Inventory
The Inventory module forecasts stock levels and the associated Balance Sheet and cash flow impact. It tracks what you sell, what you purchase, and what remains in stock — including the timing effects of prepayments made before goods are received.
Inventory always connects to a COGS budget version. COGS provides the quantities sold and unit costs; Inventory adds the purchasing decisions, safety stock, and payment timing on top.
Use Inventory for:
- Inventory that is a material Balance Sheet item
- Modelling stock build-up or draw-down over the forecast period
- Paying for goods before receiving them (prepayments to suppliers)
- Maintaining safety stock buffers that tie up working capital
- Reflecting the timing of purchases in your Cash Flow forecast
Creating the module
- In your Scenario, click Add a budget
- Choose Inventory
- Follow the 4-step setup wizard
Step 1 — Introduction
An overview screen explaining the module. No configuration here.
Step 2 — Model
Connecting to a COGS budget
Products in Inventory come from a COGS budget version — you cannot add them manually. A COGS budget is required; the wizard cannot proceed without one. Two sources:
- Start from a COGS budget — imports products from a selected COGS version. Quantities sold and unit costs are read directly from COGS. Starting balance, safety stock, and purchased quantities all initialize to zero.
- Start from a previous Inventory budget — restores a saved Inventory version including all configurations.
Budget range
The budget range is inherited from the connected COGS version and cannot be changed.
Per-product grid
Each product shows a monthly grid with six rows:
| Row | Editable? | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Start balance | No — carried from previous month's end balance | |
| Quantities sold | No | From COGS (read-only) |
| Quantities purchased | Yes | User input per month |
| End balance | No — shown in red if below safety stock | |
| Mutation (units) | No | End − Start |
| Mutation (currency) | No | Unit mutation × COGS unit cost |
Quantities purchased is the only editable row in the grid.
Per-product controls
Above the grid, each product card has:
- Start balance — opening stock value at the beginning of the budget range
- Safety stock — minimum stock buffer (absolute units). Months where the end balance drops below this threshold are highlighted in red.
- COGS category — selects which COGS cost category's unit cost to use for currency calculations. Only shown when the product has more than one COGS category.
- Lightning button — auto-fills quantities purchased for every month so the end balance never falls below the safety stock threshold. A one-shot helper — does not lock the values.
Validation
The Model step blocks progression if any product has a negative end balance in any month.
Step 3 — Prepayments
Models the cash-flow timing of supplier payments made before goods are received.
Each product can have multiple prepayment rows. Each row defines:
- Months before delivery — how far in advance the payment is made
- Percentage — what portion of the total purchase cost is paid at that point
The column header shows the running total across all rows. A warning appears if the total exceeds 100%. Having no prepayment rows (0% total) is valid — skip this step if your supplier payments align with delivery.
Step 4 — Mapping
Assign a Balance Sheet reporting line to two accounts per product:
- Inventory — the stock asset account
- Prepayment of Inventory — the prepayment asset account
Both mappings are required. Only Balance Sheet lines are shown in the selector.
Reuse mapping: each row has an icon button that propagates its selection to all other products at once — useful when all products map to the same inventory or prepayment account.
Click Finish to name and save the budget version.
Module chain
P×Q (units sold at price)
→ COGS (cost per unit)
→ Inventory (stock levels + purchase requirements)
When all three are connected, updating sales quantities in P×Q cascades to COGS, and COGS changes cascade to Inventory — updating dates, transactions, and budget rows automatically server-side.
Output in reports
- Balance Sheet — inventory balance; prepayment balance
- Cash Flow — purchase cash outflows including prepayment timing