Accounting
Stock & inventory
In one line: define your items and warehouses on one screen, then track stock on hand and its value per item per warehouse on another — both figures computed from movements, never entered by hand.
Plan: Part of the Accounting workspace — available from the Advanced plan and during the trial. See the Accounting overview.
Overview
Inventory in Duwam is two separate screens, because they are two different jobs — usually done by two different people at two different times:
- Items & warehouses — setup, done once and revised rarely: you define what you stock and where you stock it.
- Stock on hand — daily operations: you record what came in and what went out, and read the quantity and value moment by moment.
The rule that governs both screens: no balance is stored. Any item's quantity and value are a sum the system computes over its movement log (receive, issue, transfer, count) — so the figure you see is the very one the ledger stands on, not a copy that could drift from it.
Tip: Start with setup. Define your items and warehouses on the first screen, and the receive/issue movements on the second become available and rest on solid ground.
Items & warehouses
This is where you build the catalogue behind all of stock.
An item describes what your business sells or consumes. To add one, fill in:
- SKU — the item's short identifier.
- Barcode — scan it with a reader or type it (optional).
- Name in Arabic and in English.
- Unit of measure — piece, kilogram, litre… ; the default is
unit. - Sell price — leave it blank for an item with no fixed price.
- Default tax — applied automatically on this item's invoices.
- Tracked in stock — on by default. Clear it for services and consumables that are expensed at purchase: they carry no balance and no cost of goods sold.
A warehouse is a physical or logical place that holds goods. Adding one takes just a code and a name in Arabic and English. Each warehouse is an independent balance with its own cost; that is why a transfer moves the cost along with the goods.
The top of the screen shows two tables: the items table (code, name, unit, whether tracked) and the warehouses table (code, name). Neither shows a quantity column — quantity is the concern of the stock-on-hand screen alone.
Product recipes: If you manufacture, define a recipe for each product: what goes into one unit of it (component × quantity per unit). Define it once, then on the stock screen you say how many you made — and the system computes the product's cost from its components' prices, so you never type it by hand.
Stock on hand
This is the daily-operations screen. At the top is the stock table: for every item in every warehouse, a row showing quantity (with its unit), average cost, and value. You may see "—" in place of the average cost when the item has no cost basis yet.
Tip: Click any row in the stock table to see that item's full movement history in a table below — date, direction (in or out), reason, quantity, and value — so you can trace how the balance got to where it is.
Movements are recorded through forms that appear the moment an item and a warehouse exist (until then, the screen points you to add an item and a warehouse first):
- Receive — bring goods in. You enter the quantity, the total cost, the date, and a reason (opening balance, purchase, inventory adjustment, customer return).
- Issue — send goods out. You enter the quantity, date, and reason (sale, consumption, shrinkage, scrap, return to supplier). There is no cost field — the system decides it by weighted average at the moment of issue.
- Transfer between warehouses — appears once you have two or more warehouses: item, from where, to where, and quantity.
- Manufacturing order — appears once a recipe exists: pick the recipe and say how many you made; the components are issued and the product is received at its computed cost.
Stocktaking corrects the balance against what is really on the shelf: pick the warehouse and count date, and enter what you actually counted for each item — not the difference. The system computes the difference and posts it on its own, and an item that matches its books gets no entry at all. The unit-cost field stays empty as a rule; it is needed only when the books say the balance is zero and the shelf says otherwise.
Caution: You may see a line reading "movements recorded whose entry is not yet posted" — meaning a movement entered stock but its accounting entry has not finished posting. Ask your account admin or accountant to complete the posting so stock matches the ledger.
FAQ
Q: Why don't I see a quantity on the items screen? A: By design — items & warehouses is a setup screen and carries no quantities. Quantity and value appear on the stock-on-hand screen, computed from movements.
Q: Why doesn't the issue form ask for a cost? A: Because the issue cost is decided by the system as the weighted average of the balance at the moment of issue. Typing it by hand would let goods leave at a price the ledger never agreed to.
Q: What is the difference between a tracked and an untracked item? A: A tracked item has a balance, a value, and a cost of goods sold. An untracked one (a service or consumable) is expensed at purchase with no balance — clear the "tracked in stock" mark when you define it.
Q: How do I enter my current stock when starting out? A: Record a receive with the reason "opening balance," for the quantity and its total cost.
Q: I moved goods between two branches — does my total stock change? A: No. A transfer moves quantity and cost from one warehouse to another; the total across warehouses is unchanged.
Q: I don't see the transfer form or the manufacturing order. A: The transfer form appears once you have two or more warehouses, and the manufacturing order appears once at least one product recipe exists. Add what's missing and the form shows up.
Q: How do I record a shortage or damage in stock? A: Record an issue with the fitting reason — shrinkage or scrap — or let stocktaking compute the shortfall automatically when you enter the counted quantity.
Quick reference
| Action | Path |
|---|---|
| Items & warehouses | Accounting workspace → Stock → Items & warehouses |
| New item | Items & warehouses → "New item" |
| New warehouse | Items & warehouses → "New warehouse" |
| Product recipe | Items & warehouses → Product recipes |
| Stock on hand | Accounting workspace → Stock → Stock on hand |
| Receive / issue | Stock on hand → the receive / issue form |
| Transfer between warehouses | Stock on hand → Transfer between warehouses |
| Stocktake a warehouse | Stock on hand → Count a warehouse |
| An item's movements | Stock on hand → click the item's row |