SStockavo.

Early access. Stockavo is actively in development — new features ship every week.

Help center

Everything you need
to run Stockavo.

A plain-language tour of the app — what each part is for, the concepts worth knowing up front, and how the pieces fit together. No code or setup knowledge required.

Sign in to Stockavo Jump to FAQ

What this app does

It's a day-to-day inventory system for a small-to-mid-size business: what you stock, what it costs, what you sell it for, who you buy it from, who you sell it to, and a full paper trail of every change along the way. Everything lives in one place instead of spreadsheets that drift out of sync — receiving stock, selling it at a counter or on account, counting it, moving it between locations, and reporting on all of it.

Getting started

Signing up automatically creates your own organization — there's nothing to configure before you start adding products. If you're joining a teammate's existing organization instead, accept the email invite they send you and you'll land straight in their workspace rather than a new one of your own.

Once you're in, add a few products first (Inventory → Products), then a supplier or two and a customer or two — most other pages need at least one of each to be useful. If you already have a product, supplier, or customer list in a spreadsheet, look for the "Import CSV" button on each of those pages instead of typing everything in by hand.

A few concepts worth knowing up front

01Available vs. on-hand"On-hand" is the physical quantity sitting on the shelf. "Available" is on-hand minus anything already reserved for a confirmed sales order that hasn't shipped — the number that actually tells you what you can promise.
02Batches are optional, per productA product with no batches has one plain quantity you edit directly. Give it a first batch and its total becomes a rollup of those batches instead — useful for expiry dates, traceability, or per-delivery cost differences.
03Base unit and pack sizesStock is counted in one base unit per product, set on the product form ("each" if blank; kg or bottle work too). Buy, sell or pick it by the case? Add pack sizes on the product's expanded row, each a whole number of base units (1 case = 12 each). Pick lists then show "2 case + 3 each" under the quantity.
04Draft → committed → donePurchase orders, sales orders, stocktakes, stock transfers, and returns all start as an editable draft and lock once sent, confirmed, or submitted — so a supplier or customer's confirmed terms can't silently change.
05Everything is loggedEvery meaningful change — a price, a stock count, a status change — lands in the Activity log automatically. You never have to remember to write anything down.
06Search anything with Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac)Press it from any page, or click the search box, to open search. It finds products (by name, SKU, or barcode), suppliers, customers, locations, orders, returns, shipments, stocktakes and transfers, categories, and any page by name or by what's on it: "damage" finds Stock movements, "portal" or "cut-off" finds the customer portal's settings. Whatever you open is remembered under Recent for next time; Esc closes it.

Inventory

01ProductsYour catalog — name, SKU, barcode, cost, price, category, supplier, and how much you have. Click into a product for its batches, stock history, and photos. In Grid view each card also flags stock in words — "Out of stock", "Reorder" (below your reorder point with not enough on order), or "Low stock" (low, but enough is on order) — and shows how more is coming: the next shipment's freight mode and ETA (red once it's late), or how many are on open purchase orders.
02CategoriesHow products are grouped for filtering and reporting.
03Storage locationsWhere things physically are. Locations can nest — a warehouse containing zones, aisles, racks, shelves, bins — or stay a flat list.
04Suppliers & customersWho you buy from and sell to. A customer can carry a flat discount or a specific price list, either of which becomes the starting price on an order — still editable on the line itself.
05Price listsNamed pricing tiers — Retail, Trade, Wholesale, or anything you choose — including quantity-based bulk pricing and scheduled future price changes.
06Print labelsGenerate and print barcode/price labels for products or batches, in a handful of common physical label sizes.

