A transfer order is a planned movement of inventory from one warehouse to another. Unlike a generic stock movement, transfer orders include logistics tracking — shipping method, tracking numbers, and estimated arrival times — making them ideal for managing inter-warehouse shipments.
Transfer Order Lifecycle
Transfer orders move through stages that mirror the physical process of shipping goods between warehouses:
DRAFT --> PICKING --> IN TRANSIT --> RECEIVING --> COMPLETED
\-> CANCELLED| Status | What is happening |
|---|---|
| Draft | The transfer is being planned. Source and destination warehouses are set, items are listed, but nothing has physically moved. |
| Picking | Items are being collected from their locations in the source warehouse. |
| In transit | Items have left the source warehouse and are on their way to the destination. Shipping deducts the picked quantities from the source warehouse’s available stock, lot by lot — if the source doesn’t have enough available stock for a line, the shipment is refused so your records never go negative, and the message says how much the source has against what the line needs. |
| Receiving | Items have arrived at the destination warehouse and are being checked in. |
| Completed | All items have been received and verified. Stock has been moved from source to destination, each lot at what it cost at the source. |
| Cancelled | The transfer was cancelled. If the shipment had already left the source warehouse, every lot it took goes back automatically to the location it left, at its cost, so no inventory is lost. |
The road at the top of a transfer’s page walks these five steps from left to right: the ones already passed are ticked, the one the transfer is at is filled, and the next one is a button — every move is yours to make. Rest on a step to see when it was reached and by whom. Clicking the step it is at opens the map instead: every status with an arrow for each move, the ones you can reach from here clickable. Cancelled hangs off the step the transfer left from.
Creating a Transfer Order
- Go to Transfers in the sidebar under Inventory and click New.
- Fill in:
- Transfer number — already filled in with the next number in your organization’s transfer series (e.g.,
TO-2026-000001, starting again at 000001 each year). Type over it if you need to — it only has to be unique. - Source Warehouse — where the goods are coming from.
- Destination Warehouse — where the goods are going (must be different from source).
- Estimated Departure — when you expect the shipment to leave.
- Estimated Arrival — when you expect the shipment to arrive, on or after the estimated departure.
- Shipping method — how the goods will be transported (e.g., company truck, courier, freight).
- Tracking Number — the carrier’s tracking reference, if applicable.
- Transfer number — already filled in with the next number in your organization’s transfer series (e.g.,
- Click Add above the Lines, which sit beside the details on the right. The transfer order is saved in Draft status with its number, and its first line opens; that line and every one after it saves itself as you fill it in (Adding lines before you save). To add the lines later, click Save instead.
Finding Transfer Orders
Use the search bar on the transfers list to find an order by transfer number, tracking number, or notes. The filter button beside it narrows by Status — in-flight transfers, completed transfers — by the Source or Destination warehouse, or by an estimated Departure or Arrival window (Working with lists).
Logistics Tracking
Transfer orders track four key timestamps:
| Field | When to set it |
|---|---|
| Estimated Departure | When planning the transfer — your expected ship date. |
| Estimated Arrival | When planning — your expected delivery date at the destination. |
| Actual Departure | When the goods physically leave the source warehouse. |
| Actual Arrival | When the goods physically arrive at the destination warehouse. |
Comparing estimated vs. actual dates helps you identify delays and improve logistics planning over time.
Transfer Lines
The lines sit beside the transfer’s details, and can be written while it is still a draft. Each one lists a specific item being moved:
- The product or variant being transferred. It stays as it is once the transfer starts picking, and a line that carries a lot keeps a product that lot belongs to.
- Source and destination locations within the respective warehouses.
- Quantity Requested — how many items should be transferred.
- Quantity Picked — how many items have been collected from the source. It is filled in when the transfer starts picking. Once the transfer has shipped, the picked quantity, the unit and the source location stay as they were: they are what left the building.
- Quantity Received — how many items have been checked in at the destination. It is filled in when the transfer is received, and it can never be more than was shipped.
A line that names no lot is shipped from the source’s stock that expires soonest, then the oldest, and the destination receives those same lots at the same cost — so a lot can be traced from the shelf it left to the shelf it reached.
When the source is short
If a line asks for more than the source warehouse has free, moving the transfer to In transit is refused and nothing leaves: the transfer stays in Picking. The message says how much the source has available against what the line needs — for example The source warehouse has only 50 available for a line that needs 60. Stock already promised to a confirmed sales order doesn’t count as available. Wait for the goods to reach the source warehouse and ship again, or cancel the transfer and write a new one for what is there.
Discrepancies between picked and received quantities (e.g., from transit damage or miscounts) are automatically flagged when the transfer completes: each affected line is reported with its shortfall, and the loss stays visible in the stock journal as the difference between what left the source and what arrived at the destination.
Tip: To see every transfer between the same pair of warehouses, filter the list by Source warehouse and Destination warehouse rather than building the route into the number: that way every transfer stays in the one running series (
TO-2026-000041,TO-2026-000042, …) and the list reads in the order they were raised.