Inventory - Allow Negative Stock On Hand
Ability to allow negative stock in Xero.
Purpose: Users that take orders and receive payments from their contacts before placing inventory can easily do it in Xero.

Hi everyone, we appreciate the restrictive nature of inventory(Products and Services) atm, and our product team have plans to explore adding capability to cater for negative inventory or back order of stock recorded in Xero.
While they have a few other priorities to get through first we'll move this idea to Under review and return to share more when this work picks up.
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Margaret Zdunek commented
We are constantly having to issue invoices without the stock numbers. Then when the bills are allocated on Xero we have to go back into the invoices and at the stock numbers so that the parts are issued correctly. This means that we never accurately know how much we have in stock without manual checks.
Please allow negative stock on Xero! -
Japhe Humphries commented
We need to be able to send proforma and standard invoices without having the stock on hand. We will get payment from customers before we have ordered the goods, so we will not have the stock in place.
Currently, with the way the Xero system works we cannot receive payment before ordering the goods.
Please make this happen Xero! Very critical to our business.
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Warwick Billings commented
Seems pretty obvious, I have customers who would like a genuine invoice prior to me being able to have stock on hand
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Mike Asplin commented
I cant believe no one has asked for this, but it shoudl be possible to create an invoice to sell inventory items that are on order, before they are billed. Currently it fails as says negative stock. This stops me creating proforma invoices when an order is placed for the actual items. Work around is to create a PO to send to supplier, bill it, create invoice, delete the invoice and the bill. Now no record of the invoice.
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Amanda Hubley commented
Our business sells the good before importing them as well. Having this functionality would enable us to use the inventory function. As long as there was a way to zero negative stock manually this would be amazing.
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Mahesh Kunchala commented
This is very critical for us pls add this feature
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Mark Mitchell commented
If a negative stock position is not possible, can there be a cost accrual generated by the sales invoice which journals a cost to an accrual account. This cost accrual account could then be reconciled once the invoice has arrived. This could cover sales items like warranties & insurance type products.
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Aaron Tuwhangai commented
Here's a work-around: create an approved future-dated bill (like 2030) against a fictional contact (like: Negative Inventory Fix) with large quantities of inventory. Using a future date makes the balance sheet accurate and you can Void the bill at any time to reverse it - as long as inventory quantities will remain at or above 0.
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Aaron Tuwhangai commented
It's common for us to order inventory on credit and receive a bill after the goods have arrived. We can't wait for an approved bill to be entered to be able to invoice a customer. Not to mention that invoicing can be urgent and loading bills into an accounting system is not - it's a once-a-month task for us.
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Ann Gibbard commented
This could either be a global inventory setting or set at individual item level.
This is critical for businesses who sell the goods before they get the invoice from the supplier. -
Sharni Wilson commented
We also need this! We are getting a sync error when Shopify try's to send back orders to Xero as Xero will not accept invoices for products that aren't in stock. Ridiculous that Xero can't support basic e-commerce requirements.
Please also vote on these other similar ideas:
https://productideas.xero.com/forums/939198-for-small-businesses/suggestions/44960632-invoice-adding-negative-quantities
https://productideas.xero.com/forums/939198-for-small-businesses/suggestions/45010120-inventory-reserve-inventory-for-consignment-or-p -
Sarah Booth commented
This is critical for us. We need this function and aren't able to use the inventory tracking correctly without it. Additionally, we need to be able to send quotes for items that we don't have in inventory. We purchase the items from our vendors after we have a signed quote and rarely keep inventory on hand. Additionally, we often have to have an invoice submitted and paid before we can order hardware from vendors. Being able to go into negative inventory would vastly improve how we can use Xero.
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Helen Peacock commented
cannot use the stock without the ability to allow for negative stock due to back orders being common place
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Thomas May commented
to allow back orders.
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Terry Bluck commented
yes useful when the suppliers bills havent been keyed yet but the product is on the shop floor and can be sold.
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Ed Manwaring commented
Been asking this for years!
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AdminXero Team (Admin, Xero) commented
Ability to sell an item below Zero when using tracked inventory
Purpose: Users can send an invoice to their customers when it’s 0 or below. So they can secure the deposit from the customer.