Stock

Stock records full and empty cylinders separately. It follows supplier deliveries, vehicle loads, customer deliveries and returns.

Stock overview

Open Stock to see what you hold and what you can sell. The page has two tabs: Stock overview and Suppliers. Stock overview goes from the toolbar straight to the stock table.

The toolbar

Search by product name or short code. With more than one yard, pick one under Yard; each yard says how many of its products are low. Show All, Low, None free or Running out products. Clear filters puts everything back. Recent movements opens every stock movement.

• Low shows products at or below a low-stock alert.
• None free shows products with nothing free to sell. Under All yards this includes a product with none free at one yard, so its row may not be red if another yard has stock.
• Running out shows products that may run out within 7 days. It appears only under All yards.

Stock needs attention

One line says how many stock alerts there are, and how many products are short for booked orders. Select it to open the list. Search the alerts, show one kind (Short for orders, None free, Low or Running out) and page through them ten at a time.

Each alert names the product and the problem: for example, Existing orders need 46 more cylinders or No full cylinders available at Yard #2. Overall order shortfalls use total stock across yards and vehicles; a yard alert tells you where stock is unavailable. Customer orders are not assigned to a yard, so Bottle does not invent one for an overall shortfall.

Select What to do for next steps: check your count, arrange a supplier delivery and record the stock when it arrives. Supplier orders already on their way are shown with quantities and due dates. Record supplier order opens the supplier order form with the quantity filled in where known. You still need to place the order with your supplier. View stock and movements opens the product in the stock table.

Running out estimates how long uncommitted full stock will last at the average delivery rate over the last 28 days. It is shown for the whole business, not each yard, and is an estimate.

Alerts say cylinders for products classified as cylinders and items for other stock, such as BBQs.

Incoming & moving stock keeps supplier deliveries and yard transfers together. Expand Supplier deliveries or Yard transfers to mark arrivals or transfer progress. Empty sections are hidden.

The stock table

Products are grouped by gas type, with one row for each product.

• A red row has none free to sell.
• A yellow row is at or below its low-stock alert. Under All yards, the label names the yard if the alert is for one yard, such as Low at Woking.
• A row marked Not counted is a product you have chosen not to count. It has no figures and is never red or yellow. See Products you do not count.

Column	Meaning
Free to sell	Full stock you can still sell. See Free to sell
Booked (for orders)	Full stock on orders that have not gone out or been collected yet
Each yard	Full and empty there, each with its word: 12 full, 4 empty
On vehicles	Full and empty on vehicles. Select the heading to show each vehicle, and again to group them. (out) means the vehicle is on a round
With customers (cylinders out)	How many are out with customers. See With customers
In total	Full and empty that you hold: in yards, on vehicles and between yards. It does not include what is with customers
Alert at	Low-stock alert. Press the number to change it

Pick one yard under Yard and the table shows that yard and the vehicles based there. Booked and With customers belong to the whole business, so they appear only under All yards.

Free to sell

Under All yards, this is the full stock in your yards and on your vehicles, less Booked. Stock on its way between yards is not included until it arrives.

With one yard picked, this is the full stock at that yard, less anything kept aside to move to another yard. Vehicles are not included, and booked orders are not taken off, because customer orders do not belong to a yard.

Below zero means existing orders need more than you hold. -3 means you are 3 short.

With customers (cylinders out)

With customers shows how many of each product are out with your customers now. It is the number delivered or collected, less the number that came back.

For example, 10 delivered to a customer and 4 empties back counts as 6 with customers.

• It is worked out from what Bottle has recorded. It goes up when a delivery is recorded or an order is collected from the yard. It goes down when a driver records empties. It also includes cylinders you enter as already held by a customer.
• It is not part of a stocktake. A stocktake corrects what is in a yard. It does not change this number, and you do not count these cylinders.
• It is separate from your own stock. It is not included in In total or Free to sell.
• It starts from your first records in Bottle. Cylinders a customer held before you started using Bottle are not included until you add them. Until then, this number can be lower than the real number. To add them, open the customer’s Cylinders section and select Add cylinders already held. See Cylinders they already have.
• Each customer and product is counted separately. A customer with more empties back than Bottle shows them holding counts as zero, so they do not reduce another customer’s number. A 47kg empty does not reduce a 19kg delivered to the same customer.
• Accessories and appliances you sold are counted too. They went out to a customer and do not come back, so they stay in this number.

