Found a flaw where employees could possibly steal merchandise.

[Courtright]

Something I just realized that I think could be fixed and honestly should be fixed if possible.  Any manager that has the ability to "Add New Product" (but not enough security for Product Control to actually edit current stock quantity) could get in a new shipment, in our case picture a $500 Ferrari Edition Sunglass.  They create a "new product" for it and give it the right price and all the details.  I have them start the STOCK quantity at ZERO so they can "adjust stock" afterwards and then I have a paper trail within the REPORTS that I can print out to compare it to the packing slip and my list of orders.

However, if a manager creates a new product and for stock uses -1 (negative one) they could still go and check in the inventory under "inventory adjust" and have a report showing they actually checked one in inventory.  Then since that $500 pair has a stock now in the system of 0 after they scanned it in (up from -1), they could steal it and the inventory count would still be spot on and there would be a paper trail showing they scanned in the new order properly.  It wouldn't be until someone started asking "hey, where's that new Ferrari frame at?" and then searching the reports to see if it was sold, etc.  The whole time with the inventory count being spot on.  And in our case with thousands upon thousands of sunglasses certain $300 pairs would go unnoticed as long as the inventory count is spot on and they were checked in.

My thoughts should be with "Add New Product" either the inability to go with negative numbers or simply no ability to change STOCK at all.  Any owner would want the product trail of that being left zero and then scanning them in later during "inventory adjust".

[ronaldrwl]

Hmm, I don't think so.  There is no limit to what you can do if you are a manager that can create a product.  That kind of scrutiny requires you to compare your purchase invoices with a stock count.

BTW - Inventory Adjust is for adding new stock.  Stock Correction is for counting and adjusting the inventory.  It will keep a record what was over/under.

[Courtright]

Is there a reason you can think of as to why it would be beneficial to allow negative numbers upon "Adding New Product" (green circle button with white plus sign)?  I couldn't see how even allowing negative numbers would ever be beneficial since you cannot have negative product stock, only 0.  By blocking the ability for anything negative that completely alleviates this possible flaw but I can't imagine a way in which it would ever be missed, except for by the people who are stealing.  In most cases, comparing live stock quantity to invoices is nearly impossible.  We can get shipments everyday from 30 pairs up to sometimes over 100 pairs in a store that has thousands upon thousands in stock, going up to $500.  Retailers like myself use a POS system to reduce headache, which in this case would cause a ton of work everyday.  Or if the system didn't allow the ability to use negative stock upon creation then it would fix it.  This is the only way in which a manager could easily steal product since most basic managers wouldn't have security clearance for Product Edit and manually adjust stock.  Their only chance is upon creating a new one.

[ronaldrwl]

If you sell more than you have (ie backorder) the stock will be negative until you add new stock.

[moresby]

I agree with the fact that new opening stock should be a positive number only, if you allow negative stock for a new product it would/could cause a problem with future stock takes.  In reality you trust mangers to to enter product codes correctly.  Putting negative stock as an opening stock balance is at best a mistake, but potentially it could be much more, best to always star a new product as zero then do an adjustment afterwards if you need to add or remove stock for what ever reason

[Courtright]

If you sell more than you have (ie backorder) the stock will be negative until you add new stock.

Yeah, I am completely aware of that which is fine but that was not what I was talking about.  I am only talking about the ability to create brand new product for the first time.  A product you've never had before so you hit the green circle with the white plus sign "Add Product".  It's similar to Product Edit but with a lot less features.  So upon creating a product for the first time, starting it with a negative number should never even be a possibility, as moresby agrees with in their reply. 

I still completely understand that allowing the system to go negative so you could sell a product if you had it but the system said zero is completely fine.  Because once a product is created a manager should never be allowed to manually adjust inventory levels without a trail in the report center.  A product should always be created with a stock of zero and then "checked in" by using Inventory Adjust so there is a paper trail.  Problems can only arise with allowing the ability to set a New Product to negative numbers upon its initial creation.  I can't think of any case in which anyone would ever want it to be set at a negative number.

[ronaldrwl]

Some businesses do special orders for items they don't normally carry.

[Courtright]

Right, we I actually do myself.  Let's say a customer wants a pair of Ray Bans we don't normally stock.  We tell them we will order them in for them.  When they arrive, we can create a brand new product for the first time ever but we still would only set the beginning inventory level at zero, even if it is a special order item we normally don't carry there would never be a reason to start the stock of a new product at negative quantity, only ever zero.  If a manager were to start a special order item at negative 1 stock, then when scanned in it would now be zero when in reality you have 1 on stock.  There would never be a reason anyone would create a brand new product for the first and ever need to use a negative number for stock quantity.  The ONLY reason would be if they are planning on stealing something.

