Inventory records what stock a tribe is holding. It is a per-tribe list of products and quantities, so head office can see what is where, and a tribe can see what it has without walking into the storeroom.

It is a stock register rather than a stock control system. It does not deduct quantities when something is sold, it does not reorder, and it does not reconcile against your accounts. What it gives you is a shared, current picture of what each tribe holds, which for most networks is the thing that was missing.

Open the tribe and select Inventory in its menu.

Adding an item

1. Select Add Inventory.
2. Select Product to choose the product from your catalogue. Inventory works off the products your organisation already holds, so if something is missing it needs adding to the catalogue first.
3. Enter the Quantity the tribe is holding.
4. Fill in any Custom Fields your organisation has set up — a shelf reference, a batch number, whatever your network needs to record.
5. Save.

Importing a list

Counting stock into the system one item at a time is not realistic for a first stocktake. Import Inventory takes a spreadsheet instead.

1. Select Import Inventory and choose your file.
2. On Assign Columns, tell Gorilla Dash which column in your file holds which piece of information — the product name, its SKU, the quantity.
3. Check the Preview. This is the step people skip and then regret: it shows what will actually be created.
4. Run the import. Larger files take a few moments, and the screen tells you while it is processing.

Keeping it useful

Because nothing updates the quantities automatically, an inventory is only as good as the last time somebody counted. Networks that get value from this feature set a rhythm — a count at the end of each month, or before each order — and the ones that do not end up with a list nobody trusts. Decide the rhythm before you ask your tribes to fill it in.