To see who holds what, open the customer’s Cylinders section, or Reporting → Stock and cylinders.

Acting on products

Select a product’s name to see its Recent movements. Select ⋯ on its row for View product, Recent movements, Record stock, Order stock, Move to another yard and Set low-stock alert. Order stock reads Order more when Bottle can suggest a quantity. Move to another yard appears when you have more than one yard.

Tick products to act on several at once. The bar at the foot of the page offers Record stock, Order stock, Move to another yard, Set low-stock alert and Recent movements. Set low-stock alert sets the same alert on all of them, for the yard picked or the whole business. Recent movements shows the movements for just those products.

Recent movements read as sentences, grouped by day, such as Loaded 4 full 19kg propane onto Van 1, from Yard, with who recorded each one.

Products you do not count

Some cylinders are never worth counting: a size you sell a few of a year, or one your supplier drops straight to the customer. Choose Stop taking stock from the product’s ⋯ menu on the stock table, or tick several products and choose it from the bar at the bottom. The product’s own form has the same switch: Count stock for this cylinder under Stock. Then:

• The stock table lists it marked Not counted, with no yard figures and no low-stock alert. With customers still shows, because that comes from deliveries, not from counting.
• Deliveries, empties, cylinder rent and deposits carry on as before. Only the yard count stops.
• Rounds plan as though there are always enough. Check these never says the yard has no figure for it or is short of it.
• It is left off stock takes, in the office and on iPhone and Android.

To count it again, choose Start taking stock from its ⋯ menu, or tick the products and choose it from the bar. Counting switches on and Record stock opens on those products, so you can put the first count in. Switching it on from the product’s own form works too.

For Most-delivered products and stock value, open Reporting → Stock and cylinders.

Automatic stock updates

Bottle records these movements automatically:

• Customer collection at the yard: marking the order collected transfers stock to the customer.
• Vehicle departure: the confirmed load moves from the round’s yard to the vehicle. If the office starts the round without a driver-confirmed load, the planned load is used.
• Top-up: additional stock is added to the vehicle.
• Delivery: actual delivered quantities move to the customer and returned empties move onto the vehicle.
• Delivered by a delivery partner: the stock moves as it does for your own driver. Full cylinders leave the yard for the customer, and the empties you enter come back to the yard.
• Part delivered, then marked delivered from the order: only what the round did not deliver leaves the yard, and only the empties not already back come in.
• Marked delivered from the order while it is on a round that is out: the full cylinders come off the round’s vehicle and the empties you enter go onto it, as they would at the door. Once the vehicle is back at the yard, they move from and to the yard instead.
• Marked delivered from the order, then written up by the driver: the stock moves once. The driver’s proof and any cash taken are still recorded, and the order stays delivered whatever the driver’s phone says.
• Undo: reversing a stop reverses its stock movements. If the order was marked delivered from the order, it stays delivered and the stock moves as if it had been marked delivered from the order.
• Round completion: remaining full cylinders and collected empties return to the yard the round loaded from, even if the vehicle is kept overnight at a driver’s home.

Drivers should confirm actual quantities, including returns, rather than rely on planned amounts.

Recording stock by hand

Use Record stock for supplier deliveries, stocktakes and damaged cylinders. It asks one thing at a time:

1. Yard. Choose the yard. With one yard, Bottle skips this step.
2. Type. Choose Supplier delivery, Stocktake or Damaged cylinders.
3. Stock. Type the numbers against each product.

• Supplier delivery: enter full cylinders received and empties taken away. Use the equal-empties option for a straight swap.
• Stocktake: enter counted full and empty quantities. Bottle records the difference. Press the tick beside a product to mark it counted when it matches the record. Mark shown as counted ticks every product in the list.
• Damaged cylinders: record cylinders removed from use.

Search, the Show filter, the gas filter and Sort help with a long list. During a stocktake, Not counted shows what is left to count. Enter moves to the same box on the next product. Shift+Enter moves back up.

Press a step at the top to go back and change the yard or the type.

Add a note such as a supplier delivery-note number. All rows save together.

