How to manage farm input inventory
From product setup to stock count: how invoice entry, requisitions, work order write-offs and transfers between locations keep balances and costs right.
By upCampo
Managing farm input inventory means keeping a connected chain: set up the product and the location where it’s kept, receive it through the invoice, record the outflow through a requisition or the work order itself, transfer it when the product changes location, and check the balance with a stock count. What makes it work isn’t the end-of-month count — it’s every movement having a document, a location and a person responsible at the moment it happens.
When a link is missing, the error doesn’t stay in inventory: it goes into the cost per field.
Why uncontrolled inventory becomes the wrong cost per field
A balance isn’t just quantity: each product carries a cost. An entry doesn’t just add liters; it recalculates the average cost of that product at that location — and that average cost is what values the outflow when the product goes to the crop. That creates three silent errors:
- Consumption that was never written off. The product was applied and nothing was recorded: the field looks cheap on paper and the shed looks full in the system.
- Entry posted to the wrong location. The balance exists, but in the wrong place — and since the average is per product and per location, the cost moved with it.
- Purchases based on a balance that doesn’t exist. Either you buy what’s sitting in the warehouse, or you discover the shortage the day before spraying.
No report fixes this later: it only shows what the entries said.
The whole chain, document by document
| Document | What it handles |
|---|---|
| Product & Service Class | Groups items and generates the product code |
| Product & Service | The item: unit, lot requirement, rate per farm and crop |
| Inventory Location | Where the balance is counted — and whether it can go negative |
| Movement (Inbound & Outbound) | Invoice entry and where the cost goes |
| Requisition | The internal request: what comes out of inventory and what goes to purchasing |
| Work Order | Crop consumption, written off with its source |
| Transfer between locations | Moves the product without changing the farm’s total |
| Stock count | Reconciles the system balance with the physical count |
The entry sequence is always the same: class, product, location, supplier, purchase order (optional) and movement.
1. Setup: class, product and location
The class comes before the product because it provides the code prefix — in the “SEMENTE” (seed) class, items come out as SEMENTE001, SEMENTE002. Common classes and crop protection products come from standard catalogs.
In the product record, two options change the other screens: Require lot makes entries, outflows and write-offs ask for the lot — that’s traceability down to the field where the product was applied — and the Rate x Farm x Crop tab records the product label (rate, number of applications and interval), which the work order checks when the product is selected.
2. The inventory location is the unit where the balance is counted
The inventory location isn’t an address tag: the same product can have 400 liters in one shed and none in another, and the location on the entry decides where the quantity comes out of.
The most important setting in the record is Track balance. When checked, the system blocks any outflow that would take the balance negative — on transfers and on crop work order write-offs. When unchecked, the entry goes through and the balance goes negative.
And a negative balance is almost always an entry that hasn’t been posted yet — the fertilizer invoice that arrived and is sitting on the office desk — not product that vanished from the shed. That’s why there’s a field called “Send email if balance goes negative, to:”. In practice: check it for sheds holding expensive inputs, and leave it unchecked where entries are usually posted after consumption, such as the fuel station and the parts warehouse.
3. Inbound: the invoice in Movement
The movement is the document where the purchase invoice comes in. The supplier must exist as an entity — when you type the CNPJ (Brazilian company tax ID), the “Retrieve data” button fills in the company name and address. The invoice can also come in through its access key, as long as the tax settings have the digital certificate registered.
The field that matters most on each item is the destination: “this cost WILL GO to:”. A product goes to an inventory location; a service — freight, outside maintenance, third-party application — goes to a fleet item, an entity or stand-alone. An invoice with the wrong destination is cost in the wrong place.
Average cost is where the math is decided
Each entry recalculates the product’s average at that location:
| Moment | Balance | Accumulated cost | Average cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before the invoice | 1,000 L | R$ 25,000.00 | R$ 25.00 |
| Invoice received | +500 L | +R$ 15,500.00 | (R$ 31.00 on the invoice) |
| After the invoice | 1,500 L | R$ 40,500.00 | R$ 27.00 |
From then on, each liter that goes out to a work order is worth R$ 27.00 — not R$ 31.00 or R$ 25.00. That explains the most common question from anyone checking costs: buying at a high price late in the season raises the cost of everything still in the shed.
