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Assign Inventory and Product Notifications

Lori Krell edited this page Feb 7, 2019 · 25 revisions

DEVELOP User Guide - This guide provides MSI Develop Branch/Active Development merchant information on Magento Multi Source Inventory (MSI) features and project.


When first accessing Magento with MSI, all products and quantities are assigned to the Default Source. Single and Multi Source merchants can update sources, inventory quantities, and thresholds per supported product.

  • Single Source merchants can update product quantities for the Default Source; this is the total amount of products available for sale.
  • Multi Source merchants can assign multiple sources and quantities per product for each location (warehouses, stores, drop shippers, etc). We recommend having Sources added prior to setting product inventory amounts.

This page focuses on setting product quantities, settings, and notifications at the product level, one-by-one:

  1. Create or edit products. See the Magento User Guide for specifics on product creation. This guide focuses on inventory management.
  2. Assign sources to the product.
  3. Set quantities per source.
  4. Optional. Set configurations for the product. These settings override configurations at the source, stock, and global level.

For mass updates to select or all products, you have the following options:

For information on supported product types, see Magento product types.

Magento product types

MSI supports inventory and order management for all product types in Magento. The options and requirements may differ per product type. Consider the following when planning sources, stocks, and inventory configurations.

Product Type Multi-Source Source and Stock Source Selection Algorithm
Simple Yes Default Source, Default Stock, and custom Supports SSA recommendations and overrides at shipping
Configurable Yes Default Source, Default Stock, and custom Supports SSA recommendations and overrides at shipping
Virtual/Downloadable Yes Default Source, Default Stock, and custom Supports SSA recommendations and overrides at shipping
Bundle No Default Source, Default Stock only Supports SSA recommendations at shipping
Grouped Yes Default Source, Default Stock only Supports SSA recommendations at shipping

Important notes on multi-sourcing product types:

  • In MSI Beta 1.0.0, Bundle and Grouped products do not support multi-sourcing. You must assign quantities and shipments through the Default Source and Default Stock.
  • In current development for Milestone 2, Grouped products are supported for multi-sourcing. Only Bundle products do not support multi-sourcing, requiring Default Source and Default Stock.

For information creating products, see the Magento User Guide.

Configure inventory defaults

All merchants can configure inventory settings at multiple levels: product > source > stock > global store site. For complete details on these settings, see Global and Product Settings. The page includes configurations and settings at every level. For detailed information on backorders, see Configure MSI backorders.

Prior to allocating inventory to sources, you may want to consider your threshold notification configurations. These amounts are deducted from the available quantity to provide the total salable quantity.

The following configurations are available through the Magento Admin.

  • Only X left Threshold - Set the stock quantity to send a notification that the product stock is nearing out of stock. The system default is 0.
  • Out-of-Stock Threshold - Sets the stock quantity to consider a product as out of stock. In MSI, if backorders is enabled, we recommend setting a negative value. This sets a maximum threshold for all orders. For details, see Configure MSI backorders.
  • Notify for Quantity Below - Typically, this option and value sets the stock quantity to send a notification of low stock for a product. In MSI, it also deducts from the Salable Quantity to ensure you do not oversell a product based on on-hand inventory. You can override this amount per product through Assigned Sources.

Assigning products to sources in the Admin

  1. On the Admin sidebar, tap Catalog. Then, choose Products.

  2. Select a product to edit. Scroll down the page to the Sources area. This section allows you to modify the source, update inventory quantities, and more.

    Currently, only Simple, Configurable, Virtual, Downloadable, and Grouped products support multiple sources. Bundle products can be created and managed with only the Default Source and Stock.

    Assign Sources Grid of Edit Product Page
  3. To add a source, tap Assign Sources. The Assign Sources page displays.

    Assign Sources Page
  4. Browse or search for a source you want to add. Select the checkbox next to the source(s) you want to add for the product.

  5. Tap Done to save. See the next section to review and update the quantity of inventory at each source.

Modifying quantities and notifications in the Admin

For mass options, see Mass Action Tools, APIs in DevDocs per item or bulk, or Import and Export Tool.

To modify quantity and notifications per source for the product:

  1. If the product page is not open, on the Admin sidebar, tap Catalog. Then, choose Products. Select a product to edit. and scroll down the page to the Sources area. Each source has a row with settings you can configure. These settings will override configurations at the source, stock, and global levels.

  2. To change the available quantity of product per source, update the Qty field.

    Quantity per Source
  3. To send a notification for inventory quantities, do one of the following:

    • To configure a specific amount, enter an inventory amount for Notify Quantity and leave the checkbox unchecked.
    • To use the system default, tap Notify Quantity Use default. The default may be set at the Advanced Inventory page, the Source, the Stock, or global level.
  4. To hide a source's inventory from shipments without removing the source, select Out of Stock for Source Item Status. The SSA and shipment options only access sources listed as In Stock with available inventory quantity.

  5. To save, in the upper-right corner, tap Save or Save and Close.

After updating amounts, each product displays the inventory quantity (total available for sale) and salable inventory (quantity minus threshold amounts).

  • Single Source merchants see normal columns and content per product.
  • Multi Source merchants see a Quantity per Source column with inventory amounts per source and a Salable Quantity column with aggregated totals per stock.

The following example assigns UK sources and quantities, aggregating for the UK Stock.

Quantity per Source and Salable Quantity

For merchants with high amounts of sources, hover over each Quanity per Source for each product to see a complete, scrollable list of sources and quantitites. Each row displays five sources, with a hover-over to see the full list.

Hover to see all assigned Sources

MSI Documentation:

  1. Technical Vision. Catalog Inventory
  2. Installation Guide
  3. List of Inventory APIs and their legacy analogs
  4. MSI Roadmap
  5. Known Issues in Order Lifecycle
  6. MSI User Guide
  7. DevDocs Documentation
  8. User Stories
  9. User Scenarios:
  10. Technical Designs:
  11. Admin UI
  12. MFTF Extension Tests
  13. Weekly MSI Demos
  14. Tutorials
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