Viewing and updating your inventory

Selling physical goods means keeping track of stock! Accurate inventory management is key to running your business smoothly – preventing overselling and being out-of-stock of popular items.

This guide will show you how to check current stock, make adjustments to individual products, perform bulk updates, and view your inventory history.

In this article

• Checking inventory levels

• Editing inventory for a single product

• Updating inventory in bulk

• Viewing the inventory log

• Next steps

• FAQs

Checking inventory levels

You can quickly see the stock for your items directly from your main product list:

1. Navigate to Products & Services (via the All Tools menu).

2. On the main Products page, you will see a list of your products.

3. Locate the Stock column. This column displays the current inventory on hand for each product.

Editing inventory for a single product

Use this method when you're updating the count for one specific product or its variants.

1. From the main Products list, click on the icon for the product you want to update.

2. On edit page that opens, scroll down to Inventory.

3. Enter the new stock level in the Stock units field.

4. If you want to adjust your Low stock threshold to receive an alert once you hit a certain stock number, you can do so here.

5. Once you’re finished, click Save in the top-right corner.

For products with variants

If you’ve created variants for your product, then you have the choice to track inventory either at the variant level or at the product level.

You can use the Inventory tracking dropdown to state your preference.

If you’ve selected Track at variant level, then you’ll adjust stock levels for each variant individually, rather than for a product as a whole.

1. Scroll down to the Variants section of the product’s edit page.

2. Enter the new stock level in the Stock field for each variant.

3. Once you’re finished, Click Save to apply the changes.

Updating inventory in bulk

When you need to update stock counts for many products at once (like after a big delivery or a full stock take), the bulk import tool is your best friend. This process uses a CSV file to update stock quantities for your existing products.

Step 1: Export your current inventory

First, you'll download a file of your existing inventory levels.

1. Navigate to Products & Services (via All Tools).

2. Click the Import/Export button and select Inventory Export.

3. Choose CSV File as the export type.

4. Select a date range for the inventory report.

5. Ensure your correct email is entered and click Export. A CSV file will be emailed to you.

Step 2: Prepare your inventory update file

Next, you'll edit the file to tell the system what to change.

1. Open the emailed CSV file in a spreadsheet program (like Excel or Google Sheets).

2. Find the column named Stock Change. This is the only column you need to edit.

3. For each item you want to update, enter the quantity you are adding (e.g., 10) or subtracting (e.g. -5).

4. If an item's stock hasn't changed, leave the Stock Change cell blank or enter 0.

5. Save the edited file, making sure to keep it in CSV format.

Step 3: Import your updated file

Finally, you'll upload your prepared file back into Helcim.

1. Return to the Products & Services page and click Import/Export.

2. Select Inventory Import.

3. Choose CSV File as the import type.

4. Drag and drop your edited CSV file into the upload area, or browse to select it from your computer.

5. Review the preview screen carefully to ensure the changes are correct.

6. Click Import to confirm and complete the update. Your inventory levels will now be adjusted.

Viewing the inventory log

To see a detailed history of all stock changes for a specific product (sales, manual adjustments, receiving):

1. Click on a product’s name from the Products list.

2. This will open a drawer for the product from the right-hand side.

3. Select Inventory Log. This will display a chronological record of inventory movements.

Next steps

• Learn how to configure your inventory settings.

• Learn how to enable tracking for a specific item during product creation.

• Adding brand new products in bulk? Use the import products tool instead.