Sales

01Quick saleA fast, scanner-friendly checkout for a walk-in or counter sale. Built for a barcode scanner, but works fine with a keyboard and mouse too. Completed Quick sales land in Sales orders afterward, already fulfilled — filter that list to "Quick sales" or check its Payment column to see just your counter sales.
02Sales ordersA regular customer order that isn't a walk-in sale: draft it, confirm it — which reserves the stock — then fulfill it as it ships, either straight from the order or on a pick list with the rest of the day's orders. An order that can't be fully covered still confirms, as a backorder instead of blocking the whole order. Orders your customers place in the customer portal arrive as Submitted, tagged Portal; a banner shows how many are waiting, and confirming one works like confirming a draft.
03BackordersThe standing list of everything still owed to a customer because stock wasn't available when their order was confirmed. Only confirmed orders count: a draft, a cancelled order, or a portal order still waiting for review isn't a backorder.
04Sales returnsA customer sending something back. Each line is either restocked or scrapped — the return record is the paper trail either way.
05InvoicesOn Growth and Enterprise. Open a sales order once its items have been fulfilled and press Create invoice in its Invoices card: it bills everything fulfilled and not yet invoiced, shows the lines, tax and due date first, and is issued (INV-0001 and up) as you create it. A part shipment can be invoiced now and the rest later. Print it (or save it as a PDF) or email it to the customer; replies go to whoever sent it. The email's View invoice button opens it online for the customer, with no account: they see whether it's still owed, paid or void, and can save it as a PDF (anyone holding that link can see it, so it only goes to them). When money comes in, Record payment: part payments are fine, and an invoice reads Unpaid, Part paid, Paid, or Overdue once its due date passes. A wrong or bounced payment is reversed, not deleted; a customer's objection can be noted with Mark disputed; and an invoice with a mistake is voided, keeping its number, so you can issue a corrected one. If the customer was emailed it, leave Email the customer that it's cancelled ticked when you void it (Email cancellation on a void invoice sends it later). The Invoices page lists everything owed and overdue, and its To invoice tab lists orders with fulfilled items nobody has invoiced yet. Set the tax (GST or VAT, its rate and your tax number), payment terms and how to pay you in Settings → Invoicing. Each customer can have their own terms, a credit limit (a warning, never a block), a billing address and a separate invoice email in the Account section of their row on Customers, which also links to their printable statement: what they owe by age, open invoices, and every invoice and payment for a period. Creating invoices and recording payments needs the Finance permission (Owners and Admins have it).

Fulfillment: pick, pack, dispatch

Once a sales order is confirmed and its stock reserved, these three steps take it off the shelf, into a box, and out the door. Find them under Operations → Fulfillment in the sidebar — or, in the condensed sidebar layout, Pick list in the main list and Pack list and Dispatch under More.

All three work the same way: a page showing what's waiting, grouped so you choose which orders to include; a numbered session you start from it; and a Complete button that records the result. A session can be cancelled but is never deleted, and every step shows up in the Activity log.

01Pick listReserved stock on every open order, one line per product, sorted by storage location so you walk the warehouse once. Untick orders you don't want this run, or Print a paper copy. Start pick list saves a numbered list (PL-0001) split by batch and bin, oldest batch first. Scan as you go — a batch barcode counts against that exact batch, a product barcode or SKU against its next unfinished line — or type a quantity. Can't find it all? Pick what you can and choose a reason: Not found, Damaged, Wrong item, or Other. Damaged also writes the units you couldn't pick off their batch when you complete the list; the order keeps them reserved for the next pick list. Took it from a different batch? Scan that batch, or choose it from the line's reason list, and the rest of the line moves to it. Out of the product altogether? Choose one of its substitutes (listed in the product's Substitutes panel on the Products page) under "Use a substitute product": the rest of the line becomes the substitute at the price the customer was quoted, and the order shows what it stands in for. Lines where the customer said no substitutes don't offer any. Complete fulfils everything you picked, from the batches you picked it from; whatever's short stays reserved on its order for the next pick list. Scanning needs the Growth plan or higher.
02Pack listWhat's been picked but not boxed yet, grouped by order. Start pack session (PK-0001), enter each line's packed quantity or press All, then Complete. No scanning here on purpose — one session can hold several orders, and a scan can't tell which order's box an item went into. A partly packed order stays on the list for next time.
03DispatchThe final confirmation that packed goods have left the building. Untick anything that isn't on this load, Start dispatch (DS-0001), confirm each line, and Complete. A part-load leaves the rest for the next dispatch. Print pack slips prints one page per order, with the ship-to address and items, to go in each box.
04Delivery runsYour own vans, from plan to proof of delivery. Under Fulfillment → Delivery runs, press New run for a date, a driver and a vehicle, add packed orders, and put the stops in order. Add vehicles (with their maximum load) and zones on the same page; a customer branch's zone and receiving hours, set on the Customers page, show on each stop. Start run when the van leaves: that records the orders as dispatched and emails each customer that it's on its way. Give drivers a login with the Driver role: they see only their own runs, on their phone, with Open in Maps and Call buttons and what to hand over, and mark each stop Delivered (who took it, plus a signature or photo) or Couldn't deliver (why, and when to try again). A failed delivery never counts as delivered; the order waits for another run. Customers get an email when it's out, delivered or not delivered, and portal buyers see the same on their order. Failed deliveries are listed at the top of the Delivery runs page with the reason, the driver's note and the day to try again (Overdue, Due today, a later date, or No retry date) until they're on another run, and on a run's page the ones due by its date come first in Add orders. Your Owners and Admins get an email when a delivery fails.

