First-Expiry-First-Out — the stock that expires soonest is sold first, which reduces write-offs for perishable goods.

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Items & inventory — products, stock, batch & expiry

An ‘item’ is anything you sell or stock. Save its price and GST once, turn on stock tracking, and every sale and purchase keeps your quantity right — with batch and expiry where you need it.

Daily Work Items & Inventory ~7 min readItems free · batch/expiry advanced

Items & Inventory screen in MGH Books — Items & Inventory screen

Read this first

▸ Set price, HSN and GST once per item — they flow onto every bill.
▸ Turn on ‘track stock’ and set a reorder level to get low-stock alerts.
▸ For food, pharma or cosmetics, use batch & expiry (FEFO moves nearest-expiry first).

Being straight with you

• Basic stock and low-stock alerts are available from the free plan; batch, expiry and multi-warehouse are advanced.
• If a count is off, fix it with a Stock Adjustment — MGH Books records the change so your books stay honest.

Step by step

1
Add an item
Items → New
Enter name, sale price, HSN and GST rate. Add an MRP and SKU if you use them.
2
Turn on stock tracking
Enable ‘track stock’ and enter your current (opening) quantity.
3
Set a reorder level
Choose the quantity at which you want an alert, so you reorder before running out.
4
Add batch/expiry (if needed)
For dated goods, turn on batch & expiry; sales then follow FEFO.

What counts as an ‘item’

An item is anything you put on a bill — a product you stock, a product you don't stock, or a service. You only set it up once.

Stocked goods — you track quantity (e.g. a packaged product).
Non-stock goods — you sell them but don't track quantity (e.g. made-to-order).
Services — labour, consulting, repairs; no stock, but they still carry a GST rate (SAC code).

The fields that matter (and which to skip)

You don't have to fill everything. Here's what each field does, so you only enter what helps you.

Field	What it's for	Needed?
Name	What appears on the bill	Yes
Sale price	Your default selling rate	Yes
GST rate	The tax applied automatically on bills	Yes
HSN / SAC	Sets the rate and feeds your GSTR-1 summary	Recommended
MRP & SKU	Printed price and your internal code	Optional
Unit	Pcs, kg, box, etc.	Recommended
Opening stock	What you currently hold (if tracking)	If tracking
Reorder level	Triggers a low-stock alert	If tracking

Turning on stock tracking

Stock tracking tells you how much you hold and keeps it right automatically. Switch it on per item, enter your current quantity, and from then on every sale reduces stock and every purchase increases it.

An item with price, GST and stock tracking

e.g.You enter an opening stock of 50 units. Sell 12 on an invoice → stock is 38. Receive 30 on a purchase bill → stock is 68. You never adjust it by hand.

Reorder levels & low-stock alerts

Set a reorder level — the quantity at which you want to be warned. When stock drops to it, MGH Books alerts you so you restock before you run out of a best-seller.

Batch & expiry (and how FEFO works)

For food, pharma, cosmetics and anything dated, turn on batch and expiry. Each lot is tracked with its own expiry date, and billing follows FEFO — First Expiry, First Out.

FEFO means the stock that expires soonest is sold first, even if a different lot arrived earlier. That's what prevents stock expiring on your shelf.

Turn on batch/expiry before you start billing an item — switching it on after you already have stock movements is harder to apply cleanly.

Multiple warehouses & stock transfers

If you store goods in more than one place, track stock per warehouse and move it cleanly between them with a stock transfer — every movement is recorded with a full audit trail, so your totals always add up.

When the count is wrong: stock adjustment

Sometimes the physical count differs from the system — breakage, a sample given away, an old error. Use a Stock Adjustment to set the correct quantity. MGH Books records the change and the reason, so your books stay honest rather than silently drifting.

How stock is valued (and why it matters)

Your stock has a value, and that value sits on your balance sheet. MGH Books values it on FIFO or weighted-average, so it reflects real costs. This is why keeping purchase prices accurate matters — it flows straight into your accounts.

Troubleshooting

Stock shows negative

Fix: You billed more than was recorded as available. Add the missing purchase, or do a stock adjustment to correct the opening quantity.

The wrong GST appears on bills for an item

Fix: Open the item and correct its GST rate; the change applies to new bills.

An item doesn't appear when billing

Fix: Check it isn't archived, and that you're typing the name or SKU it was saved under.

Valuation looks off

Fix: Make sure purchase prices are entered on purchase bills — valuation uses real costs, so missing purchase rates skew it.

Words you’ll see (in plain English)

SKU: Stock Keeping Unit — your internal code for an item.
HSN / SAC: Standard codes for goods (HSN) and services (SAC) that set the GST rate.
MRP: Maximum Retail Price — the printed price; can differ from your sale price.
FEFO: First-Expiry-First-Out — sell the nearest-expiry stock first.
Batch: A specific lot of an item, tracked with its own expiry/details.
Reorder level: The quantity at which you're alerted to restock.
Stock adjustment: A recorded correction when the physical count differs from the system.
Valuation: The money value of your stock (FIFO/average), which feeds your balance sheet.