Inventory Management

SurelyCrm's inventory module lets you organise stock into categories, define your own fields for each category, track quantities and prices, and adjust stock quickly from a touch-friendly kiosk screen. This guide covers setting up categories and items, reviewing stock history, and using the kiosk.

Getting Started

Inventory is organised into three areas:

• Inventory Categories — the groups your stock belongs to, each with its own custom fields. Administrators manage these from the user menu under Administration > Inventory Categories.
• Inventory Items — the individual stock records within each category. Administrators manage these from Administration > Inventory Items.
• Inventory Kiosk — a simplified search-and-adjust screen for day-to-day stock movements, available to all signed-in users from the Inventory Kiosk link in the sidebar. Administrators can also reach it from Administration > Kiosk Mode.

Only administrators can create, edit, or delete categories and items. The kiosk is the everyday tool for everyone else.

Inventory Categories

Categories organise your items and define which fields describe them. The category list shows each category's name, description, item count, low stock threshold, kiosk setting, status, and display order. Clicking the item count takes you straight to that category's items.

Creating a Category

1. Go to Administration > Inventory Categories and click Add Category.
2. Enter a Category Name (required) and an optional Description.
3. Set a Display Order to control how categories are sorted.
4. Optionally set a Low Stock Threshold (see below) and a Max Items Override (see Item Limits).
5. Choose whether the category is Active and whether to Allow Kiosk Actions.
6. Define the category's item fields (see below), then click Create Category.

Category Item Fields

Each category can have its own set of fields — for example, a "Printer Cartridges" category might have Brand, Colour, and Model fields, while a "Uniforms" category has Size and Fit. When an item is created in that category, the form asks for values for each of these fields.

Click Add Field on the category form to add a field. For each field you can set:

Setting	Purpose
Label	The name shown to users on item forms and lists (required)
Name	An internal identifier using letters, numbers, and underscores only (required)
Type	Text, Number, Date, Checkbox, Dropdown, TextArea, or DateTime
Required	Whether the field must be filled in when creating or editing an item
Show in Kiosk	Whether the field's value is shown on kiosk screens
Order	The order in which fields appear on the item form
Options	For Dropdown fields, the list of choices to offer
Active	Inactive fields are hidden from item forms without deleting their stored values

Low Stock Alerts

Set a Low Stock Threshold on a category to highlight items whose quantity falls to that level or below. Low-stock items are highlighted in the items list and flagged with a Low Stock badge in both the admin list and the kiosk. Leave the threshold blank to disable low-stock alerts for that category.

Allow Kiosk Actions

The Allow Kiosk Actions switch controls whether kiosk users can adjust stock for items in this category. Turn it off for categories that should only be viewed in the kiosk — attempts to adjust those items are rejected with a message explaining that kiosk actions are not allowed.

Deleting a Category

Deleting a category also deletes all items and fields within it. You will be asked to confirm before the deletion proceeds, and the action cannot be undone.

Inventory Items

The items list (Administration > Inventory Items) shows every item across all categories, with its field values, quantity, sale and purchase prices, and status. Use the category dropdown to filter to a single category, or the search box to find items by their field values.

Creating and Editing Items

1. Click Add Item from the items list. If you filtered by a category first, that category is pre-selected.
2. Choose a Category (required). The form then displays the fields defined for that category, with required fields marked.
3. Enter the starting Quantity (required) and, optionally, a Purchase Price and Sale Price.
4. Set whether the item is Active, then click Create Item.

Changing the category on the form reloads the field section to match the newly selected category.

Item Limits

The number of items allowed per category is limited by your organisation's Inventory Items licence. A category can override this with its own Max Items Override: leave it blank to use the licence limit, or set it to 0 for unlimited items in that category.

If the limit has been reached, the item form shows a warning explaining why and the save button is disabled. To add more items, increase the licence limit, claim a valid licence, or adjust the category override.

Stock History

Every stock movement is recorded automatically. Click the history icon next to an item in the items list to see its full transaction history:

• The date of each movement
• The type of transaction (for example, a kiosk adjustment)
• The change — positive adjustments in green, negative in red
• Any notes recorded with the adjustment
• Who made the change

The history page header also shows the item's category and current quantity, so you can reconcile the running total against the listed movements.

Deleting an Item

Administrators can delete an item from the items list after confirming. This permanently removes the item; its transaction history is removed with it.

Inventory Kiosk

The kiosk (Inventory Kiosk in the sidebar, or /inventory-kiosk directly) is a simplified, touch-friendly screen designed for quick stock checks and adjustments — ideal for a shared tablet or shop-floor device.

Finding Items

The kiosk home screen lists items as large, easy-to-tap cards. You can:

• Filter by category using the dropdown
• Search by any field value — for example a size, brand, or model

Each card shows the item's category, field values, current quantity, and sale price. Low-stock items are clearly flagged.

Adjusting Stock

1. Tap an item card to open its detail screen, which shows all of its field values, sale price, and current quantity.
2. Optionally enter an Adjustment Note, such as "Sold to customer" or "Delivery received".
3. Tap Add 1 or Remove 1. The displayed quantity updates immediately and the movement is recorded in the item's stock history with your note.

Adjustments that would take the quantity below zero are rejected with an "insufficient stock" message. If the item's category does not allow kiosk actions, the adjustment is refused.

Kiosk Access and Availability

Two feature toggles control the kiosk, managed by administrators from Administration > Feature Toggles:

• InventoryManagement — the master switch for the kiosk. When disabled, the kiosk shows an "Inventory Kiosk is Disabled" page instead of stock.
• InventoryKioskRequiresAuth — enabled by default. When enabled, anyone opening the kiosk is asked to sign in first. When disabled, visitors can browse and search stock without signing in, but they must still sign in before they can adjust quantities — the item detail screen shows a sign-in prompt in place of the adjustment buttons.