What is a stock-in entry in the kardex?

What is a stock-in entry in the kardex?

A stock-in entry in the kardex is the inventory movement that increases the stock of a product directly and manually, with no purchase invoice behind it. In Kardex Tauro this movement is recorded from the More Kardex window, whose full name inside the program is Manual Inventory Stock-In. When you save the movement, the system adds the quantity you entered to the product balance in the current warehouse and automatically creates the corresponding entry in the kardex history, leaving an accounting record of the stock-in.

The key to understanding it lies in its origin: while a purchase is a stock-in born from a commercial document, a kardex stock-in entry is born from an adjustment. It is used to make the recorded inventory match what is actually in the warehouse: surpluses found during a physical count, received donations, discovered goods, opening inventory when the program is first implemented, or finished production that does not go through the purchasing module. For this reason the document classification also calls it a positive inventory adjustment: it corrects the stock of an item upward.

The window behind the manual stock-in

The More Kardex window is usually opened from the "+ Kardex" button in the main kardex window. When it opens, the upper zone shows, as read-only information, the data of the item that will be affected: the product code, the current stock (the number of units in the warehouse before the stock-in is applied) and the product name. These three fields cannot be edited and they serve a verification purpose: they let you quickly confirm that you are adjusting the correct product before saving.

In the central zone, under the title "Add products to inventory", you will find the form with the fields required to record the movement:

• Increase by: numeric field where you type the number of units you want to add to the inventory. For example, 50 to add 50 units.
• Reference: free-text field to describe the reason, cause or circumstance of the stock-in. It is vital for future audit and traceability. Useful examples: "Opening inventory", "Surplus from physical count", "Delivery note #4040 without invoice".
• Value: unit value at which you are bringing the goods in. It is important to remember that in the program all prices are recorded with tax included.
• Supplier: lookup selector or list to choose the third party (supplier) that brought, delivered or supplied the goods. That third party will be recorded in the kardex as the origin of this stock-in.

At the bottom there are the action buttons. The Cancel button closes the window without applying any change: the inventory and the kardex remain untouched. The Save button executes the operation: it creates the entry in the kardex with the concept of manual stock-in or adjustment, adds the units to the current stock and updates the warehouse inventory.

When should you actually use a kardex stock-in entry?

The program documentation is clear on this point: the More Kardex window is designed for exceptions and adjustments, not for the regular commercial flow. The legitimate use cases are situations in which goods arrive at the warehouse without a purchase document to back them, or in which the recorded inventory does not match the physical reality and needs to be corrected upward.

• Opening inventory: when implementing the program, it is used to load the starting stock of each product in each warehouse.
• Surpluses from physical counts: when a count reveals more units than recorded and the surplus is not justified by any document, the manual stock-in brings those units into the inventory.
• Received donations: goods that arrive as a donation and do not go through the purchasing module.
• Discoveries and production: goods found in the warehouse or finished production that comes in through a non-commercial path.
• Unrecorded employee returns: internal returns that were never documented and must be regularized with a stock-in.
• Other manual adjustments: any goods that did not enter through the standard commercial flow of purchase orders.

In the document taxonomy of the program, these movements are classified as Positive Inventory Adjustments within the stock-in documents: they record non-commercial entries such as donations, discoveries or production, and they may have no associated third party or an internal one. That is exactly how the system understands a kardex stock-in entry: a valid inventory stock-in, but of a different nature from a purchase.

A numeric example of the movement

Suppose that during the cyclic count of the main warehouse surpluses are detected in several products. For each one you open the More Kardex window, type the surplus quantity in the Increase by field and describe the reason in the Reference field. The effect on the balance is direct: the balance after the stock-in equals the previous balance plus the quantity entered. The following example summarizes the result of one adjustment session:

Notice the unit value column: the program calculates its stock and averages with the value typed in the Value field, so this figure must reflect the real cost of the goods. If you enter a value without tax, the system will calculate stock and averages with a cost lower than the real one, and that error will carry over into the profitability reports of future sales. The value you enter is recorded in the entry and becomes part of the product audit history.

