To avoid NetSuite negative inventory, the best thing to do is to map out your inventory management processes to find the points of concern.
Here are 10 easy tips that can help once that is done:
- Create a warning for an item that is not in stock when entering a sales transaction.
- Create Item Receipts when they are actually received.
- When creating Item Receipts, the date entered should be the date when the goods were received. Not the entry date of the transaction.
- Create Sales Orders as sales transactions (instead of Invoices or Cash Sales).
- Create Item Fulfillments, when the goods are actually fulfilled.
- When creating Item Fulfillments, the date entered should be the date when the goods were fulfilled. Not the entry date of the transaction.
- Set the “Fulfill Based on Commitment” preference to Limit to Committed (for use with Sales Orders).
- Avoid entering standalone transactions (Invoices & Cash Sales).
- Use the Inventory Level Warnings preference (you can set that up by navigating to Home -> Settings -> Set Preferences -> Transactions -> Inventory Level Warnings).
- Perform a physical count of your inventory on a regular basis and compare it with NetSuite inventory levels. Adjust as necessary (try to trace back in NetSuite what went wrong instead of creating Inventory Adjustments).
- Use the Review Negative Inventory page to identify inventory items that are negative (you can get there by navigating to Transactions -> Inventory -> Review Negative Inventory).