ZZs7ZZ7Business Rules

The rules WHIMS enforces, and the rules your team is expected to follow.

7.1Rules the system enforces

Rule	What it means in practice
Stock can never go below zero	A deduction larger than the quantity on the shelf is refused outright with the message "Insufficient Stock", and nothing is saved. Stock Change will not accept a negative figure either.
Quantities must be whole numbers	WHIMS counts units, not fractions. 2.5 is not accepted.
Added quantities must be at least 1	Stock Take and the Adjust window both require a minimum of 1. Stock Change accepts 0, because "the shelf is empty" is a legitimate count.
One stock record per product, per location	The same part cannot have two separate records on the same shelf. WHIMS finds the existing record and updates it, or creates the first one.
Locations belong to warehouses	You can only pick a shelf that exists in the warehouse you selected. Change the warehouse and the location resets.
Available = Quantity − Reserved	Calculated by the system and never typed. Reserved units belong to orders and cannot be edited from these screens.
Every movement is logged	Product, warehouse, location, before, change, after, unit price, your user account, the timestamp and your reason.
History cannot be edited or deleted	There are no edit or delete buttons on Stock History for any user.
Nothing saves halfway	Each movement is written as a single unit of work. If anything fails partway, the whole movement is rolled back rather than left half-applied.
Emptying a location skips empty shelves	Only products with a quantity above zero are touched. If the whole shelf is already empty you are told "No Stock to Empty".
Average price is recalculated automatically	Adding stock with a unit price produces a new weighted average for the shelf; the product's overall average price is then recalculated across all its shelves.
All stock screens are open to every signed-in user	The current release does not restrict these buttons by role. See section 2.1.

7.2Rules your team should follow

These are not enforced by the software. They are what separates a stock system people trust from one they work around.

Always give a reason, even when the box is optional. Stock Take and Stock Change will save without one. A movement with no explanation is nearly useless six months later.
Count before you adjust. Stock Change should record a physical count, not a guess.
Correct the right shelf. If a part sits on three shelves and one is wrong, fix that one. Dumping the difference on whichever shelf is convenient hides the real problem.
Report, do not silently fix, large differences. Agree a threshold with your supervisor — for example anything above 10 units or a set value — and escalate rather than quietly adjusting.
Never use Delete to remove stock. Deleting a stock record removes the row entirely and writes no history entry. Removing units is what the Adjust window is for.
Do not adjust stock that is reserved for an order without telling whoever owns the order.
One person, one shelf, at a time. Two people adjusting the same shelf within minutes of each other will produce a figure neither of them expects.

7.3Duplicate transactions

Warning

WHIMS does not detect duplicates. Submitting the same Stock Take twice adds the quantity twice. Uploading the same spreadsheet twice applies every row twice. There is no "you have already done this" prompt.

If you are not sure whether something went through — the page seemed slow, the browser was refreshed, you clicked twice — check Stock History before repeating it. That check takes ten seconds; unpicking a double entry takes considerably longer.

Note that duplicate Stock Change submissions are harmless: setting a shelf to 18 twice still leaves 18. It is Stock Take, Bulk Stock Take and the Adjust window that accumulate.

7.4Audit logging

Every action described in this guide writes a permanent Stock History entry containing:

the product, warehouse and location;
the quantity before, the change, and the quantity after;
the unit price applied;
the type of movement and its reference;
the user account that performed it;
the date and time, from the server clock;
the reason or note you typed.

Empty Location writes twice — once to Stock History and once to the product's Activity History, which additionally records the network address the request came from.

ZZs8ZZ8Validation Rules

What WHIMS checks before it saves, the exact message you will see, and how to clear it.

Validation happens before anything is written. If you see a red message, your stock has not changed — you have lost nothing but a moment.

8.1Required fields

Message on screen	Why	How to fix it
"The product field is required."	No product was chosen.	Click the Product box, type part of the ID, and pick from the list.
"The warehouse field is required."	No warehouse chosen.	Pick the site. It is usually pre-filled — check it was not cleared.
"The location field is required."	No shelf chosen. Often happens after changing the product or warehouse, which clears the location.	Pick the shelf again, then re-check the rest of the form.
"The quantity field is required."	The quantity box is empty.	Type a whole number.
"The reason field is required."	The Adjust window and the Empty Location wizard both insist on a reason.	Type what happened and how you know.
"You must confirm that you have downloaded the Stock CSV before proceeding."	The confirmation box in the Empty Location wizard was not ticked.	Click Export Stock first, then tick the box.

8.2Invalid quantities

Situation	What happens	How to fix it
Zero or a negative number in Stock Take or Adjust	Refused — the minimum is 1.	To reduce stock, use Deduct from Stock rather than a negative number.
A negative number in Stock Change	Refused — the minimum is 0.	Type the counted figure. If the shelf is empty, type 0.
A decimal such as 2.5	Refused or rounded by the browser.	Enter whole units only.
Letters or symbols in a number box	The box will not accept them.	Digits only — no commas, no "pcs", no spaces.

