Behind the feature: How stock management works in ReadyCMS

Part II of our Stock Management series: A closer look at the system that brings clarity to your inventory.

After the big update to stock management in ReadyCMS, many clients asked us, "Okay, but how exactly does it work?"

This blog answers that. We'll go through the key components of our inventory system and show you how it all connects, from setup to daily use.

The core structure

At the heart of ReadyCMS stock management is a transaction-based system. Instead of simply storing a number for each product, we record every stock movement. Every sale, return, adjustment, or manual update is tracked and timestamped, creating a clear, auditable history of stock changes.

It is designed to provide flexibility, real-time updates, and support for multiple locations.

It's the quiet hero that ensures every order is fulfilled, every location is in sync, and every product has just the right amount of visibility.

Here's how we structured it:

1. Inventory dashboard

This is your main control center. It's where you can monitor and adjust stock across your business.

The interface is simple yet powerful. Designed to feel natural when you manage your stock.

ReadyCMS Stock Dashboard displaying total stock value, out-of-stock metrics, low stock alerts, stock levels, and product aging report. Includes a line and bar chart of stock changes over time.

Dashboard tabs

  • 'History' tab: Keeps a complete log of stock changes—what was added, removed, or adjusted, and when
  • 'All' tab: Shows combined inventory across all store locations
  • (Optional) Location-specific tabs: Each store has its own tab so that you can manage stock individually

Dashboard metrics

  • Stock trends over time:
    A visual graph displays recent inventory changes, including additions and reductions, helping you track stock movement and detect unusual fluctuations.
  • Inventory overview:
    Summarized metrics like total inventory value, number of out-of-stock products, and out-of-stock variants give you a quick health check of your inventory.
  • Stock levels:
    This section highlights your current total stock, breaking it down into stocked products and stocked variants. It provides insights into how much of your catalog has active inventory.
  • Stock health indicators:
    Here, you can see how many products and variants are approaching low stock status based on a configured threshold. This helps you take proactive measures before stockouts occur.
  • Aging report:
    Displays how long products and variants have been in stock on average. This helps identify slow-moving inventory and improve turnover strategies.

This setup helps you instantly see the big picture or zoom into the details of a single location.

2. Product stock pages

Products show their current stock, broken down by location if applicable. Admins can make manual adjustments (like for damaged items or corrections), and each change is logged.

Each product has its own inventory section, where you can:

  • check the current stock per location
    User editing a product in ReadyCMS and navigating to the 'Stock' tab to view a graph of inventory levels across multiple storage locations over time.
  • manually adjust stock levels
    Add Inventory Transaction modal in ReadyCMS, showing a dropdown menu for selecting a transaction type such as Initial Stock, Sale, Return, Purchase/Restock, Transfer, Adjustment, Damage, Theft/Loss, Inventory Audit, Spoilage/Expiration, and Correction, along with a field to input stock change quantity.
  • set low-stock alerts
    Detailed stock overview for a product in ReadyCMS showing inventory distribution between 'Storage #1' and 'Storage #2', with an interactive stock history chart and options to manage stock per location.
  • monitor how stock behaves across multiple sales points

This means you can control inventory at a very granular level, not just store-wide.

If the product has variants, each variant has its stock management section:

Editing a product variant in ReadyCMS, displaying fields for SKU, price, sale price, wholesale price, and barcode, followed by a stock management section with a chart showing inventory levels across multiple storage locations.

3. Store location integration

Whether you're managing stock in one location or ten, ReadyCMS ensures that inventory is updated in real time. Stock is instantly adjusted across the system when a product is sold online or through an integrated POS.

If multi-location stock is enabled, each location can have its own stock level, and transfers between locations are handled as movements, too, with full tracking.

Under shop settings, you can define your store locations. Each location gets:

  • a dedicated tab in the dashboard
    Animated view of the inventory history section in ReadyCMS showing a list of products with stock quantities, SKUs, stock status indicators, and publishing statuses across multiple pages.
  • a button to quickly access and manage that location's stock
    Animated view of the ReadyCMS eCommerce locations settings page showing multiple warehouse addresses with options to set visibility, stock status, stock quantity, and pickup availability. A user scrolls to view location settings and stock controls.
  • these buttons will lead you to a stock history tab of our inventory dashboard, filtered for that specific location
    Screen recording of the inventory history feature in ReadyCMS showing a graph of stock levels over time. The user filters inventory data by date range and location, with options to export reports in multiple formats like CSV, Excel, and PDF.
  • every location has individual settings, in case you want different rules for each one
    Interface section in ReadyCMS for configuring individual store location settings, showing toggle switches for visibility on the website, pickup availability, and stock management, along with a green Save button.

For example, this allows you to treat your retail shop differently from your warehouse.

4. Global stock settings

In your Shop settings, you can manage default stock behaviors for your entire store in one place:

  • Enable Stock Management
    Automatically updates inventory counts after each order to ensure accurate stock levels across the store.
  • Reserve products for new orders
    Sets aside available stock for pending orders to prevent overselling while those orders are being completed or paid for.
  • Allow out-of-stock orders
    This allows customers to place orders for products that are currently out of stock. It is useful for pre-orders or backorders and can also be enabled per product.
  • Low stock notifications
    Sends alerts when a product's stock falls below a user-defined threshold, helping merchants restock quickly.
  • Allow purchases if stock is sufficient across all locations
    Approves customer orders if the combined stock from all storage locations meets the order quantity, even if individual locations don't have enough.
  • Inventory audit & adjustment logs
    Continuously records all inventory changes and adjustments. This logging is always active and cannot be turned off, ensuring a full audit trail.

Animated screen recording of the ReadyCMS global stock settings interface, showing various inventory management options including toggles for enabling stock management, allowing out-of-stock orders, low stock notifications, and inventory audit logging, followed by saving the changes.

These rules serve as a safety net, ensuring that your entire store operates with a consistent logic.

How everything connects

Let's say someone places an online order for a product stored in two locations. ReadyCMS will:

  1. Check the current stock across all locations
  2. Deduct the quantity based on your preferred location rules
  3. Log the change in the History tab
  4. Update the product page and dashboard instantly

You can also configure how inventory is prioritized—perhaps you want online orders to always come from the warehouse, rather than your retail store.

Shelved, sorted, and ready

What makes ReadyCMS stock management powerful is how well the pieces fit together. You get full visibility and control, without needing ten spreadsheets or three different apps. It's built to grow with your business, whether you're running one store or twenty.

In the next blog, we'll talk about one of the biggest challenges for fast-growing brands: multi-location inventory, and how we've simplified it with a single dashboard.

Next in the series

We'll dive deeper into multi-location inventory and how you can manage it all from one dashboard—no spreadsheets needed. We'll also explore why tracking stock history is essential for smooth daily operations and smarter inventory decisions.

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