A transfer order sends stock from one warehouse to another. Use it when goods spend time on the road, because each warehouse changes at its own step. The source loses the goods when the transfer moves to In transit. The destination gains them when the transfer moves to Completed.
A stock movement with two warehouses changes both at one moment. A transfer also holds an estimated departure and arrival, a shipping method and a tracking number.
Transfer Order Lifecycle
A transfer runs Draft → Picking → In transit → Receiving → Completed, the same order as the goods on their way between warehouses. You can cancel it at any step before Completed.
| Status | What is happening |
|---|---|
| Draft | You are still writing it, and you can change its lines. The stock does not change. |
| Picking | The source warehouse picks the goods. Beelocity reserves nothing, so another document can still take this stock. The stock does not change yet. |
| In transit | The source changes here. The goods are on the road. Beelocity takes the picked quantities out of the source, lot by lot, and its on hand falls. If one line is short, the transfer stays in Picking (When the source is short). |
| Receiving | The goods reached the destination, and somebody checks them against what left. The stock does not change yet. |
| Completed | The destination changes here. Beelocity adds the received quantities to the destination, lot by lot, and its on hand rises. Each lot keeps the cost that it had at the source. |
| Cancelled | The transfer stopped here. If it stopped before In transit, nothing moved. If the goods had left, Beelocity puts each lot back in the source location that it left, at its cost. |
Between In transit and Completed, neither warehouse counts the goods. If you cancel in that time, on hand rises at the source at once, even if the goods are still on the road.
Open a transfer, and its road runs along the top of its page. The steps already passed are ticked, the step that the transfer is at is in bold, and the next step is a button. Click it, and then confirm in the dialog with the button that names the move. Beelocity makes none of these moves by itself.
Rest on a step to see when the transfer reached it and who moved it there. Click the step that the transfer is at to open the list of moves. It lists each status that the transfer can move to from there.
To cancel a transfer, open the list of moves and click Cancelled, and then click Move to Cancelled. Cancelled then hangs off the step that the transfer left from.
The owner of your organization can move a transfer along the road. Any other person needs a role that your business gives them (Roles and Permissions).
Creating a Transfer Order
- Go to Transfers in the sidebar under Inventory and click New.
- Fill in:
- Transfer number: the form fills in the next number of your organization’s transfer series, such as
TO-2026-000001. The series starts again at 000001 each year. You can type over it, but it must stay unique. - Source warehouse: the warehouse that the goods leave. If you have a default warehouse, the form opens on it.
- Destination warehouse: the warehouse that the goods reach. It must differ from the source.
- Estimated departure: when the transfer should leave. It opens on now.
- Estimated arrival: when the transfer should arrive, on or after the estimated departure.
- Shipping method: how the goods travel, in your own words, such as company truck or courier. It is a note for you, and it changes nothing in Beelocity.
- Tracking number: the carrier’s own reference for this load, if it has one. Copy it exactly, so that you can search for it later.
- Transfer number: the form fills in the next number of your organization’s transfer series, such as
- Click Add above the Lines, beside the details on the right. Beelocity saves the transfer as Draft with its number, and its first line opens. That line and each line after it saves itself as you fill it in (Adding lines before you save). To add the lines later, click Save instead.
- Add every line before you move the transfer to Picking. You cannot change the transfer after Draft, and a transfer with no lines cannot start picking.
Finding Transfer Orders
Use the search bar on the transfers list to find a transfer by its transfer number, tracking number or notes. The filter button beside it narrows the list by Status, Source warehouse, Destination warehouse, Estimated departure or Estimated arrival (Working with lists).
Logistics Tracking
A transfer holds four dates:
| Field | When it is set |
|---|---|
| Estimated departure | You set it while the transfer is Draft. It is when you expect the goods to leave. |
| Estimated arrival | You set it while the transfer is Draft. It is when you expect the goods at the destination. |
| Actual departure | Beelocity fills it in when somebody moves the transfer to In transit. |
| Actual arrival | Beelocity fills it in when somebody moves the transfer to Receiving. |
Both actual dates hold the moment that somebody pressed the step, and you cannot change them. So press each step when the goods really leave or arrive. Compare the estimated and actual dates to find delays.
Transfer Lines
The lines sit beside the transfer’s details, and you can change them only while the transfer is Draft. Each line holds:
- Product: the product that travels. The list offers only products stocked as themselves, so you cannot add a line for a variant here.
- Source location and Destination location: where the goods are picked and where they are put away. Each list offers only the locations of its own warehouse. If a line names no source location, any location of the source warehouse can give the goods.
- Quantity requested: what you ask for.
- Quantity picked: what the source warehouse takes out. Beelocity copies the quantity requested when the transfer moves to Picking. You cannot change it on this screen.
- Quantity received: what arrived. Beelocity copies the quantity picked when the transfer moves to Receiving. You cannot change it on this screen.
- Unit: the unit that all three figures are written in.
- Status: where the line stands. It follows the transfer’s status.
- Notes: anything that you want to say about the line.
A line has no lot field. At In transit, Beelocity takes the stock that expires soonest, then the oldest stock. At Completed, the destination receives those same lots at the same cost. So you can follow a lot from the location that it left to the location that it reached.
When the source is short
If a line asks for more than the source warehouse has available, Beelocity refuses In transit and nothing leaves. The whole transfer stays in Picking. The message says how much the source has against what the line needs. For example: The source warehouse has only 50 available for a line that needs 60.
That figure counts only what nobody has reserved, so stock reserved for a sales order does not count. If the line names a Source location, it is the figure for that location and not for the whole warehouse.
You cannot lower the line at this step. Wait for the goods to reach the source warehouse, and then press In transit again. You can also cancel the transfer and write a new one for what is there.
When goods are lost on the road
You cannot record a shortfall on a transfer, because Quantity received is closed. So Completed adds the full quantity to the destination, even if some goods never arrived. Beelocity reports no difference, and the stock journal shows the same quantity leaving and arriving.
Do not cancel the transfer to record a loss, because cancelling puts every lot back at the source.
On hand at the destination is then too high, and another document can promise goods that are not there. Correct it with an inventory adjustment:
- Move the transfer to Completed. Before that step, the destination does not hold these goods.
- Go to Adjustments in the sidebar under Inventory and click New.
- Choose the destination as the Warehouse. Choose the Adjustment type, such as Damage, Shrinkage or Theft.
- Type the transfer’s number in Reference number, so that a later reader can find the cause.
- Add a line for the product. Keep the Stock status on Available. Choose the Location that the transfer line names. If it names none, leave Location empty.
- In Expected, type the On hand figure from the stock levels page. If the location holds several stock records of this product, add them up. In Actual, type what you found. Pick the Unit of the stock record.
- Press Pending approval, and confirm. Someone who can approve adjustments then presses Approved and Posted.
The stock changes only at Posted. On hand at the destination then falls by the Difference, and the journal shows an Outbound entry with the type Adjustment. The transfer does not change, and its lines still show the full quantity received. By default, only the owner of your organization can approve and post.
An adjustment line has no lot field, so you cannot choose which lot loses the quantity. Beelocity takes the stock in that location that expires soonest, then the oldest stock. If you left Location empty, it can take from any location of the warehouse. If the destination already held this product, that can be another lot than the one lost on the road. The product’s total is then right, but those two lots are each wrong by the quantity lost. To see which lot Beelocity took, read Lot on the adjustment’s journal entries.
Tip: To see every transfer between the same two warehouses, filter the list by Source warehouse and Destination warehouse. Do not build the route into the number. Then every transfer stays in one running series (
TO-2026-000041,TO-2026-000042, …), and the list shows the latest number first.