Written by Donna Knight, One Step's Implementation Specialist

In Retail Pro 9, if you need to accurately track the movement of merchandise from one store to another, you will need to use transfers slips to do so. You have two options with transfers:

1) Complete a transfer with an out slip alone.

2) Complete a transfer with an out slip and a voucher to receive the merchandise.

The first option is the simplest. The second option offers better accuracy regarding when the merchandise is actually received by the destination store.

With the two-step transfer method, it is possible that merchandise has been transferred out of a store but has not yet arrived at the destination store. The status of this merchandise is referred to as “in transit.”

In Retail Pro system preferences, you have the option of specifying how long merchandise is normally in transit when traveling from any given store to another store. For example, if you specify the number of days in transit from store 001 to store 002 is two days, the quantities for merchandise in transit will automatically be put into the destination store (002) after two days (or however many days you specified.)

However, if Store 002 receives the merchandise after only one day, they can do a voucher against that out slip, and the quantities will be put into their inventory as soon as that voucher is created.

The benefit of tracking in transit is that you have an accurate account of both the source store’s quantities and the destination store quantities. Without tracking in transit, the destination may show merchandise on hand that has not actually been received yet.

The disadvantage of tracking in transit is that it adds slightly more complexity to the transfer process. For many retailers, sacrificing a little simplicity for greater inventory accuracy is well worth the effort. In any case, you should decide whether tracking in transit fits your business needs or not. Neither choice is wrong.