Pack list and Dispatch are optional. An order counts as fulfilled as soon as it's picked; packing and dispatch are extra tracking for teams that want to know what's been boxed and loaded, and they don't change the order's status. A Quick sale is fulfilled the moment it completes, so it skips the pick list and appears on the Pack list like any other fulfilled order — leave counter sales unticked when you start a pack session.

Purchasing

01Purchase ordersWhat you've ordered from a supplier. Draft it, send it — optionally through an approval step — then receive against it as deliveries arrive, across one or several partial shipments.
02ShipmentsTracks the physical freight movement itself — carrier, transport mode, tracking number, planned vs. actual dates — separate from the purchase order.
03Purchase returnsSending stock back to a supplier. Unlike a sales return, it always leaves your warehouse — there's no "keep it" option.

Stock operations

01Stock movementsThe raw, permanent ledger of every quantity change and why it happened — a sale, a receipt, an adjustment, damage, a transfer, a return, or a quantity typed in directly.
02StocktakeA physical count session, optionally scoped to one storage location. Enter what you counted; submitting reconciles the difference automatically.
03Stock transfersMoving product between two storage locations — relocating it outright, or splitting part of a batch off to the new location.

Reports & Activity log

Reports turns your live data into at-a-glance numbers and charts: inventory value, value by category, top products, stock by location, low-stock items, a "Sales" section (revenue and order count over a selectable window, a revenue trend, and a breakdown by payment method that splits Quick sale counter revenue from regular sales orders), a "Fulfillment" section (pick fill rate, and units picked, short, written off as damaged, packed and dispatched over a selectable window, by person and by order), and a "Pricing health" section covering average margin, products missing a price, and prices that recently changed or are about to expire.

Activity log is the full, org-wide feed of everything logged automatically as people work — every product edit, stock change, order status change, and price change, with who did it and when.

Your organization & team

01MembersInvite teammates by email and see who's already on your team.
02RolesWhat each teammate is allowed to do — view, create, edit, delete, manage members, manage roles, drive, finance. Owner/Admin/Staff presets are built in, plus a Driver preset that sees only the delivery runs assigned to them, and you can add custom roles to match how your team actually works. Finance is the money side (creating and voiding invoices, recording payments, a customer's terms and credit limit); Owners and Admins have it, and anyone who can view still sees invoices and what's owed.
03Plan & billingYour current plan and its limits — seats, storage locations, products — and where to change it.
04Customer portal accessOn Growth and Enterprise, invite a customer's buyers to sign in to Stockavo as that customer. Open the customer on the Customers page and use Portal access, below their Branches. Buyers never see your inventory, costs, or other customers, and they don't take a seat. From the same list you can resend or revoke an invitation, and pause or remove someone's access. Buyers can browse your catalog at their own prices, from the customer's price list or discount, with pack sizes and whether each item is in stock (never your exact quantities). You can set minimums too: a minimum quantity per product (in its Pack sizes panel), and a minimum order total in Settings → Customer portal, which each customer can override, or drop, under Portal access. Buyers order through the portal too: they fill a cart, check out (choosing one of the customer's branches if it has any), and get an emailed receipt. The order arrives on Sales orders as Submitted, tagged Portal, and your Owners and Admins get an email. Nothing is reserved until you confirm it. Confirming reserves the stock and emails the buyer, and you can adjust the lines first. Buyers see their order's status, can cancel until you confirm, and can order the same again. They can also star favorites (one shared list per customer), add a note to any line for your picker, and untick "OK to substitute" on lines they don't want swapped. To have buyers pick a delivery date, set your delivery days and a daily cut-off in Settings → Customer portal: the earliest date offered is tomorrow, or the day after once the cut-off has passed. Approvals: under a customer's Portal access, set "Approval needed for Buyer orders over" an amount, and a Buyer's bigger order waits (Customer approval) until one of that customer's Approvers approves it in the portal, or declines it with a reason, which the Buyer sees on the order and gets by email. In Settings → Customer portal you can also confirm portal orders automatically: ordinary orders confirm and reserve stock as they're placed, and an order still waits for you, with the reason, when stock is short, it's the customer's first portal order, or it's over your review amount.

This guide covers the shape of the app, not every button on every screen. If something here doesn't match what you're seeing, start with your organization's Owner or Admin — they can usually resolve a permissions question on the spot — or reach out at hello@stockavo.shop.

Common questions

Answers,
not tickets.

The questions people actually ask once they're using the app day to day.

Why does "Available" show less than what I counted on the shelf?

Something is reserved against a confirmed sales order that hasn't shipped yet. Check the product's Reservations panel, or the order it's tied to.

