Transferring Stock Between Your Shops in Automan
The established branch has eight sets of brake pads nobody is buying. The new branch ran out on Tuesday and has already turned two customers away.
A shop without a system solves this over WhatsApp: “Send five over.” The parts travel, arrive, get fitted. Then month end comes and nobody can answer a simple question — which branch actually made money on those five? Stock left one shop with no record, appeared at the other from nowhere, and the cost price evaporated somewhere in between.
Stock transfer closes that hole. Not by adding bureaucracy, but with one sensible rule: stock only increases at the destination once the destination says it arrived.
It sounds trivial. In practice, that single rule is what makes a shortfall surface the same day instead of three weeks later, when everyone has forgotten who carried the box.
One thing worth knowing up front so you are not disappointed: there is no approval step here. Goods do not wait for an owner to press approve before they leave. What exists is confirmation at the receiving end. If your shop genuinely needs a brake before anything ships, build it with access rights — decide who is allowed to create a transfer document at all.
Before you start
- One Automan account holding more than one active Store App. The menu does not exist for a single shop.
- The product you want to send must exist in both shops. If the new branch is still empty, copy the product list across first.
Steps
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Check that the menu is there
Stock transfer is not a paid add-on and nothing needs switching on. It appears by itself once your account holds more than one active Store App. If the menu is missing, your second store is almost certainly not active yet — the feature is not locked behind anything.
The menu appears once a second store is active. -
Look at the other shop stock before deciding
Before moving anything, check what the destination actually has left. Sending parts to a branch that turns out to be well stocked just relocates the problem instead of solving it.
Check stock before you decide to ship. -
Create the transfer document at the sending shop
Open stock transfer, create a new document, then choose the destination shop. Every active shop on your account is selectable — there are no fixed pairs, and the direction is free.
The document starts at the sending store. -
Add the items and quantities
Pick the products and enter how many you are sending. You do not type the cost price: Automan takes it from the purchase the stock genuinely came out of, following your shop inventory valuation method.
Fill in the items along with their quantities. -
Send it, then move the goods the usual way
Once sent, the document is marked as sent and stock leaves the sending shop. Automan records the movement; getting the box across town is still a human job — courier, rider, or you.
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The receiving shop confirms what actually arrived
This is the most important step and the one most often waved through. The destination opens the document and enters the quantity received. Partial is allowed: send 10, receive 8. Stock only increases after this confirmation — not when it was sent.
The destination confirms how much actually arrived. -
Decide what happened to the difference
Those two missing pieces need an answer: cancelled (they never left) or lost (they left but never arrived). Do not leave it hanging — an unexplained gap is the single most common way stock figures stop being trustworthy.
Any shortfall still leaves a trail.
What you end up with
Stock moves between branches with a full trail: who sent it, when, how many were sent, how many were confirmed as arrived, and what happened to any difference. The cost price travels with the goods, so profit at the receiving branch stays honest.
If something goes wrong
There is no stock transfer menu in my shop
It only appears when your account holds more than one active Store App. Check in the Account Panel whether your second store is genuinely active rather than merely created.
The product I want to send is not in the destination list
Goods can only move if both sides recognise them. Copy the product list from the established shop to the new one first, then repeat the transfer.
I sent the stock but the destination total has not gone up
That is the intended order. Stock increases once the destination confirms receipt, not when it is sent. Until then the goods count as still in transit.
Fewer pieces arrived than were sent
Enter what physically arrived, then record what happened to the difference — cancelled or lost. Forcing the numbers to match so the report looks neat destroys the very evidence you need when you investigate.
Is there an owner approval before goods leave?
There is not, and we would rather say so plainly. What exists is receipt confirmation at the destination. If your shop needs a brake before goods leave, apply it through access rights — control who is allowed to create a transfer document.