Apparel inventory management: purchase orders, bins and barcodes in KNKTD OS
Inventory for a size-and-colour business: bins inside locations, purchase orders that follow the money from deposit to variance, and a Shopify sync that says when it is behind.
· 9 min read
In short: The KNKTD OS warehouse module is apparel inventory management for a Shopify brand with external suppliers: bin-level stock across warehouses, stores, 3PLs and returns locations; purchase orders that record deposits, partial receipts, defective units and the payable variance; supplier invoices matched to those orders; barcode labels; price lists per market; and a two-way Shopify sync that tells you when a product is behind.
Apparel inventory is not a list of SKUs with a quantity. One style in four colours and six sizes is 24 variants, each of which sells at a different rate, sits in a different bin, and was bought on a purchase order that arrived short in two sizes and with three defective units in a third.
Inventory software written for the general case represents that as 24 rows. The warehouse module in KNKTD OS represents it the way the warehouse and the buyer actually experience it. This article goes through the module in the order stock moves through it.
Why apparel inventory is harder than a SKU count
Three things make fashion stock different from most e-commerce inventory:
- The matrix. Buying, receiving, counting and reporting all happen by size and colour, but decisions are made by style. A system has to move between the two without losing either.
- The supplier. Stock arrives in production runs from external factories, often partially, often with a deposit paid months earlier, and sometimes with units that fail inspection.
- The return. A meaningful share of what ships comes back, and it has to be inspected before it becomes sellable stock again.
Each of those is a place where a generic inventory tool asks you to keep a side spreadsheet.
Locations and bins
A location is anywhere stock lives: a warehouse, a store, a 3PL, a returns depot. Every location holds bins, and every unit is in a bin. Receiving, quality-control and damaged bins come as standard, so a carton that has arrived but has not been checked is not counted as sellable.
Stock moves are explicit: a transfer between locations is received item by item at the other end, and a stock adjustment carries a reason. Available stock is computed from what is on hand less what is reserved for open orders, and incoming stock is computed from open purchase orders rather than typed in, so it can never be double-counted.
Purchase orders that follow the money
A purchase order in KNKTD OS is a record of a commercial relationship, not a shopping list. It moves through a fixed set of states:
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being built — often pre-filled from a style's size curve and supplier |
| Issued | Approved internally; the number is allocated and the commitment is on record |
| Sent | Delivered to the supplier as a PDF with a cover email, logged on the order |
| Partially received | Some units have arrived; the remainder still shows as incoming |
| Received | Everything has arrived, or the balance has been written off |
| Closed | Reconciled and finished; reopened only deliberately, for a late delivery |
| Cancelled | Voided with a reason; never touches stock |
Along the way the order records deposits and payments, so what is owed is always visible. Receiving records accepted and defective units separately, and a batch of defective units can raise a draft repair or replacement order to the same supplier in one step.
When the supplier's invoice arrives, it is matched to the order — or to a family of related orders — and paid against it. A supplier who bills for fewer units than they shipped shows a short-billed variance; one who bills for more shows the opposite. Either way, the difference is on the order, not in someone's inbox.
All of this rolls up to the supplier profile: open orders, payables, on-time and defect rates. The product development module is where those suppliers are first attached to styles.
Barcodes and labels
SKUs are generated by a rule you configure — style number, colour, size, in the order and format your team already uses — and barcodes follow. Barcode labels print in a choice of sizes, for cartons at receiving, for bins, and for units.
Scanning is how the warehouse talks to the system without typing: receive against a purchase order, count a bin, pick an order.
Price lists per market
A product has one cost and many prices. Price lists hold a price per market and currency, in step with Shopify Markets, so a customer in Canada, the UK and Australia each see a price set for them rather than a converted one.
For markets sold delivered duty paid, the landed-cost add-on folds duties and taxes into the market price so the customer pays once at checkout and nothing at the door. Declared values, HS codes and country of origin live on the product, so customs data is ready before the first international order — the orders module uses it when it buys the label.
Two-way Shopify sync that stays reconciled
Products, variants, images and video, prices and inventory sync both ways with Shopify. The detail that matters is what happens when the two drift: every product carries a fingerprint of what Shopify last received, and a product whose local record has since changed shows a "Behind on Shopify" badge until the next publish brings it back in step.
Publishing to Shopify sweeps every drifted product, not only the one you clicked. Inventory changes from Shopify — a POS sale, a manual edit — come back the same way, so the count in a bin and the count on the storefront describe the same units.
What the warehouse module covers
| Job | In KNKTD OS |
|---|---|
| Locations and bins | Warehouse, store, 3PL, returns; receiving, QC and damaged bins |
| Transfers and adjustments | Per-item receiving; reasons on every adjustment |
| Purchase orders | Draft → issued → sent → received → closed; deposits, variance, void |
| Receiving | Partial receipts; accepted vs defective; repair order in one step |
| Supplier invoices | Matched to order families; short-billed and over-billed variance |
| Barcodes | Rule-generated SKUs; labels in several sizes |
| Price lists | Per market and currency; DDP landed pricing as an add-on |
| Shopify | Two-way products, media, prices, inventory; drift badge and sweeps |
Where it connects
Stock is the middle of the workflow, not the start. Styles arrive from product development already carrying their variants and supplier. Orders leave through fulfilment, which reserves units per fulfilment order and routes to the location that has them. The planning module reads the same stock and sales to say what to reorder and when.
Pricing
Every plan includes the warehouse module with unlimited locations and SKUs. Plans start at $100 USD per month for two team members; the landed-cost add-on is $5 per month and included on the Unlimited tier. There is a 14-day free trial. See current pricing.
For how this compares with a dedicated inventory product, read the Cin7 comparison.
Bottom line
Apparel inventory management is mostly the management of exceptions: the short delivery, the defective carton, the size that sold out in one colour, the product that changed after it was published. KNKTD OS records each of those on the record it belongs to, so the number on the screen is the number in the bin.
Frequently asked questions
Does KNKTD OS track inventory at bin level?
Yes. Every location — warehouse, store, 3PL or returns — holds bins, including receiving, quality-control and damaged bins, and every stock movement records the bin it touched. Transfers move units between locations and are received item by item.
Can purchase orders be sent to suppliers from KNKTD OS?
Yes. An issued purchase order is sent as a PDF with a cover email to the supplier’s address on file, and the send is logged on the order. Deposits, payments, partial receipts, accepted versus defective units and the payable variance are all recorded against the same order.
How does KNKTD OS keep inventory in sync with Shopify?
Products, variants, media, prices and inventory sync two ways, and every product carries a fingerprint of what Shopify last received. A product whose local record has moved on shows as “Behind on Shopify” until the next publish brings it back in step, so drift is visible instead of discovered by a customer.
Does KNKTD OS print barcode labels?
Yes. SKUs are generated by a configurable rule, and barcode labels print in a choice of label sizes for receiving, bin counts and picking.