Job inventory: reserved vs used parts, transfers, and shortages
When your business uses the Inventory feature, the job page includes an Inventory panel that tracks the parts and items for that job. Each item shows two quantities: Reserved, the amount set aside from stock for this job, and Used, the amount the technician actually consumed.
The Parts, Labor & Items list above the recorded items also includes labor and one-off items. This plan is visible even when Inventory is off. Edit it from Parts, Labor & Items in any visit's scheduling form; all visits on the job share it. Saved planned items automatically carry into an invoice created from the job, with completed actual quantities taking precedence for matching items. With Inventory on, only tracked items are reserved from stock. Recording actual usage consumes the reservation and deducts stock; scheduling planned work alone never records actual usage.
In the technician app's visit summary, planned items start at zero used. Enter what was actually used, including labor or untracked quantities with up to two decimal places, such as 1.5 hours. Decimal keyboards using a comma also work (1,5). Tracked items require whole quantities when Inventory is on. Reopening and saving an unchanged summary does not deduct stock again.
A status reflects the difference: Reserved when nothing has been used yet, Partial when some but not all of the reserved quantity is used, and Used when used matches reserved. Click Edit to make changes.
In edit mode you can add an item, change the reserved or used quantities, remove an item, and switch the job's inventory location. The Use Remaining button records the remaining reserved stock as used. If the job also has usage from when Inventory was off, that earlier quantity stays in the job total; only the newly used stock is deducted.
Changes to reserved items also update an existing job plan, while keeping its labor and one-off rows. Changing used quantities does not rewrite the original plan.
Plan edits and usage recorded while Inventory is off leave existing stock records unchanged. After turning Inventory back on, saving the visit's scheduling form reconciles reservations with the current plan and actual usage, including removed items; you do not need to change the source location or quantities again.
If a catalog item's Track inventory in Essential setting changes, open the visit's scheduling form and save to refresh its reservations. Turning tracking off releases the outstanding reservation; turning it on reserves the remaining planned quantity. Neither change records actual usage or deducts on-hand stock.
Usage recorded while Inventory was off still counts toward the plan. For example, if 5 parts were planned and 2 were already recorded, turning Inventory on and saving reserves only the remaining 3. It does not deduct stock for the earlier 2. If earlier usage was fractional, the remaining reservation rounds up to a whole stock unit.
Correcting actual usage recorded on a visit returns tracked stock to the location that supplied it, even if Reserve From has changed since then. The remaining planned reservation stays at the current Reserve From location. Quantities recorded while Inventory was off have no stock deduction to reverse.
When you reduce used below reserved, you choose what happens to the leftover: release it back to inventory or keep it reserved for this job. If the chosen location does not have enough stock, the panel flags the shortage.
Where another location can cover it, you can auto-transfer the needed amount from that location; otherwise it points you to where stock is available or warns that you need to reorder, and it notes any quantity incoming on purchase orders you've placed. Click Save to apply your changes.
With Inventory turned on for your business, this panel appears on the job page. If Inventory is off but Job Costing is on, the job page still shows an items panel for costing purposes — quantity only, with no reserved quantity, location, or transfer tracking, and cost comes from the item's default cost rather than an entered unit cost. Those items feed straight into the Job Costing card's material cost.
Where to find it: Open a job from Scheduling > Jobs; the items panel appears on the job page when Inventory or Job Costing is enabled
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