Inventory is deliberately sold in three tempers, because the business that needs cycle counting and batch traceability is rarely the business that opened last spring — and a system that shows a five-person shop the full apparatus of a warehouse operation teaches it to ignore the apparatus. The tiers are switches on the company record (0.6); turning one on never disturbs the stock or the history beneath it.
Base — always on, no switch. The movement ledger, the Stock Enquiry, valuation, the Stock ↔ GL Reconciliation, Stock Aging and the SLOB report. Read-only honesty about the stock you already track, on data the ordinary documents already write. Every company has this from its first receipt.
Planning — the Planning switch. The system starts
advising: planning parameters on the product (with the
Planning tab on its record, §6.4), computed reorder points
beside your manual ones, lead-time actuals learned from your
own receipts, and the Replenishment worklist as information.
Nothing is generated and nothing changes behaviour — the tier
exists so you can learn to trust the advice before letting it
draft anything.
Advanced — the Advanced switch (it requires Planning).
The system starts drafting and guarding: the worklist
generates draft purchase and work orders; stock counts,
cycle counting and ABC classes run as §5.6 describes; and
lots, expiry and FEFO become available for the products you
flag for them. Drafts still need human approval, counts still
need human judgement — the tier removes clerical work, not
responsibility.
The growth story of 0.7 is this section, lived: base until the questions outgrow it, Planning when "what will run out?" starts costing money, Advanced when the advice has earned the drafting pen.