[Courtright]

Also, I'm only trying my best to help find flaws so you guys can have the best POS system on the market.  I truly love this system and have told about a dozen businesses about how much I recommend it, which I know 2 have bought.  For some reason I feel invested in this software most likely because I use it every day and as a previous developer/coder love the functionality of it.  I'm just trying to bring light to issues like this that to me don't make sense from a retailers point of view.  A new Product should never be allowed negative stock numbers since there isn't a single situation in which it should be negative besides trying to steal.  That button for "Add New Product" should have everything but a stock quantity option.  You should be able to create the product and then after creating it add it to the POS system afterwards through "Inventory Adjust."  Just my 2 cents and I think anyone that uses this software for retail would agree.  To know that there is this flaw where a manager (I have 4) could steal merchandise is scary.  I'm sitting on $400,000 worth of inventory that is a headache just to try and stay on top of without having to scrutinize if current stock quantity matches, product added to inventory and comparing it to purchase orders, etc.  I just think it's something to REALLY consider.  If you were to ask a dozen of your retailer accounts about this and inform them of this flaw I think all of them would agree that there isn't a need for ever having negative stock numbers upon a products INITIAL creation.

[Courtright]

How about if you pretty please consider altering this in some way I'll upgrade to version 14.

Pretty sure that's a bribe, lol.   

[ronaldrwl]

What happens if a manager edits the inventory and changes the quantity from 3 to 2 and then steals that item?

[rjmeyer]

First, in v14 I can't find any "Add New Product" other than in Product Control.  Or do you mean "Quick Add"?  If that, I don't see any option to add a negative value.

I've insisted on adding any new Products at my business, but came to realize that I couldn't get by without giving someone else access to the quantities.  And at that point, what's to keep someone (as Ronald stated) from simply changing quantities to steal something?  Even if you have them use "Adjust Stock", I don't know of a way of tracking it if they don't choose to print a report.

I think there's an incredible degree of control over who has access to what.  Hopefully you have someone you can trust to not be stealing from you!

[Courtright]

I think you guys are possibly not understanding then what I was describing.

I DO mean "Quick Add".  If you want to create a product from scratch the best way for a manager to do it is Quick Add.  Using "Quick Add" it lets you set a beginning stock.  Which in reality upon creating a product for the very first time, beginning stock should always be zero because it can be adjusted a second later by going to inventory adjust.  So, rjmeyer, I do mean "Quick Add" and by putting "-1" for the stock it is now starting with a -1 stock value.  The manager now checks in a $500 item, prints out a report showing 1 items was checked in using "Adjust Stock" which I compare to the packing slip which shows 1 item was shipped.

1 item shipped and my manager checked in 1 item ... but stock quantity is now actually zero!  So although it looks like everything was done right she can steal that pair and inventory count is always on because she created the product from scratch with -1 Stock.  And to give you an idea, if I get 50 pairs of sunglasses in today some may be auto shipped new styles I didn't order but the manufacturer says I need, so they ship them to me without knowing.  When she opens the box and the system says we never had them, she'll create them that second and then scan them into inventory adjust afterwards and put them out for sale.

(CONTINUED.......)

[Courtright]

(.....PART 2)

What happens if a manager edits the inventory and changes the quantity from 3 to 2 and then steals that item?

Ronald, due to Security Settings she has NO ability to ever adjust inventory levels once she creates a product.  She does not have security clearance  for "Product Edit" so she literally cannot edit ANY existing inventory and change the quantity from 3 to 2.  Impossible.  The only way she can remove inventory is via "Inventory Adjust" in which there is a trail and I print weekly reports for Inventory Adjust, Returns, etc.

The ONLY time my managers EVER have the ability to affect inventory without a paper trail via Inventory Adjust is upon initially creating the inventory for the first time using "Quick Add".  Hopefully that clears it up a little bit.  Upon using Quick Add, since it is so limited as is it should be limited to not having any input for STOCK at all, especially negative numbers.  Being that it is a stripped down version to New Product > Product Edit it should remain stripped down with zero quantity adjustment.  Then when a manager creates a product this way, if they need to add it to inventory afterwards they do so like they would all new incoming inventory ...scan it with inventory adjust and "Add to Stock"

[Courtright]

Did that above reply help in better understanding the situation?  Let me know if you have any other questions. Like I stated, upon a products initial creation it's the only time my manager can control inventory levels. Access to anything like Product Edit is blocked through Security Settings. Just test it out, use "QUICK ADD", make a new product and set the stock to -1.