Understanding the Difference Between Inventory and Availability

Modified on Tue, 31 Mar at 9:36 AM

One of the most frequent sources of confusion for PivoHub users concerns two figures that seem to measure the same thing, but represent very different realities: Inventory and Availability. Understanding this distinction is essential to avoid stock management errors.

In summary

Inventory	Availability
Actual physical quantity in the warehouse	What the buyer can put in their cart
Decreases only when an order is marked "Delivered"	Decreases as soon as a product is added to an order (approved or not)

⚠️ Critical point

Inventory does NOT decrease when an order is created.

It only decreases when you mark the order as "Delivered".

Availability, on the other hand, decreases immediately as soon as a buyer adds the product to their cart or as soon as an order is created.

Understanding in detail

Inventory

Inventory represents the quantity physically present in your warehouse. It reflects your actual stock.

It is modified by the following actions:

➕ Increases during a positive manual adjustment
➕ Increases during a format conversion (e.g., splitting a case)
➕ Increases when accepting a return with restock
➖ Decreases only when an order is marked "Delivered"
➖ Decreases during a negative manual adjustment

Availability

Availability is what your buyers see when they browse the Marketplace. It represents what you are ready to sell.

It is modified by the following actions:

➖ Decreases as soon as a product is added to an order (even pending approval)
➕ Goes back up if an order is cancelled or rejected
Can be configured independently of Inventory (manually or in unlimited mode)

Concrete example

You have 48 cases in the warehouse. Here is how the two values evolve in a typical scenario:

Event	Inventory	Availability	Note
Initial situation	48	48
Customer A places an order for 10 cases	48 ✗ (unchanged)	38 ↓	Reduced availability
Customer B places an order for 5 cases	48 ✗ (unchanged)	33 ↓	Reduced availability
Customer A order marked "Delivered"	38 ↓	33 ✗ (unchanged)	Reduced inventory
Customer B order cancelled	38 ✗ (unchanged)	38 ↑	Availability goes back up

Why "my inventory doesn't balance"?

This question comes up very frequently. Here are the most common situations:

Several orders have been created but not yet delivered → inventory remains high, but availability is low.
An order has been cancelled → availability goes back up, but inventory hadn't changed.
A return was made without checking "Restock in inventory" → physical stock was not restored.

? Good to know

If your displayed Availability seems incorrect, first check your current non-delivered orders.

The sum: Availability = Inventory − Active orders (not delivered) is the basic logic.

Best practices

Mark your orders as "Delivered" as soon as the delivery is made — this is the only action that updates real Inventory.
Use manual inventory adjustments only for one-off corrections (breakage, loss, physical inventory).
If you want to limit sales without changing your physical inventory, adjust Availability directly in the Availability module.
Use the "Unlimited" availability option only if you manage your stock outside of PivoHub.