Inventory management involves multiple moving parts, especially when stock is tracked across warehouses, trucks, jobs, and projects. This glossary is intended to provide a clear, plain-language reference for the inventory terms you may encounter in BuildOps.
Use this guide to better understand how quantities, costs, and inventory workflows relate to one another.
Key terms
Truck or warehouse - A truck or warehouse is a storage location where inventory is kept.
Qty On Hand - Qty On Hand is the quantity currently in stock at a truck or warehouse.
Qty Reserved - Qty Reserved is stock that has been set aside for a specific job or project. Reserved quantity reduces what is available, but it does not reduce the total on-hand quantity.
Qty Available - Qty Available is the quantity that is still available to use or transfer.
Free stock - Free stock is inventory that is not reserved for a specific job or project.
Job or project stock - Job or project stock is inventory that has been reserved or received for a specific job or project.
Item - An item is a product or service in your Item List.
Item Type - Item Type tells BuildOps how an item behaves, including whether it can affect inventory counts.
Inventory item - An Inventory item is a stock-tracked item that can increase or decrease inventory quantities.
Non-Inventory item - A Non-Inventory item does not update inventory quantities.
Fee - A Fee behaves like a non-inventory item and can also be used for default charges on invoices.
Valuation - Valuation is the dollar value of inventory.
Valuation method - A valuation method determines how BuildOps calculates the cost of inventory when it is issued from stock.
Standard cost - Standard cost uses the item cost or vendor pricing set for the item.
Average cost - Average cost uses the average cost of the quantity currently in stock.
FIFO - FIFO means first in, first out. BuildOps uses the earliest available receipt cost first.
LIFO - LIFO means last in, first out. BuildOps uses the most recent available receipt cost first.
Transfer - A transfer moves inventory from one location or stock bucket to another, such as from one warehouse to another or from available stock to reserved stock for a job or project.
Physical count - A physical count is when you manually count inventory to verify that your system matches what is actually on hand.
Inventory issue - An inventory issue records inventory being used, removed from stock, or adjusted. Inventory quantities are affected when the issue is posted.
Receipt - A receipt records what was actually received and where it arrived.
Bill of Materials (BoM) - A BoM is a list of planned materials or items for a project. It supports planning and purchasing, and if Inventory is enabled, eligible inventory items can also be allocated from stock.
AP Bill - An AP Bill is a vendor bill that shows the amount your company owes to a vendor or supplier.
Important notes
Posting matters. In some inventory workflows, stock and cost updates depend on posting behavior, not just saving a record.
Transfers cannot be edited after they are completed. If you make a mistake, create another transfer to reverse it.
For physical-count adjustments, Standard and Average items can be adjusted directly, while FIFO and LIFO items require a different workflow.
Reserved stock may update in the system before there is a dedicated place to view all transferred or reserved items for a specific job or project.