When you choose Supplier delivery and an order to that yard is still to come, Bottle first asks Is this for an order? Pick the order and the sheet becomes that order’s arrival, filled with what is still to come, and saves against it, so the delivery is not counted twice. Pick No, it wasn’t ordered to record it as usual.

Working on chosen products

Tick products in the stock table, then choose Record stock, Order stock or Move to another yard in the bar at the foot of the page. For one product, open its … menu and choose the same. The form opens with only those products listed. Show all products brings back the rest.

Stock takes on iPhone and Android

Open More → Stock takes, choose a yard and start counting. Drivers need Allow stock takes enabled under Users.

For damaged cylinders, open the product’s … menu and choose Record damaged cylinders. Enter damaged full and empty quantities, then choose Done. Keep damaged cylinders out of your usable stock counts.

A faulty cylinder taken back from a customer on an order is recorded as damaged for you. See Replacing a faulty cylinder.

You can record damage without recounting the yard. Leave the other counts blank, review the changes and submit. The damage appears in stock movements and the stock take history, with who recorded it and when. Nothing changes until you submit.

More than one yard

A business with one yard sees none of this. Once you add a second yard under Fleet, Stock changes in four ways.

• Pick a yard. Yard in the toolbar shows All yards or one yard. One yard shows that yard and the vehicles based there. Customer holdings and promised stock belong to the whole business, so they appear only under All yards.
• See which yard is low. Each yard in the Yard list says how many of its products are low.
• Set a minimum per yard. With a yard picked, Alert at sets that yard’s own minimum. Stock reserved for a transfer is excluded from the available figure. Under All yards it sets the business-wide minimum.
• Move stock between yards. See Moving stock between yards.
• Say where a cylinder is kept. Choose Set where it is kept from a product’s ⋯ menu, or tick several products and choose Set where kept from the bar. A Kept at column shows the yard, or Loading yard for a product every yard keeps. The product’s own Stock card has the same setting. A round loading at another yard calls there to collect it. See Stock kept at another yard.

Moving stock between yards

Press … beside Record stock on the Stock page and choose Move stock between yards. It asks one thing at a time: the yard it is leaving, the yard it is going to (skipped with two yards), how it is getting there, then how many of each product. The list works like Record stock’s, with search, filters and a progress bar. How it gets there:

• Yes, it has already moved. For stock that has gone already, such as ten cylinders a driver took to Woking this morning. Both yards update now. Pick an earlier time if it happened earlier.
• No, we’ll take it on one of our rounds. Pick the day it should move. It waits with that day’s orders, and when you plan the day, Bottle puts it on a round, the same way it does an order. You can also put it on a round yourself from the waiting list on the Rounds page.
• No, a courier or the supplier is taking it. Add who is taking it and their reference if you have them. Then use the buttons under Stock moving between yards as it goes: Mark as collected, then Mark as arrived.

From the moment you save it, the cylinders are kept aside at the yard they are leaving, so they are not sold to anyone else.

On one of our rounds

The driver sees it as ordinary stops: Collect for the yard it is going to, then Drop off from the yard it came from. They sign for it or take a photo, exactly as for a delivery. There is nothing to pay at a yard.

If the round’s vehicle loads at the yard the stock is leaving, there is no collection stop. The cylinders go on with the morning load, and show on the driver’s load list.

• Some did not arrive. What was dropped off lands at the yard. The rest stays on the vehicle, and Your day shows it as not all arrived.
• The drop could not be made. The cylinders stay on the vehicle, and Your day shows it.
• The collection could not be made. The cylinders stay at the yard, kept aside, ready to go on another round.

Cancelling

Cancel works until it arrives. Cylinders only kept aside are freed. Cylinders already collected go back to the yard they left.

Moving stock between yards changes where cylinders are, not how many you have, so it is not counted as stock received or sent out in reports.

Each vehicle and each driver has a yard. See Fleet and Rounds.

Suppliers and orders from them

Keep track of what you have ordered from your suppliers, what is due at each yard and what arrived. See Suppliers and orders from them.

Stock reports

Open Reporting → Stock and cylinders. Choose a period to review:

• Stock received, delivered, returned, damaged and adjusted.
• Cylinders held by customers and how long they have held them.
• Vehicle loading by driver, including planned loads, confirmed loads and unused full cylinders returned.

