---
title: "Academy S3. Specialist: Items and Inventory"
description: "Specialist lesson 3: items and pricing, inventory lots and stock, adjustments and archiving, fixed assets and depreciation, and price tags and client items."
url: "https://theasst.com/docs/academy-s3-specialist-items-and-inventory/"
updated: "2026-10-30"
category: Academy
---

# Academy S3. Specialist: Items and Inventory

*TBA Specialist: Items and Inventory · about 4 hours*

## After this lesson you can

- Set up stocked and service items and know what a price change does and does not change.
- Explain how lots carry quantity and cost, and what happens to them on a sale, a void and a return.
- Add or adjust stock and say how it reaches the ledger.
- Convert part of a lot to a fixed asset and work out its straight-line depreciation.
- Print price tags and use client items.

## Why it matters

Inventory is where the books and the shelf have to agree. Knowing how lots, archiving and adjustments behave lets you explain a stock difference instead of guessing.

## Read

- [Items Overview](https://theasst.com/docs/items-overview/)
- [Units of Measure Setup](https://theasst.com/docs/units-of-measure-setup/)
- [Price Tag Designer](https://theasst.com/docs/price-tag-designer/)
- [Client Items](https://theasst.com/docs/client-items/)
- [Fixed Assets](https://theasst.com/docs/fixed-assets/)
- [Audit Event Log](https://theasst.com/docs/audit-event-log/)

## Items and pricing

A **stocked item** is tracked by quantity and cost in lots; a **service item** has nothing in stock to count. Changing an item's price affects only new lines; invoices already issued keep the price they were issued at. On the item Find dialog you can search inventory by SKU. A company that sells only services simply leaves inventory unused; never enter made-up stock to make a screen work.

When an item has history, **archive** it. If a user deletes an item that old records refer to, TBA archives it with the same record number, so those records still show what it was.

## Lots and stock

Two deliveries of the same item at different costs are **separate lots**, each with its own quantity and cost. A sale takes its cost of goods sold from the lot or lots the units came from, and a partial sale reduces the lot's quantity in place. A lot used up completely is **archived**, not deleted. If the invoice that used it up is voided, the lot comes back with its original record number. The unit picker on a quote or order lists the lots actually in stock, and the inventory list shows lots with their quantities and costs.

## Adjustments and archiving

Adding stock with the manual **Add** on the inventory list posts an **Inventory Adjustment** entry so the ledger agrees with the stock; a shortage found in a count does the same in reverse. The cost stored on each invoice line keeps margin analysis accurate later. Archiving exists so that old invoices, bills and assets that point to an item or a lot still resolve it. Reducing a received bill line to nothing archives the lot rather than erasing it.

## Fixed assets

A company can decide to **keep** something it normally resells. Use Convert to Fixed Asset on the inventory lot; partial-lot conversion is supported, so you can convert three of ten units and leave seven in stock. Depreciation is **straight-line**: (cost − salvage value) ÷ life in months. For example, $12,000 cost, $2,000 salvage and 50 months gives $200 a month. The last month is capped so total depreciation never exceeds cost less salvage.

Each month's entry debits depreciation expense and credits **accumulated depreciation**, which is shown on the balance sheet as a reduction of the asset's cost. When an item is converted, a use tax amount may be recorded: tax owed on goods bought for your own use with no sales tax charged. The dialog suggests an amount from a rate, and staff enter the final figure.

## Labels and client items

The Price Tag Designer designs a label once and prints it from an item or from an inventory lot. A **client item** record tracks an item after it was delivered to a client, for information rather than accounting.

## Try it

1. Create a stocked item, receive it twice at different costs, and look at the two lots.
2. Sell part of one lot, then void the invoice and check the lot.
3. Add stock with the manual Add and look at the entry it posted.
4. Convert one unit of a lot to a fixed asset and run its depreciation.
5. Design a price tag and print it from a lot.

## Check yourself

Explain to a colleague what happens to a lot when it is partly sold, fully used up, and then restored by a void, and work out the monthly depreciation for an asset of your own choosing. A Specialist exam is planned for a later release; the areas it will cover are the five sections above.