Managing Inventory Across Multiple Branches
How to use AskBiz POS to oversee stock levels, sales performance, and reordering across all your branches from a single dashboard — without visiting each location.
Key Takeaways
- AskBiz POS gives you a consolidated view of stock across all branches — switch between Branch and 'All Branches' in any report.
- Each branch has its own stock count — a product at zero in Branch A doesn't affect Branch B's count.
- Use stock transfers to balance inventory between branches rather than placing unnecessary purchase orders.
The multi-branch model in AskBiz
Each branch in AskBiz has its own independent stock count, its own till sessions, its own staff, and its own performance metrics. At the same time, your product catalogue, suppliers, and price lists are shared across all branches — you define a product once and it's available everywhere. This means you manage your catalogue centrally (what products exist and at what price) while each branch manages its own inventory (how much of each product it has on hand).
Viewing stock across all branches
Go to Operations > Retail > Products and use the Branch dropdown at the top to switch between branches. To see a product's stock across all locations simultaneously, click the product row and look at the Branch Stock table — it lists every branch with its current stock for that product. This view quickly reveals imbalances: Branch A has 120 units of a product while Branch B has 3. Before raising a purchase order, consider a stock transfer from A to B.
Consolidated reporting
In POS Reports, the Branch filter defaults to All — showing consolidated figures across every location. Switch to a specific branch to see that branch's performance in isolation. For owner-operators managing multiple sites, the All Branches view is the daily check: you can see total revenue, total low-stock alerts, and total refunds in one number. For operations managers, the branch-by-branch view shows which locations are thriving and which need attention.
Low-stock alerts by branch
The POS Overview shows low-stock alerts for the selected branch. Switch to 'All Branches' to see a combined alert count. This is your morning operational check: scan the alerts, identify which branches need urgent restocking, and either raise a purchase order or initiate a stock transfer from a branch with surplus stock. The goal is to catch every stockout before it happens — a customer facing an empty shelf is a lost sale and often a lost customer.
Setting branch-specific minimum stock levels
Minimum stock levels can be set per product per branch. A city-centre flagship store might need a minimum of 50 units for a best-seller; a smaller satellite store might need only 15. Go to the product record, select the branch in the Branch Stock section, and set its specific minimum. This ensures low-stock alerts reflect each branch's actual sales velocity, not a one-size-fits-all number that generates false alarms at some sites and misses genuine shortages at others.