Updating Inventory
Inventory can be updated from either a CSV or XML file or directly from within the user interface. Regardless of the method, the same information must be provided to complete the update.
Types of Inventory Update Fields
There are 3 types of inventory update fields. Item Identifiers identify the item that is to be updated. The Action field is used to describe the action to be performed, and the Purchase fields provide data that is to be updated in the purchase record.
Item Identifiers
ItemID, SKU and ProductID are the item identifiers and are used to uniquely identify the item to be updated. If more than one of these fields are provided, the order of precedence is ItemID, then SKU, then ProductID.
Action/Quantity
Instead of updating individual records, an Action is provided along with a Quantity. The Action field indicates a process that is to be performed on inventory for an item, and the Quantity field identifies the number to be processed. Based on the Action, SixBit will internally process the purchase rows to complete the requested action. An example would be to set the Action to "RECONCILETO" with a quantity of 12. SixBit will then look at the purchase records. If your current inventory is less than 12, SixBit will add a new purchase record to bring your inventory up to 12. If your inventory was 15, then it will add a quantity of 3 to the shrink count to bring your inventory back to 12.
The following Actions are allowed:
| Action | Description |
| Add | Adds the specified quantity to the current inventory. |
| ReconcileTo | Updates the total inventory available to the specified quantity. |
| Remove | Removes the specified quantity from inventory without adding to the shrink count. |
| Set | Sets the specified values on the latest purchase record. |
| Shrink | Removes the specified quantity from inventory by adding to the shrink count. |
Purchase Fields
Purchase fields are used to identify purchase rows to be updated or the data to be used on new purchase rows. Quantity, Cost, SupplierID, Supplier Account Num, SupplierName, Date Purchased, PO Number, Invoice Number, Fulfillment Source, and Shopify Location ID are the Purchase fields.
The behavior of each action is based on the existing purchase rows and the Purchase fields provided during the import, with the ultimate goal of reducing the total number of purchase records by updating existing records whenever applicable.
Fulfillment Sources
| Fulfillment Source ID | Value |
| 0 | Self |
| 1 | Drop Shipper |
| 2 | Fulfilled by Amazon |
Inventory fulfilled by other sources can be specified in the file using the enumerations above. If no Fulfillment Source ID is specified, the fulfillment source is defaulted to 0/Self.
Adding Inventory
The Add Action is used to add inventory. When adding inventory either a new purchase row will be created or an existing row will be updated as follows.
If no purchase fields are provided, the inventory on the last purchase will be increased by the amount specified in the Quantity.
If any of the purchase fields are provided, the latest matching purchase row will be updated. If no existing purchase rows match the provided data, a new purchase row will be created.
Input rows without the PO Number or Invoice Number will never be applied to a purchase row that has a PO Number or Invoice Number.
Following are some examples of input rows and their results.
This will add 5 to the quantity on the last purchase record.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1594 | ADD | 5 |
Assuming the provided values in any of the purchase fields (in this case Cost, Supplier Name, Date Purchased) are not already in a purchase record, the following will add a new purchase record. If a purchase already existed with the same provided values, the quantity would be added to that purchase record.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1594 | ADD | 5 | $6.00 | WeSellIt | 3/12/15 |
Since the fields provided here are the same as those in the record added above, this example would result in 12 being added to the quantity of the purchase row added in the previous example.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1594 | ADD | 12 | $6.00 |
Since the cost is different on this input row, a new purchase record will be created with a quantity of 12.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1594 | ADD | 12 | $7.00 |
Even though the cost of this input row is the same as the last one, the PO numbers are different so this too will create another purchase row.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1594 | ADD | 8 | $7.00 | A125546 |
A new purchase row cannot be both drop shipped and Fulfilled by Amazon, so if both options are true, Fulfilled by Amazon will take precedence.
Deducting Inventory
The Shrink and Remove actions are very similar and are both designed to deduct inventory from an item. The difference is in the way the inventory is deducted.
When using Shrink, the quantity will be deducted by adding to the shrink count. This will keep the total quantity purchased the same and will keep track of the fact that some are no longer available. Use Shrink when you need to keep accurate records about your purchases.
If provided, Cost, Supplier ID, Supplier Name, Supplier Account Num and Date Purchased will be ignored.
Remove will deduct inventory simply by reducing the number purchased. Use remove when the number purchased is incorrect and needs to be adjusted.
If Is Drop Shipped, PO Number or Invoice Number are provided, only purchase records with matching values will be affected.
Examples:
This adds a single purchase row to item 1595 with a quantity of 8 and a cost of $7.00, leaving a total of 8 available.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1595 | ADD | 8 | $7.00 |
This will adjust the quantity on the previously created purchase row to 6, leaving a total of 6 available.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1595 | REMOVE | 2 |
This will add 1 to the Shrink count on the purchase record, leaving a total of 5 available. This would be an example of recording sales at another site while still keeping track of the original number purchased.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1595 | SHRINK | 1 |
Reconciling Inventory
The ReconcileTo action is used to set the quantity of an item to a specific amount. This could result in adding quantity, deducting quantity or keeping the quantity the same.
If the ReconcileTo amount is greater than the current available inventory, then an Add of the difference will be performed. All rules of the Add action are applied in this case.
If the ReconcileTo amount is the same as the current available inventory, then no action is performed.
If the ReconcileTo amount is less than the current available inventory, then a Shrink of the difference will be performed. All rules of the Shrink action are applied in this case.
Since the Add function processes the Cost and Supplier fields and the Shrink function ignores them, the Cost and Supplier fields will only be meaningful on a ReconcileTo action when the result is to Add inventory.
Examples:
This adds a single purchase row to item 1596 with a quantity of 10 and a cost of $8.00, leaving a total of 10 available.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1596 | ADD | 10 | $8.00 |
Since the price is the same, this will add 2 to the quantity of the existing purchase record, leaving a total of 12 available.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1596 |
RECONCILETO |
12 | $8.00 |
Since the price is different, this will add a new purchase record with a quantity of 3 and a price of $9.00 to bring the total available to 15.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1596 |
RECONCILETO |
15 |
$9.00 |
This will add a total of 6 to the shrink count applied to the purchase records from the oldest to the newest and will not take the cost or supplier fields into consideration.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1596 |
RECONCILETO |
9 |
$9.00 |
Setting Inventory
Whereas ReconcileTo will reconcile the inventory to a particular number and use the cost/supplier as the values to be used for any new records that are created, the Set action provide a way to force values in purchase records. This can be most useful to batch enter cost and supplier values when they were not originally entered or when updating costs from a drop shipper on existing records .
The Set action is very similar to ReconcileTo except the Cost/Supplier/Date/PONumber/InvoiceNumber fields provided will always replace the values in the last purchase record rather than simply being used for new purchase records as they are added.
Examples:
This adds an initial purchase record with a quantity of 5 to item 1597.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1597 |
ADD |
5 |
This forces the quantity of the last purchase record to 7. It has the same effect as performing a ReconcileTo with a quantity of 7.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1597 |
SET |
7 |
This will force the values of quantity, cost and supplier name in the last purchase record. If the action on this row was ReconcileTo instead of SET, it would have created a new purchase row with a quantity of 2 and set the cost and supplier name on the new purchase row instead.
| Item ID | Action | Quantity | Cost | Supplier Name | Date Purchased | PO Number | Invoice Number |
| 1597 |
SET |
9 |
$6.00 | WeSellIt |