What should NOT be recorded as a kardex stock-in entry

The most important rule of this window is knowing when not to use it. If goods come in because your company bought them from a supplier, the More Kardex window must not be used: the correct path is the Stock-In module, working with Purchase Orders or Warehouse Stock-Ins. When a purchase is finished through that module, the system generates the More Kardex entry automatically, offsets the accounts payable and updates the average cost correctly. Recording that purchase as a manual stock-in would duplicate the operation and break that flow.

Neither does a customer return belong in a manual stock-in. In the system classification, customer returns are stock-in documents (the product comes back to the warehouse), but the third party is the customer who returned the goods, and the record belongs in the returns flow of the sales module, not in a manual adjustment. The difference between both cases is easier to understand with a decision table:

The reason behind all this is that the manual stock-in changes the inventory without a supporting commercial document, such as a purchase invoice. That is why it must be reserved for the situations that truly require it and executed with the same discipline applied to any accounting document.

Golden rule: the kardex cannot be deleted

Once you click Save, the movement is recorded in the kardex history permanently and immutably. The system does not allow deleting, voiding or editing an already saved kardex entry, because doing so would break the accounting integrity and the traceability of the inventory. This is not a limitation of the program: it is the foundation of trust in the inventory ledger, since it guarantees that no movement disappears after it has been recorded.

The practical consequence is that the moment for review is before pressing Save, not after. You should check in the upper zone that the product is correct, review the quantity typed in Increase by, confirm the unit value with tax included, and choose the supplier carefully when one applies. Once the movement is saved, there is no going back through a delete option, because that option simply does not exist.

What to do if you make a mistake when saving

If you typed an incorrect quantity, a wrong value, or selected the wrong supplier and already pressed Save, do not look for a delete option. The solution documented in the program is different: open the Less Kardex window immediately on the same product and make the manual stock-out for the wrong quantity or value, using in the Reference field a text such as "Reversal of error in manual stock-in of date X".

In this way the inventory returns to its correct state and the audit history reflects both the error and its correction transparently. Even though it may look like a detour, recording the reversal instead of deleting the entry is precisely what keeps the integrity of the kardex: the error stays visible, the correction stays visible too, and any auditor can reconstruct what happened without ambiguity.

When the product is controlled by serial numbers

If the product being received is managed with serial numbers, the manual stock-in flow includes an additional step. During direct inventory stock-ins, when the goods arrive at the warehouse you open the stock-in window and select the serialized product; the Add Serial Numbers window opens automatically. There you capture the serial numbers of each physical unit received and, when you click "Done, serial numbers", the stock-in is completed with the exact quantity of captured serial numbers.

The key feature of this case is that the serial numbers are known and captured at the very moment of the stock-in: it is not possible to record more units than captured serial numbers, which turns the capture itself into the natural control of the quantity. If the goods arrive without serial numbers known in advance, the recommended flow is a different one, but when serial numbers are available upon receipt, the manual stock-in requires them one by one.

Audit recommendations for the manual stock-in

The kardex is, above all, an audit ledger, and the manual stock-in is one of the movements that deserves the most attention because it has no external document backing it. The following recommendations from the program help make every stock-in flawless:

• Be descriptive in the Reference: a text like "Adjustment" says nothing for the future; a text like "Adjustment for surplus in cyclic count of warehouse 2" will save your accountant or auditor hours of research.
• Take care of the unit value: remember to enter the value with tax included. If you enter it without tax, the system will calculate stock and averages with a cost lower than the real one, affecting the profitability shown in future sales reports.
• Restricted permissions: because of its ability to change inventory without a supporting commercial document, the permission to use the More Kardex window should be restricted exclusively to administrators, accountants or highly trusted warehouse managers.

In short, the kardex stock-in entry is the right tool to adjust inventory upward when there is no purchase or customer return behind it, as long as it is recorded with a clear reference, a complete unit value and the awareness that the movement will be recorded forever. Used well, it is the mechanism that keeps the inventory true to reality; used badly, it becomes noise that is hard to explain during an audit.

The information in this article is general and informative in nature and does not constitute accounting or tax advice. Before defining valuation, adjustment or correction policies for your operation, consult your accountant so they can validate the procedures according to your local regulations.