Stock movement is one of the most common — and most poorly documented — activities in multi-location retail. Retill transfer workflows ensure every product movement from central inventory to a shop, or from warehouse to floor, is recorded with quantities, dates, and history.
Understanding Retill inventory structure
Retill separates where products are defined from where they are stored:
- Inventory (Production) — Your master product catalog. Products are created here with pricing, barcodes, and categories.
- Shops — Retail locations where sales happen. Stock must be transferred here before POS can sell it.
- Warehouses — Storage locations (available on Pro and Premium plans) for bulk stock before distribution to shops.
Transferring products to a shop branch
- From the dashboard, open Inventory (Production).
- Select products by clicking the checkbox beside each item — or select multiple for bulk transfer.
- Click the Transfer button.
- Choose the destination shop.
- Enter the quantity for each product.
- Confirm the transfer.
Products appear in the shop's Products tab and are immediately available for POS sale.
Transferring to and from warehouses
On Pro and Premium plans, move stock between warehouses and shops using the same transfer flow. Warehouse detail pages show Products, Received, and Transferred tabs — mirroring shop structure for consistent tracking.
Viewing transfer history
Every shop and warehouse records:
- Received — Stock that arrived at this location
- Transferred — Stock sent out to another location
For business-wide transfer reporting, open Reports and use the Transfers tab to generate PDF history for a date range.
Best practices for stock transfers
- Transfer on a schedule — Weekly restocks beat emergency transfers that disrupt the floor.
- Match transfer to sales velocity — High-selling shops need more frequent top-ups.
- Verify quantities on receipt — Compare physical delivery against Received records.
- Use one catalog naming standard — Avoid duplicate products that split stock visibility.
- Review transfer reports monthly — Spot unusual movements that may indicate errors or shrinkage.
Common transfer mistakes to avoid
Selling products before transferring them to the shop catalog causes POS errors. Always transfer first, then sell. Similarly, transferring more than warehouse stock creates negative inventory — check source levels before confirming.
Retill transfer history creates accountability. When stock numbers disagree, you have a trail — not a guess.