opening the Stock Management screen

  1. Sign in to WHIMS. See section 3.1.
  2. Find Inventory in the left-hand menu. If the group is folded up, click the word Inventory to open it.
  3. Click Stock Levels. The Stock Levels screen opens (Figure 3 on page {{PAGE:s3_3}}).
Tip

Bookmark this page in your browser. It is the screen you will use most, and it is one click from everything else in this guide.

ZZs4_2ZZ4.2Adding stock — Stock Take

Use this when units have arrived, or you have found units that the system does not know about, and you want to increase the figure on one shelf.

Step 1 — Open the form

  1. Go to Inventory → Stock Levels.
  2. Click the blue Stock Actions button at the top right.
  3. Click Stock Take. A window opens over the page.
The empty Stock Take form
Figure 6 — The Stock Take form when it first opens. Only three fields are visible. The rest appear as you fill these in — this is normal, not a fault.

Step 2 — Choose the product

  1. Click the Product box. A list appears with a search box at the top.
  2. Start typing the Product ID — for example 06-335-1903L. The list narrows as you type.
  3. Click the correct product in the list. Its name now appears in the box.
Tip

You can also search by supplier part number, Partslink number or part description. If nothing at all is found, the product is not in WHIMS yet — see section 9.

Step 3 — Choose the warehouse and location

  1. Check the Warehouse box. WHIMS pre-fills the first warehouse. If you work at another site, click the box and pick the right one.
  2. Click the Location box and pick the shelf. Only shelves in the chosen warehouse are listed.
Location dropdown showing current quantity in brackets
Figure 7 — The Location list tells you what is already on each shelf. 4.2 F (Current Qty: 2) means two units are there now. A shelf marked (No stock) has none — picking it creates a brand-new stock record, which is perfectly normal when you are putting a part somewhere for the first time.
Warning

Changing the product or the warehouse clears the location you had chosen. Always work top to bottom: Product, then Warehouse, then Location. If you go back and change something above, re-check the location before you submit.

Step 4 — Enter the quantity, price and reason

  1. Type the number of units into Quantity to Add. This is how many to add, not the new total. Whole numbers only, minimum 1.
  2. Type the Unit Price if you know it. Optional. If you enter one, WHIMS blends it with the existing price to work out a new weighted average for that shelf. Leave it empty and the existing average price is kept.
  3. Replace the Notes text with a real reason. It starts off saying "Stock take". Change it to something a colleague could understand months later.

Step 5 — Save

  1. Read the whole form once more — product, shelf, quantity.
  2. Click Submit.
Completed Stock Take form with numbered fields
Figure 8 — A completed Stock Take. 1 Product. 2 Warehouse. 3 Location, showing the two units already there. 4 Quantity to Add — 25 units will be added, giving 27. 5 Unit Price (optional). 6 Notes — the reason. 7 Submit saves it.

Step 6 — Read the confirmation

A green message appears at the top right:

If a red message appears instead, nothing was saved — see section 9.

Note — what if I get it wrong?

There is no undo. If you added 25 when you meant 5, open the product page and use Adjust → Deduct from Stock for the difference (20), with a reason such as "Correcting over-entry on stock take". Both entries stay in the history, which is exactly what an auditor wants to see.

What happens if you submit an incomplete form

WHIMS checks the form before saving. Anything missing is marked in red and nothing is written to your stock.

Stock Take form showing red validation messages
Figure 9 — Submitting with fields empty. The box turns red and the message "The product field is required." appears underneath. Fill in every red field and click Submit again.

ZZs4_3ZZ4.3Adding stock for many products — Bulk Stock Take

When a delivery covers dozens of parts, typing them one at a time is slow. Bulk Stock Take reads a spreadsheet and adds every line in one go.

  1. Go to Stock Levels → Stock Actions → Bulk Stock Take.
  2. Click Download Template in the grey helper text under the upload box. This gives you a spreadsheet with the correct column headings already in place.
  3. Fill in one row per product/shelf. Columns are listed in section 6.5. Do not rename or reorder the headings.
  4. Save the file as CSV (in Excel: File → Save As → CSV).
  5. Drag the file onto the upload box, or click Browse and choose it.
  6. Check Default Notes. This reason is used for any row where you left the notes column empty.
  7. Click Submit.
The Bulk Stock Take upload form
Figure 10 — Bulk Stock Take. The link to the blank template sits in the small grey text beneath the upload area.

