New to InventoryIQ? This step-by-step guide (along with our team of experts!) will hold your hand throughout the initial onboarding to make sure you have everything you need.

While the initial setup of InventoryIQ requires some manual work, it pays off by streamlining your inventory management and making the process seamless moving forward. 🎯

You can also see a more summarized version of this step-by-step guide when you first enter InventoryIQ. And, if you have any questions at all, feel free to check out Finaloop Academy by clicking the adorable graduation hat icon on the right-hand side of your screen.

Choose the date you want to begin using InventoryIQ. You can set the date to January 1 so you have a full year using one method or you can start at the beginning of any month, so there is less initial input to get everything started.

If any of the following listed items apply, we recommend starting from the beginning of this month instead of from the beginning of the year to make your setup more efficient:

To select your start date to be different than Jan 1, reach out to us at [email protected] and we'll adjust this for you!

We created a quick video on Getting Started with InventoryIQ to introduce you to your knew inventory process and system. Be sure to watch it for a full run through of the setup process.

We’ll automatically sync your warehouse data from Shopify, but you’ll need to add any additional warehouses. Set a general default warehouse and a default warehouse for each sales channel. For instance, you can set Amazon FBA as the default for Amazon sales.

This step ensures we know where your sales are being fulfilled from if we don’t otherwise sync the data. Go to Inventory>Settings>Warehouse. To learn more about how to do this, check out the instructions here.

Go to the Products tab and review your product list. If you sell the same product (e.g., the same SKU) on both Shopify and Amazon, merge them now.

Make sure to merge products before creating any recipes, as recipes will disappear for merged products upon merge. Need help merging products? Find instructions here.

If you have inventory that isn’t synced from Shopify or Amazon (such as raw materials or items sold only on other channels), you’ll need to add it manually:

For each product, including any newly added ones, input the opening balance in each warehouse for the start date of InventoryIQ.

Navigate to Inventory>Settings>Opening balance. You can get the detailed instructions here.

To add opening balances for any inventory in process or in transit at the start date of InventoryIQ, you can add historical POs with the relevant status on the start date. See the blue note in Step 7.

Next, add POs for each item purchased, whether it’s raw materials or finished goods. Don’t forget to include indirect costs like shipping or taxes!

We walk you through the whole process of creating and managing your POs here.

Next, create recipes (or bill of materials) and assemblies for your products. This step is essential for brands that assemble or manufacture their own products from various raw materials or for brands that sell bundled products as well.

Check out this article on how to create and manage recipes and assemblies in InventoryIQ.

If you transfer stock between warehouses (or from your warehouse/3PL to Amazon FBA), add these transfer orders as well:

Include any additional indirect costs (e.g., shipping) which will increase the real-time landed costs we track for each of the units.

Whenever a sale is made from Shopify or any channels connected to Shopify, from Amazon, or from wholesale with invoices sent from Finaloop, we’ll sync the quantities sold automatically and use the default warehouse for that sales channel to accurately and automatically record your COGS.

If you are actively selling outside of those channels, such as Walmart, Ebay, Etsy, etc., we’ll need you to update the quantities fulfilled and restocked from those channels each month, for each SKU.

Head over to this section of our article on InventoryIQ and read the part on adding sales quantities for specific sales channels.

You're ready for the final check!

If any balances aren’t aligned, we’ll notify you through a mission letting you know you have negative vendor balances or negative units on-hand. This is a validation technique we use to raise any red flags that you may have forgotten to input some information, like adding a PO or updating a shipping status.

But, you can also check this yourself by following these steps.

First check your Inventory Vendor Balances for any negative balances:

Next check your Products page for any negative on-hand units.

This is a validation mechanism we created to ensure all your numbers are accurate. If the number is red, it means some data is missing, such as a missing PO, opening balance issue, or missing recipe. Head over to Troubleshooting negative inventory balances to identify the issue.

Getting inventory on track is no small feat so give yourself a pat on the back. You are all set up and good to go!

After your initial setup, to keep things running like a well oiled machine, just use Finaloop to create your POs, update the shipping status, and track stock transfers (the same things you are already doing anyway, I hope🤞).

There is one more ongoing step: If you are selling on sales channels outside of Shopify (or apps connected to Shopify), Amazon, or wholesale using Finaloop, you’ll need to update the units fulfilled from each warehouse on a monthly basis, as described above in Step 10.

If you have any questions, our team is here to help you get everything set up so feel free to reach out to Support at [email protected].