Inventory Reserve
Hold back a few units from your channels to prevent overselling, give your fast sellers a bigger buffer, and put the last counted units on sale while you wait for a restock.
The channel reserve
On the Channels page, each connected channel has an Inventory Reserve: a number of units held back from what Carpe Inventory IQ publishes to that channel. When your real stock drops to the reserve, the channel shows 0 while you still have those units on the shelf, so orders that arrive at the same moment on two channels can still be shipped. It applies to every SKU on that channel unless the SKU has its own reserve.
It also covers counts that drift. On a product that sells hundreds or thousands of units between counts, the number on the shelf can end up further from the number in the system than a small reserve covers. That is what a per-SKU reserve is for.
Give one SKU its own reserve
Open the SKU’s detail page (on the SKUs page, open the SKU and click View full details, BOMs & aliases) and find Inventory reserve in the Reorder Settings panel, under the lead time. Enter a whole number from 0 to 999 and click Save. That SKU then holds back that many units on every channel instead of the channel reserve. Leave it blank to go back to the channel reserve. A value of 0 holds nothing back for that SKU, even where the channel reserve is higher.
For several SKUs at once, select their rows on the SKUs page, open Reserve in the bulk action bar, enter the number and click Apply. This is an easy way to set up a few groups: filter or select your fast sellers and give them a higher reserve, and leave everything else on the channel reserve.
Channel quantities are pushed again as soon as you save.
Release the reserve on the last few units
When a product is down to its reserve, those units sit on the shelf while the channels show 0, sometimes for weeks while you wait for the next shipment. Once you have counted them and know they are really there, you can put them on sale: click Release reserve on the SKU’s detail page, or select rows on the SKUs page and choose Reserve → Release reserve.
A released SKU shows a Reserve released badge on its page and publishes its full on-hand quantity to every channel.
The reserve comes back on its own the next time you receive a purchase order for that SKU, so nobody has to remember to turn it back on. Stock added any other way, such as a return logged as a +1 stock adjustment, does not bring it back. To bring it back sooner, click Restore reserve on the SKU, or use Reserve → Restore released reserves on the SKUs page.
Releasing only works on a SKU with no more on hand than its reserve. A SKU with more in stock is skipped, and the message tells you how many were skipped and why, so selecting too many rows can never take the buffer off a product with plenty in stock.
Using the SKU spreadsheet
The SKU export has two columns for this, and the SKU importer reads both (tick “Allow updates to existing SKUs” to change SKUs you already have):
- Reserve: a whole number from 0 to 999 sets the SKU’s own reserve. Type
defaultto go back to the channel reserve. A blank cell leaves it unchanged. - Reserve Released:
yesreleases the reserve, with the same rule as the button (only at or below the reserve).noor a blank cell changes nothing. It never brings a released reserve back, so re-importing an old export can’t undo a release your team made since.
When a Reserve Released row is skipped, the import results say how many and why. The rest of the row is still saved.
Things to know
Bundles take their reserve from their components
For a bundle or kit built from components when it sells (a Dynamic BOM), the reserve is held back on each component's stock, not on the bundle. Set or release the reserve on the components; the bundle page says so instead of showing the field. Releasing a component releases it for every bundle that uses it.
Releasing accepts some oversell risk on those units
The reserve is your protection against two channels selling the same last unit at the same moment. Once released, that protection is off for those units until the next PO receipt. That is the point of releasing, but only release what you have counted.
Discontinued SKUs already hold no reserve
Marking a SKU discontinued takes its reserve off so it sells out completely, so there is nothing to release. Use release for products you will restock, and discontinued for products you won't.
Your on-hand numbers don't change
The reserve only changes what is published to channels. Your Inventory page, valuation and reports always show the real count.
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