4. Outbound: requisitions for internal requests
The requisition is the request that usually lives on a note at the counter: the mechanic needs a bearing, the foreman needs more oil. What happens to each item depends on a single field, Type:
- Inventory outflow — the product is in stock and will be handed over: in practice, a write-off. The screen asks for the location (and the lot, when required) and shows the balance before confirming.
- Request to purchase — the item goes into the purchasing queue for quotes and ordering.
- Request to purchase for Inventory — restocking, already stating which location the product goes into when it arrives.
A single requisition handles both, and the Trail tab shows where each item stands.
5. What changes when the write-off comes from the work order
Typing the outflow by hand records that “570 liters left the shed.” A write-off from the work order records something else: 570 liters consumed by this operation, in these fields, this season. Only the second lets you allocate consumption by the area worked and get to the cost of each area, as the article on crop work orders shows.
There are three write-off paths, and which one applies on the farm is a setting: the location entered when the product is posted, at work order completion, or the warehouse keeper’s screen, which writes off several orders at once. There, the Quantity Delivered is editable, so partial deliveries aren’t lost, and leftovers coming back from the field are posted as a return, with a reason and a person responsible.
6. Transfers: change location without changing the total
From the central warehouse to the other farm’s depot, from the headquarters tank to the fuel truck. The transfer between locations records outflow and inflow in a single document, with who delivered, who received, the date and the lot. Two things catch new users:
- Completion is what moves the balance. While the document is open, nothing has gone out and nothing has come in: a forgotten transfer doesn’t show up in the balance.
- Cost travels with the product. Since the average is per location, moving product without recording it leaves both sides wrong.
When the source is a fuel station, the pump becomes required and the readings record the meter before and after the withdrawal.
7. Stock count: the documented adjustment
Balances aren’t adjusted with made-up entries and outflows. They’re adjusted through the stock count, a document with a person responsible, a count date and a reason. You enter the Desired balance — what was counted — and the system calculates the difference and decides whether to generate an entry or an outflow. What helps in practice:
- Import from current inventory with the CURRENT balance to fix only what differs; with a ZERO balance for a blind count.
- Import from Excel, with the columns Product, Lot and Desired balance, using the descriptions from the records.
- Lot-tracked products are counted lot by lot: you enter each lot and the system adds up the total.
- Completing is what applies it. A completed stock count can’t be changed — a correction is a new stock count.
And a stock count always covers a single location.
What the chain gives back in cost and purchasing
With entries, consumption, transfers and stock counts in the right places, three things change:
- Cost per field with a source. You can go from “Field A cost R$ X/ha” to the operations, products and invoices behind that number — which ties the operation to cost in up.Operações and the crop to finance in up.360.
- Purchasing with a basis. The need stops being “inventory is low” and becomes “we’re 150 liters short for an application that’s already planned.”
- Checks that don’t depend on memory: who delivered, who received, who counted.
In operations with several farms and depots, this discipline is what backs the number at the end of the season. The plans and terms are published.
Two cases often get left out and don’t need to be: a contracted warehouse comes in as a location flagged Third party, with the owning entity; and service providers have the contractor agreement, which imports fueling records, movements, requisitions and work orders.
Frequently asked questions
How do I start managing input inventory from scratch?
In this order: product class, product, inventory location, supplier entity and the inbound movement for the invoice. Once that’s done, the products can already be used on work orders.
How do I do a stock count of crop protection products on the farm?
Open a stock count for the location, enter the person responsible and the count date, bring in the products by importing the current inventory, and enter the counted balance on each line — lot by lot, when there are lots. Completing is what applies it.
My inventory went negative. What does that mean?
Most of the time, an entry that wasn’t posted: the invoice arrived and wasn’t recorded, or it was posted to another location. Locations set to track balance block the outflow before that happens.
What’s the difference between a transfer and an inbound/outbound movement?
A transfer only changes where the product is: the farm’s total stays the same. A movement records what actually comes into and goes out of the farm.
Do I need a requisition to take inputs out of inventory for the crop?
No. When the product is consumed in the activity, the work order itself can be the source of the write-off. The requisition is for internal requests, such as maintenance parts or warehouse supplies.
Why doesn’t the product cost on the work order match the latest invoice?
Because the outflow is valued at the product’s average cost at that location, recalculated with every entry, not at the price on the most recent invoice.
Can I tell which shipment the applied product came from?
Yes, with the lot. When “Require lot” is checked in the product record, entries, outflows and write-offs ask for it, and each lot keeps its own balance and expiration date.