I made a mistake on an order I already sent or confirmed — now what?

You can't edit it directly once it's left Draft — that's intentional, so a supplier or customer's confirmed terms can't silently change. Cancel it, if nothing's shipped or received against it yet, and create a corrected one, or use the matching return once something has moved.

A product's quantity field won't let me edit it directly.

That product has batches, which makes its total a rollup of them — edit the specific batch's quantity instead, or use a stock movement or stocktake to log an adjustment.

What is a "Direct edit" in Stock movements?

A quantity someone typed in, rather than changed through a stock action: a new product's opening stock, a change on the product form or in a CSV import, or a batch being added, edited, archived or deleted. The note says which, and who did it is recorded. It keeps the movement history adding up to what's on hand. When you want to record why stock changed, use Apply adjustment (with a note) or a stocktake instead of typing over the number.

I can't delete a product.

Products are meant to be discontinued, not deleted. Discontinue (in the product's row actions) keeps all its history, marks it as no longer stocked, and can be undone with Reactivate. Owners and Admins also see Delete permanently, but that's only for a product added by mistake. Once a product is on a confirmed order, a return, a stocktake, a transfer or a pick list, it can't be deleted; the app names the record that's holding it. Discontinue it instead.

Where do I see who changed a price, and why?

The Activity log — every price change is recorded there, including any reason typed in on a bulk price edit.

My pick list won't let me press Complete.

At least one line was picked short without a reason. Hover the Complete button to see how many, then choose a reason — Not found, Damaged, Wrong item, or Other — on each short line.

What happens to units marked Damaged on a pick list?

When the list is completed, they're written off the batch they were meant to come from, as a Damage stock movement you can see on Stock movements. The order still wants them, so they stay reserved and go on the next pick list. Cancelling the list instead writes nothing off.

How do I give a driver access without showing them everything?

Invite them under Members with the Driver role. A Driver can't open products, customers or orders; when they sign in they see only the delivery runs assigned to them, with each stop's address, phone number and what to hand over. Assign them to a run on its page.

A delivery failed. What now?

The driver records why (nobody there, refused, wrong address, damaged or other) and can suggest a day to try again. The order shows Delivery failed, never Delivered, the customer gets an email saying it'll be rearranged, and your Owners and Admins get an email too. The order is listed under Failed deliveries on the Delivery runs page until you add it to another run. In that run's Add orders list it's marked Last delivery failed, and it's at the top once its retry date has come.

Why didn't a portal order confirm itself?

Either Confirm portal orders automatically is off (Settings → Customer portal), or something about the order needs a person: not enough stock for every line, the customer's first portal order, a total over your review amount, or an order that would take the customer over their credit limit. The order's page lists which under Check before confirming.

I made a mistake on an invoice. Can I edit it?

No: once issued, an invoice reads the same forever, because the customer may already have it. Void it (on the invoice, with a reason; reverse any payments on it first). It keeps its number and reads VOID, and what it billed goes back to the order's "to invoice", so you can create a corrected one. If you'd emailed it, the void form offers to email the customer that it's cancelled, with your reason; it's ticked for you.

Can my customer get the invoice as a PDF?

Yes. The invoice email has a View invoice button that opens the invoice online, no account needed, with Print or save as PDF. It always shows the invoice as it stands now: owed, paid, or VOID. To see exactly what they see, open the invoice and choose The customer's view.

I recorded a payment on the wrong invoice, or it bounced.

Open the invoice and press Reverse under that payment, saying why. The payment stays in the history, crossed out, with the reversal beside it, and the invoice goes back to owing that amount. Then record it where it belongs.

Why can't I create an invoice or record a payment?

You need the Finance permission (Owners and Admins have it; it can be added to any role on the Roles page), and invoicing is part of the Growth and Enterprise plans. The order also needs fulfilled items that aren't on an invoice yet: its Invoices card says what's left.

Where do I set GST or VAT?

Settings → Invoicing: the tax's name, its rate, and your tax number, printed on every invoice. Prices stay before tax. A product's own tax rate (on its form) wins over the workspace's, and a customer can be marked tax exempt in the Account section of their row on Customers. A change only affects invoices issued after it.

An order I expected isn't on the pick list.

The pick list only shows confirmed orders with stock reserved against them, and leaves out anything already on another open pick list, so two people aren't sent for the same stock. Check the order is confirmed with reserved stock, then look under Saved pick lists at the top of the page — an open list there can be continued, or cancelled to free its orders up again.

Make the next move

Good operations
feel lighter.

Give your team a clearer place to work.