Internal loading and unloading are not counted as customer or supplier movements. Reports are available to owners and admins.

Stock calculation rules

Stock balances are calculated from recorded movements. Recent movements shows when each change happened and who recorded it.

Drivers see the stock relevant to their round, not the full business stock report.

Low stock alerts

Press Alert at beside a product, or choose Set low-stock alert from its ⋯ menu, to set its alert. Tick several products to set the same alert on all of them. Set zero to turn the alert off.

Owners and admins can receive low-stock notifications. Repeated warnings are limited while the same shortage continues; replenishing stock resets the warning cycle.

A yard-specific threshold uses that yard’s available full cylinders, excluding stock reserved for transfers. A business-wide threshold uses stock available across yards and vehicles, excluding orders and stock between yards. The alert names the yard.

Charging for the cylinder

Create deposits and rent with Add a cylinder charge on Products. Cylinder rent → Manage charge rates opens this area. Charges are normally linked to a gas type, with optional size-specific rates.

When it goes on an order

Deposits apply to additional cylinders supplied, after subtracting returns of the same gas type:

• Three out and none back: three deposits.
• Three out and three back: no additional deposit.
• Five out and three back: two deposits.

Only customers who pay the deposit are charged it. See Who pays a deposit or rent.

• Different sizes exchanged within the same gas type: still an exchange.

Existing charge lines are not added a second time.

Getting the deposit back

Where returns exceed deliveries, Bottle applies your configured refund policy. Automatic refunds appear as amounts due back to the customer. Record when the refund has been paid.

How much comes back is set on each deposit; see Refunds on one deposit. A deposit only comes back on a cylinder that went out with one: a customer who did not pay a deposit on a cylinder gets nothing back for it. Whether refunds are added automatically or manually is set on the Refunds line in Business settings → Cylinder charges.

Cylinders held by customers

The customer’s Cylinders section shows their holdings by gas type and size. Balances are maintained whether or not you charge deposits or rent.

For customers who may have held cylinders before you started using Bottle, the section says the opening balance needs checking. The number shown is deliveries minus returns recorded in Bottle, not necessarily their full holding. Add the cylinders they already held, then press Balance is complete. Confirm it without adding cylinders when the correct opening balance was zero.

Financial charge products do not count as physical stock.

Customer cylinders

Customer cylinders in the menu lists every customer, with how many of each cylinder they hold. Customers holding the most come first, and customers holding none follow.

• Search by customer name. The name doesn’t need to be exact.
• Show All customers, Holding cylinders or Not checked. Not checked lists the customers whose opening balance still needs checking.
• Press Filters and choose a Cylinder to see who holds it, with those holding the most first.

Each customer takes one line. Hover over a name that is cut short to read it in full, or over +2 more to see every cylinder they hold.

To enter cylinders a customer already had, open the menu at the end of their row and select Add cylinders. Add each size and quantity. Held from sets when rent and deposit-refund timing starts for those cylinders. Once nothing is missing, select Balance is complete from the same menu, then Confirm balance. That option goes once the balance is confirmed.

To do this for several customers, tick them. Add cylinders adds the same cylinders to each one, on top of what they hold now, for up to 200 customers at a time. Balance is complete confirms each one’s balance. Only owners and administrators can open this page.

Cylinder rent

Open Cylinder rent under Customers & billing to review rented cylinders and their estimated monthly rent. It is separate from the Stock tabs.

Select Rent with billing issues, or Review customers in the billing alert, to see customers holding rented cylinders without scheduled rent billing. Zero-price rent does not trigger this alert. Set up rent billing opens that customer’s Details, where you can edit their cylinder-rent invoice frequency. Review and save the settings yourself; this page does not enable billing automatically.

The customer list also has search, Billing enabled, Billing issues and invoice-frequency filters. Customers who need billing setup appear first. Review cylinders opens the customer’s cylinder holdings. Rent by gas type is an expandable breakdown below the list.

These are estimates based on today’s holdings and current rates, not issued invoices. See Cylinder hire for actual rental billing.

Select Manage charge rates to add or edit deposits and rent in Products → Cylinder charges. If there are no rented holdings yet, Add a cylinder charge is also available in the empty state.

For an overview of cylinder stock in Bottle, see Cylinder stock on the Bottle website.