8.3Not enough stock

The single most common refusal. It appears as a red message in the top-right corner:

Title	Message
Insufficient Stock	"Cannot deduct 999999 units. Only 2 available."

The number after "Only" is what is actually on that shelf. Either reduce your quantity to that figure or below, or — if you are certain more units left the shelf than WHIMS ever knew about — the shelf figure itself was wrong. Count it and use Stock Change to set the true figure, with a reason explaining the discrepancy.

8.4Problems in a bulk spreadsheet

Each row is checked on its own. Good rows are saved; bad rows are reported. The summary message lists up to five problems.

Message	Cause and fix
"Product TEST-001 not found"	The `product_id` does not match any part in WHIMS. Check spelling, leading and trailing spaces, and that Excel has not converted the ID into a number or date.
"Warehouse Main Warehouse not found"	The `warehouse_name` does not match. Copy the name exactly as it appears in Settings → Warehouses.
"Location A-01-01 not found in warehouse Main Warehouse"	The shelf does not exist in that warehouse. Either you named the wrong warehouse or the location needs creating first.
"Row error for product …"	Something else on that row is unusable — most often a blank or non-numeric quantity.
"Failed to process CSV: …"	The whole file could not be read. Usually the wrong file type, missing heading row, or headings that have been renamed. Start again from the downloaded template.

Important

After a partial upload, delete the rows that succeeded before uploading the corrected file. Otherwise a Bulk Stock Take will add those quantities a second time.

8.5Other refusals

Message	Meaning
No Stock — "There are no stock records in this location to export."	You clicked Export Stock on an empty shelf. Nothing to download.
No Stock to Empty — "There are no products with stock greater than 0 in this location."	The shelf is already clear. Nothing was changed.
Error — "Failed to complete stock take: …"	An unexpected system fault. Nothing was saved. Note the wording and contact support.
Error — "Failed to change stock: …"	As above, for Stock Change.
Error — "Failed to empty location: …"	As above, for Empty Location. The shelf is left exactly as it was.

ZZs9ZZ9Common Errors and Troubleshooting

What you see, why it happens, and what to do about it.

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
Nothing found when searching for a product	The part is not in WHIMS, or you are searching on a number WHIMS does not hold.	Try the supplier part number or Partslink number, and try a shorter fragment. If it is still missing, the product has not been created — ask whoever maintains the catalogue. Do not substitute a similar part.
"The location field is required." after you had already chosen one	You changed the product or warehouse afterwards, which clears the location.	Choose the location again. Always work top to bottom.
The Location list is empty	No warehouse chosen yet, or that warehouse has no locations set up.	Pick a warehouse first. If it is still empty, locations need creating under Settings → Locations.
Insufficient Stock — "Cannot deduct n units. Only m available."	You tried to remove more than the shelf holds.	Reduce the quantity to m or less. If you believe the shelf figure is wrong, count it and use Stock Change instead.
Quantity went up when you expected it to go down	Add to Stock was left selected in the Adjust window.	Make a matching deduction for twice the quantity, with a reason noting the correction. Both entries remain in the history.
The new total is higher than expected	Stock Take adds — you typed the intended final figure instead of the amount to add.	Deduct the difference from the product page, or use Stock Change to set the correct final figure.
Red messages under several fields	Required fields are empty.	Fill in every field marked in red, then Submit again. Nothing was saved.
Permission denied / the page will not open	Your session has expired, or your account is not active.	Sign in again. If that fails, contact your administrator — do not use a colleague's login.
The screen hangs or times out after Submit	Connection dropped, or the server was busy.	Do not click Submit again. Refresh the Stock Levels screen and check the quantity, or look at Stock History. Only repeat the action if it definitely did not go through.
Save failed — "Failed to complete stock take: …"	A system fault. The movement was rolled back.	Note the exact wording and the time, then try once. If it fails again, contact support with those details.
You clicked Submit twice	Slow response, impatient second click.	Check Stock History for two identical entries. If there are two, deduct the extra quantity with a reason such as "Reversing duplicate entry".
The bulk upload reports errors	One or more rows name something WHIMS cannot find.	Read the listed rows, fix them, delete the rows that already succeeded, and upload again.
The quantity has not changed after saving	The page is showing a cached view, or a filter is hiding the row.	Refresh with `F5` and clear any filters. If it is genuinely unchanged, check Stock History to see whether the movement was recorded at all.
The Condition column says "Add Stock" on every row	A known display fault on the Stock Levels screen.	Ignore the column and use the Condition filter instead. Already reported to the systems team.
Available is lower than Quantity	Some units are reserved against orders. This is normal.	Nothing to fix. Reserved units cannot be edited from these screens.
You emptied the wrong location	Empty Location was run on the wrong shelf.	Open the CSV you exported beforehand and restore each product with Bulk Stock Change. Tell your supervisor immediately — this is why the export step is compulsory.

Tip — what to tell support

Include: the exact message, the Product ID, the warehouse and location, what you typed, the time, and a screenshot if you can. "Stock Take failed" alone cannot be investigated; the details above can be traced in seconds.