Selecting your stock control mode

Placing orders based on stocks is one of the core features of Le New Black. It allows brands to manage their reorders and permanent items distribution alongside with their pre-orders in the same interface. When deciding to start selling stocks on Le New Black, you may choose between 3 stock managements modes.  These modes mostly differ in the way Le New Black evaluates stock allocation, which directly affects the ATS ("available-to-sell") customers can place orders on.

Before reviewing these modes, let's remind how ATS is defined:

Available-to-sell = Stock - Allocation
Stock = the stock quantity as registered in Le New Black
Allocation = the ordered quantity as registered in Le New Black

Here is a brief summary of the 3 available modes with extended details right after:

1. Simple stock control

In this mode, Le New Black manages inventory movement, which means stock is updated upon order confirmation/cancelations. This mode is very easy to set up and works well when activity is quite basic (low in-stock sales volume, low-frequency stock updates...).

Pending orders may be allocated or not. This is defined in your account settings (Inventory tab) and will affect the way ATS is calculated.

With pending orders allocation = ON: 

Available-to-sell = Stock level - Allocation level

With pending orders allocation = OFF: 

Available-to-sell = Stock level

A classic sequence with pending orders allocation ON is:

1. stock level is 10 for EAN 123, there is no pending order so far >> ATS=10 (10-0)
2. order is placed on EAN 123 / Qty=5 >> ATS=5 (10-5)
3. order is confirmed >> ATS=5 (5-0)
4. stock level is updated to 4 >> ATS=4 (4-0)
5. ...

A classic sequence with pending allocation OFF is:

1. stock level is 10 for EAN 123, there is no pending order so far >> ATS=10
2. order is placed on EAN 123 / Qty=5 >> ATS=10
3. order is confirmed >> ATS=5
4. stock level is updated to 4 >> ATS=4
5. ...

Warning: You should make sure all confirmed orders have been taken into account in your stock levels when importing a fresh stock file into Le New Black. If not, you will put back on sale products that are actually out of stock.

2. Advanced stock control

In this mode, Le New Black does no inventory movement, which means stock level is never updated by Le New Black itself. Stock level is updated either by flat file integration or by API.

When moved to "Invoicing" status, orders can be exported to your system. They will still be allocated until your system acknowledge they have been taken into account, which is done by setting their status to "Closed" either by flat file integration or by API.

Allocation level is calculated this way:

 Allocated orders = Pending + Confirmed + Invoicing

A classic sequence is:

1. stock level is 10 for EAN 123 -> ATS=10
2. order is placed on EAN 123 / Qty=5 -> ATS=5 (10-5)
3. order status is updated to confirmed -> ATS=5 (10-5)
4. order status is updated to invoicing -> ATS=5 (10-5)
5. order is taken into account by your system and simultaneously triggers the following:
   • stock level is updated / Qty=5 (flat file or API)
   • order status is set to closed (flat file or API) -> ATS=5 (5-0)

3. Time-based stock control

In this mode, Le New Black does no inventory movement, which means stock level is never updated by Le New Black itself.

 Allocated orders = Pending + Confirmed + Invoicing + (Closed with confirmation timestamp > inventory timestamp)

A classic sequence is:

1. stock level is 10 for EAN 123 with timestamp 2019-06-25T12:00:00 -> ATS=10
2. order is placed on EAN 123 / Qty=5 -> ATS=5 (10-5)
3. order status is updated to confirmed -> ATS=5 (10-5)
4. order status is updated to invoicing -> ATS=5 (10-5)
5. order status is updated to closed -> ATS=5 (10-5)
6. remote system confirms by API the ordered quantity 4 with timestamp 2019-06-26T11:00:00 -> ATS=6 (10-4)
7. stock level is defined to 6 with timestamp 2019-06-26T12:00:00 -> ATS=6