Multi-Location Transfers

1. THE FOUR-STAGE TRANSFER LIFECYCLE

A transfer follows the same order → issue → deliver → receive pattern used across the whole product — the same shape as a Sales Order or a Purchase Order — so once your team learns it here, they already know it everywhere else in the app.

Stage 1 — Transfer Order. Create the order: source location (From), destination location (To), and the items/quantities to move. Once approved, the stock at the source is placed on hold (reserved) — it's spoken for now, but hasn't physically left yet, which stops the source location from accidentally selling stock that's already earmarked for somewhere else. Un-approving an order releases that hold if plans change.

Stage 2 — Issue. The stock actually leaves the source location. This is the moment the source warehouse's on-hand quantity decreases — everything before this was just a reservation.

Stage 3 — Delivery Order (optional). For transfers where it matters to track goods while they're physically in transit — on a truck between locations — a Delivery Order represents that in-between state: the stock has left the source but hasn't yet arrived at the destination.

Stage 4 — Receipt. The stock arrives and is recorded into the destination location. This is the moment the destination's on-hand quantity increases.

2. TRACKING STATUS AT EVERY STEP

Each stage has its own clear status so nothing is ambiguous:

• Awaiting order approval → Approved
• Awaiting DO (Delivery Order) → DO Created → DO Status
• Billing Pending → Billed
• Cancel / Reopen actions are available if a transfer needs to be stopped or restarted before it's fully complete. All four list screens — Orders, Delivery Orders, Issues, Receipts — can be filtered by Location (From), Location (To), date range, and reference/order number, and displayed in Compact, Comfy, Card, or Table view, whichever your team prefers.

3. WHY EACH STEP IS ITS OWN RECORD (NOT ONE BIG "MOVE STOCK" ACTION)

Splitting a transfer into Order → Issue → Delivery → Receipt instead of one instant action buys you:

• An honest in-transit state — you can answer "is this stock still at the warehouse, on the truck, or already received?" at any point, instead of watching it teleport from one location to another with no visibility into the gap.
• Accountability per step — whoever approves the order, whoever issues it, and whoever receives it are all recorded separately, so a transfer that goes wrong (short-shipped, wrong item) traces back to exactly which step it happened at.
• A billable option — transfers can be billed (Bill/Billed status), useful for businesses that need to charge inter-location costs back internally, or for franchise/multi-entity setups.

4. HOW IT CONNECTS TO THE REST OF THE SYSTEM

• Every issue and receipt is recorded in the central Inventory Transaction Log with its own movement type, so a transfer's stock impact is just as traceable as a sale or a purchase.
• Available-to-Promise at the source location reflects reserved-for-transfer stock the moment an order is approved, so Sales doesn't accidentally oversell something already committed to another location.
• Reorder planning is location-aware (see the Products & Inventory guide), so a transfer is one of the tools you'd reach for to fix a location running low, without creating a brand-new purchase order.

5. WHY IT SCALES FROM SMB TO ENTERPRISE

Quick Reference

  Transfer Orders .......................... Transfer > Orders
  Delivery Orders .......................... Transfer > Delivery Orders
  Stock Picking (Issues) ................... Transfer > Stock Picking
  Stock Receive (Receipts) ................. Transfer > Stock Receive