1. Purpose
Interpret every column on the Inventory screen correctly, and find out for yourself which orders are holding a quantity that is not available to sell.
2. Scope
Reading and interrogating the figures. Changing them is covered in SWI-002.
3. The columns
Column | What it means |
|---|---|
On Hand | Everything tracked at this warehouse. Available + Committed + Safety + Unallocated. |
Committed | Already allocated to open orders. Physically present, spoken for, not yet shipped. |
Safety | Sitting in locations marked not sellable. Excluded from Available, but still allocatable to an order. |
Available | What you can sell. On Hand − Committed − Safety − Unallocated. This is the number published to your sales channels. |
Reserved | Sitting in locations marked not pickable. On hand, but nobody can pick it. Subtracted from Allocatable. |
Allocatable | What can still be assigned to an order. Available + Safety + Unallocated − Reserved. |
Unallocated | Demand from orders waiting for allocation, including component demand from bundles and kits. |
Backorder | Demand that exceeds what you have. How many units you are short. |
Incoming | Expected from confirmed or partly received purchase orders. |
Do not add Reserved and Safety together. A location that is both non-pickable and non-sellable counts in both columns, so the two overlap.
Every column header on the screen carries the same definition on hover, via the small information icon.
4. Find the locations that matter
A product can carry hundreds of location records, and nearly all of them read 0. Expand the product row and turn Hide Empty on. The list collapses to only the locations actually holding units, which is almost always what you were looking for.
Read the type beside each location name as well. A location typed tote or cart holds real stock that no picker can reach, which is the most common reason On Hand and your shelves appear to disagree.
5. Procedure: find out what is holding a Committed quantity
Use this whenever a SKU shows Committed or Reserved units and you cannot see an obvious order behind them.
Go to Inventory and switch to the By Location view.
Find the location holding the stock and expand its row.
Scroll to Allocation & demand.
Open Orders allocated here. Every order holding stock at that location is listed by order number, with its status badge, its date, and how many units and picks it holds. The total is shown at the foot of the list.
Click any order number to open the order.
If new orders are not allocating, also open Competing demand. It shows warehouse-wide demand for the SKUs at that location, which is usually the reason.
This list is the answer. You should not need to ask support to look up a committed quantity.
6. Why a SKU can show stock that will not sell or allocate
Cause | How to recognise it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Stock is sitting in a tote or cart | On Hand is above zero but every bin reads 0. With Hide Empty on, the only locations left are typed tote or cart. Reserved is usually non-zero. | Recover it — SWI-009. Totes are never pickable, so the units stay unusable until they are returned to a shelf. |
Stock is still in a Receiving location | A purchase order was received recently. The units show under Reserved or Safety rather than Available, and the holding location is your Receiving area. | Receiving is normally set not sellable and not pickable, which is deliberate. Move the stock to a storage location using SWI-002, or use manual allocation on the order to pick from Receiving as a one-off. |
The order is for a bundle or kit | The order line shows the finished product name, not the component SKU. Searching the Orders screen for the component SKU finds nothing. | Expected behaviour. The component is committed by the assembly step underneath the order. Find it via Orders allocated here. |
The order is filtered out of your view | The order exists but its status — ignored, on hold, cancelled — is excluded from your default Orders filter. | Clear or widen the status filter on the Orders screen, then search the order number. |
An order was ignored or cancelled after its picks were created | Orders allocated here lists an order whose status badge reads Ignored or Cancelled, yet it still holds units. | This one cannot be released from the screen. Send the order number and SKU to Ship Side Kick support. |
The order already shipped but the commitment stayed behind | Orders allocated here shows nothing, or only a shipped order, yet Committed is above zero. | The job that releases the commitment on shipment was missed. Open the SKU and use Recalculate. If it returns, send the order number to Ship Side Kick support. |
A pick points at a bin that is empty | The order says to pick from a named bin, the picker finds nothing there, and the pick still shows as Allocated. | Use Change beside the pick location to point it at a location that holds stock. If nothing does, the SKU is genuinely short — check Backorder. |
A location you want is missing from the Change location list | You are re-pointing a pick and a bin you know holds stock does not appear as an option. | The list hides locations with zero Available, so a fully committed bin disappears rather than showing as unavailable. Use section 5 to find the orders holding it, then either re-point their picks to bulk, or replenish the bin. |
7. Refreshing the figures
Recalculate (the circular arrow on a single location row) recomputes that one record.
Recalculate All at the top of the Inventory screen recomputes every level for the warehouse. Use it after a bulk change, or when a figure looks stale.
If a number still looks wrong after a recalculation, it is not a display problem — work through section 6. Recalculating cannot move stock out of a tote, and it cannot release an order's hold on it.
8. Verification
Available + Committed + Safety + Unallocated equals On Hand.
The total shown under Orders allocated here accounts for the Committed figure.
With Hide Empty on, the locations listed account for On Hand.
9. Constraints and caveats
Available is the figure sent to your sales channels. Anything that moves stock into a non-sellable location reduces what your storefront will offer, immediately.
Reserved and Safety can describe the same units. Never sum them.
Committed stock can still be physically moved, but the picker will be routed to wherever you moved it.
On Hand counting tote stock is correct, not a fault. It is the reason On Hand can look healthy while nothing allocates.
10. Worked example: Committed with no visible order
A SKU showed 53,310 On Hand, 53,306 Available and 4 Committed, with no pending orders visible on the Orders screen. Opening Orders allocated here on the holding location explained it in one view:
Order | Status | Units | Why it was invisible |
|---|---|---|---|
Order A | Confirmed | 2 | A genuine open order — but for a bundle. The order line named the finished product, so searching the component SKU found nothing. |
Order B | Ignored | 2 | Ignored six weeks earlier, yet its picks still held the units. Filtered out of the default Orders view, so invisible from that screen. |
Order A was correct and needed no action. Order B was a stuck allocation and needed support to release it.
11. Worked example: On Hand above zero, every bin at zero
A brand reported 2 units On Hand with every bin reading 0, and 26 orders stuck unallocated.
Observation | Reading |
|---|---|
On Hand 2, every bin 0 | Both figures correct. The units were in two totes, which On Hand counts and pickers cannot reach. |
379 locations listed | 377 read 0. Hide Empty cut the list to the 2 holding stock. |
Available −27, Backorder 27 | The SKU was genuinely short as well, so recovery helped without clearing the backlog. |
Recovered with Empty Tote and Smart Return — see SWI-009.
12. Records
Inventory logs per location, reachable from the list icon on each location row.