When it finishes you get a message such as "Processed 12 records successfully. 2 errors occurred." followed by the first few problem rows. Rows that succeeded are already saved — only the listed rows failed. Fix those in the spreadsheet, delete the rows that worked, and upload again.

Warning — do not upload the same file twice

WHIMS does not check whether it has seen a file before. Uploading the same spreadsheet a second time adds every quantity a second time. If you are unsure whether an upload went through, check Reports → Stock History before repeating it.

ZZs4_4ZZ4.4Adding stock from the product page

If you are already looking at a product and can see its shelves, this is the quickest way to add a few units.

  1. Go to Inventory → Products.
  2. Search for the part and click its row to open it.
  3. Click the Stock Locations & Quantities tab if it is not already showing.
  4. Find the row for the shelf you want and click the orange Adjust button at the end of that row.
The Products list screen
Figure 11 — The Products list. Use the Search box to find a part by its ID, supplier part number or description, then click the row to open it.
Product page showing tabs and the Adjust button
Figure 12 — The product page. The three tabs give you current stock, the movement history, and a record of edits to the product itself. Each shelf has its own Adjust button — make sure you click the one on the right row.
  1. Leave Adjustment Type on Add to Stock.
  2. Type how many units to add in Quantity. Minimum 1.
  3. Type a Reason / Comment. This one is compulsory — the form will not save without it.
  4. Click Submit.
The Adjust window set to Add to Stock
Figure 13 — The Adjust window. The heading names the shelf and the line beneath tells you the quantity there right now — check both before you type. 1 Add or Deduct. 2 Quantity. 3 Reason (required). 4 Submit.

A green Stock Adjusted message confirms the result, for example "12 units added to stock. New quantity: 14".

ZZs4_5ZZ4.5Removing stock — Deduct from Stock

Use this when units have physically left the shelf outside the normal sales process: damaged, scrapped, lost, used internally, or given away.

  1. Open the product and its Stock Locations & Quantities tab (steps 1–4 of section 4.4).
  2. Click Adjust on the correct shelf.
  3. Click Deduct from Stock next to Adjustment Type.
  4. Type how many units to remove in Quantity. Enter it as a positive number — do not type a minus sign.
  5. Type the Reason / Comment. Required. Say what happened to the units.
  6. Check the "Current quantity" line at the top of the window. You cannot remove more than that.
  7. Click Submit.
The Adjust window set to Deduct from Stock
Figure 14 — The same window with Deduct from Stock selected. Everything else works identically; only the direction changes.

You will see Stock Adjusted — "12 units deducted from stock. New quantity: 2".

If you try to remove too many

WHIMS refuses and tells you exactly what is available. Nothing is saved — the shelf keeps the figure it had.

The Insufficient Stock message
Figure 15 — "Cannot deduct 999999 units. Only 2 available." Close the message, correct the quantity, and submit again. If you genuinely believe more units left the shelf than the system thought were on it, the shelf figure itself was wrong — count it and use Stock Change instead.

ZZs4_6ZZ4.6Removing everything in a location — Empty Location

Important

This sets every product on the shelf to zero in one step and cannot be undone. Only use it when a shelf is genuinely being cleared — for example when a bin is decommissioned or its entire contents have been written off. Export the shelf first, every time.

  1. Go to Settings → Locations.
  2. Click the location you want to clear. The View Location Stock page opens, listing everything currently on that shelf.
  3. Click the green Export Stock button first. This downloads a spreadsheet of the shelf's contents — your only record of what was there.
  4. Click the red Empty Location button.
Location page with Export Stock and Empty Location buttons
Figure 16 — The location page. Always use the green button before the red one.
  1. Read the red warning box carefully.
  2. Tick I Confirm I have downloaded the Stock CSV. The wizard will not let you continue until you do.
  3. Click Next.
Empty Location wizard, step 1 — disclaimer
Figure 17 — Step 1 of the Empty Location wizard. Clicking Next without ticking the box shows "You must confirm that you have downloaded the Stock CSV before proceeding."
  1. Type a full Reason. Required. It is written against every single product on that shelf, so make it explain the whole clearance.
  2. Click Confirm and Execute.
Empty Location wizard, step 2 — reason
Figure 18 — Step 2. Back returns you to the warning; closing the window with ✕ cancels everything safely.

