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Negative Quantity Report

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The Negative Quantity Report is a list of items with a negative (less than zero) inventory quantity. A negative quantity on hand usually indicates that items are being sold out-of-stock. Such items must be received into inventory before you close the store or run an inventory update. For each item, the report shows the negative quantity on hand in sales units. This is the minimum number you need to receive.

Note: You cannot correct the negative quantity by making an adjustment to inventory. You must enter inventory through the Receive Inventory (1-7-1-1) function.

Printing the Report

Use the following steps to print a Negative Quantity Report:

  1. On the Main Menu, select Lubrication Menu.
  2. Select Inventory Menu (7).
  3. Select Periodic Procedures Menu (2).
  4. Select Negative Quantity Report (5) to receive the Negative Quantity Report Control Screen.
  5. Fill in the report control parameters, explained below.
Field Definition
Print Time on Report Printing the time helps you identify the most current report when the same report is printed more than once during a day. This field defaults to Y to print the time on the report. If you do not want the time to print on a report, type N. We recommend that you always print the time on a report.
Duplex This field appears for terminals that have report type 2 enabled in the Set Up Printer Controls screen. Duplex mode enables printing on both sides of the paper.

Note: This will only function on printers that support Duplex mode.
Number of Printed Lines per Page This value tells the computer how many lines to print on each page of the report. A typical 11-inch page can contain up to 66 lines, but this field defaults to 60 to allow three-line margins at the top and bottom of the page.

If you type 0 (zero) in this field, the report header does not print and the form feeds do not work.
Total Number of Lines per Page This field indicates the length of the paper in the printer. A typical 11-inch page contains 66 lines. Your system interprets a 0 or 66 in this field to mean that standard 11-inch paper is loaded in the printer. Because a 66 causes a form feed to take more time, accepting the default, 0, is recommended.
Print Report To This field tells the computer where to send the report. The following list contains the different selections available for this field.

  • 0 Printer – Sends report to the terminal’s default report printer immediately. (Default)
  • 1 Screen – Provides an on-screen view of a report. This can be used as a preview before you print it or when a hard copy of the report is not needed. The function keys at the bottom of the on-screen version allow you to move around to view the entire report.
  • 2 Disk file – Useful when you want an electronic copy of the report. If you select this option, you receive a prompt to enter the name of the report file. The file that is created can be copied to a USB drive or viewed later. This option is for advanced computer users.
    • If you use this option, we suggest you precede your report name with /tmp/. For example, at the prompt to enter the report name for a customer list, you might type /tmp/custlist. This is a good storage directory for temporary files.
Command Line Options The line at the bottom of the screen contains commands to print the report and to save or change the report settings.

  • Save – Press [F4] to save the current settings for the report. This is useful if a report is generated repeatedly with the same options. Do not save date selections because they may not be useful in the future.
  • Start – Press [F7] to submit the report to print on the printer, on the screen, or in a disk file. (Reports print in the order they are submitted.)
  • Again – Press [F9] to return to the top of the screen. This allows you to change any of the information you have entered on the screen before you submit the report.
  1. Press [F7] to start the Negative Quantity Report. When the processing is complete, you return to the Periodic Procedures Menu.

This report is automatically made available during an inventory update if the process cannot be completed due to negative quantity on hand values. In this case, the system gives you the following message: The update cannot be run with inventory items that have negative quantities on hand. Correct the problem, then perform an inventory update again. Do you want a Negative Quantity Report printed? (Y/N). If this occurs, press [Y] to print the Negative Quantity Report.

Report Contents

Callout Item Description
1 Item # Identification number of the inventory item with a negative quantity.
2 Cat Category of the inventory item.
3 Description Description of the inventory item.
4 Sales Units Unit of measure in which the item is sold and inventoried. For example, EA indicates each.
5 Quantity On Hand Negative quantity of the inventory item.

Recommendations for Using This Report

Whenever you have inventory items with negative on-hand values, you should receive inventory to correct the negative quantities. Be aware that this can be done only through the Receive Inventory function. If you receive this report frequently, this could mean that inventory is not being received promptly when it arrives. It may be necessary to address this as a training issue for your employees.

Beyond the Basics

To get a better idea of why a negative quantity came about, you can use the History by Item and History by Type Reports for further research.