A green Location Emptied Successfully message reports how many products were affected, for example "Set stock to 0 for 8 product(s) in location 1 U." Products that were already at zero are skipped; if the whole shelf was already empty you get "No Stock to Empty" instead and nothing changes.

ZZs4_7ZZ4.7Adjusting stock to a corrected count — Stock Change

Use this after a physical count. You type the number you counted, and WHIMS makes the shelf match it — whether that means going up or down.

  1. Go to Stock Levels → Stock Actions → Stock Change.
The empty Stock Change form
Figure 19 — The Stock Change form. Note the description at the top: "Change stock quantities, status, and other properties". As with Stock Take, more fields appear once you have chosen a product and a location.
  1. Choose the Product. Type to search, then click it.
  2. Check the Warehouse.
  3. Choose the Location. Here the list shows (Qty: 2, Available: 2) so you can see what the system currently believes.
  4. Type the counted figure into New Quantity. This is the final number, not a difference. Zero is allowed; negatives are not.
  5. Fill in New Average Price only if the price is also changing. Leaving it empty keeps the current price.
  6. Check the Is Selling? switch. On means the stock can be sold. Turn it off to hold the stock back — for quarantined or damaged goods, for instance.
  7. Type the Notes. Record who counted, and when.
  8. Click Submit.
A completed Stock Change form
Figure 20 — A completed Stock Change. The shelf currently holds 2; after saving it will hold exactly 18, and the history will record a change of +16.

The confirmation reads Stock Changed Successfully — "Stock updated from 2 to 18", or "New stock created with quantity 18" if there was no record on that shelf before.

Warning

Because Stock Change replaces the figure, typing the wrong number here has an immediate and total effect. Typing 1 instead of 100 wipes out 99 units. Read the number back to yourself before clicking Submit.

ZZs4_8ZZ4.8Adjusting many records at once — Bulk Stock Change

The spreadsheet version of Stock Change — the right tool after a full warehouse count.

  1. Go to Stock Levels → Stock Actions → Bulk Stock Change.
  2. Download the template from the grey text under the upload box.
  3. Fill in one row per shelf using the columns in section 6.5. The new_quantity column is the counted figure, not a difference.
  4. Save as CSV, upload the file, and click Submit.
The Bulk Stock Change upload form
Figure 21 — Bulk Stock Change. Every row overwrites the quantity on the shelf it names — treat this file with the same care as the single form.
Important

Check your spreadsheet before uploading, especially for blank quantity cells and stray rows at the bottom. A single mistyped row silently overwrites a good stock figure, and the only way back is a second correction.

ZZs4_9ZZ4.9Viewing and verifying updated stock

Never assume. Check every change.

  1. Go to Inventory → Stock Levels.
  2. Type the Product ID into the Search box above the table. The list filters as you type.
  3. Read the group heading — it gives Total Qty, Reserved and Available across every shelf for that part.
  4. Read the row for the shelf you changed and confirm the Quantity column matches what you expected.
  5. If the figure looks unchanged, refresh the page with F5 before concluding anything is wrong.
Tip — reading the three quantity columns

Quantity is everything physically on the shelf. Reserved Quantity is the part of it already promised to orders. Available Quantity is what is left to sell — quantity minus reserved. Your stock movements change Quantity; reserved is managed by the order process and cannot be edited here.

ZZs4_10ZZ4.10Reviewing stock history

Every movement WHIMS has ever recorded is kept. There are two ways in.

All movements, across every product

  1. Go to Reports → Stock History.
  2. The newest entries are at the top.
  3. Use the funnel icon to filter by Action Type, Warehouse or Product, or type into the Search box.
The Stock History screen with columns highlighted
Figure 22 — Stock History. The Action column says what kind of movement it was; the Change column shows the size and direction — green with a plus for stock in, red with a minus for stock out. Qty Before and Qty After let you follow the running balance.

Movements for one product

  1. Open the product from Inventory → Products.
  2. Click the Stock History tab.
The Stock History tab on a product page
Figure 23 — The same information limited to one part, with the reason you typed in the Notes column. This tab refreshes itself about once a minute.
Note

Stock History is permanent and read-only. There are no edit or delete buttons anywhere on these screens, for anyone. That is deliberate — it is what makes the log trustworthy.