Glossary of Warehouse & Inventory Terms
This glossary defines the warehouse, inventory, and order terms used
throughout WareSquared. Use the search box at the top of the Help Center —
or your browser's find (Ctrl/Cmd + F) — to jump straight to a term.
Products & Catalog
| Term |
Definition |
| SKU |
Stock Keeping Unit — the unique code that identifies a product. Every product, variant, and kit has its own SKU. |
| Product |
Any item you buy, stock, or sell. A product can be standalone, a parent with variants, or a kit. |
| Variant |
A specific version of a product offered in options such as size or color (for example, a large T-shirt). Each variant belongs to a parent product. |
| Parent product |
A top-level product that groups its variants together. Variants can inherit pricing, weight, and dimensions from their parent. |
| Kit / Bundle |
A product sold as one SKU but made up of several component products. See Kits and Bundles. |
| Component |
A product that is part of a kit. The kit records how many units of each component it needs. |
| Price tier |
A price that applies at a given order quantity, used for volume or wholesale pricing (for example Retail, Wholesale, Bulk). See Price Tiers. |
| Custom field |
An extra, company-defined attribute on a product — text, number, yes/no, or image — for data the standard fields don't cover. See Custom Fields. |
| Product group |
A label you assign to products to organize the catalog (for example "Seasonal" or "Clearance"). A product can belong to many groups. |
| Barcode |
A scannable code (Code 128, EAN-13, or QR) printed on labels for fast scanning during receiving, picking, and counts. See Generating Barcodes. |
| Catalog |
Your full set of products, and the shareable customer-facing product lists you can publish from it. |
| Marketplace |
The public storefront where products marked as public can be browsed by buyers. |
Inventory & Stock
| Term |
Definition |
| On hand / Quantity |
The total units physically in the warehouse, including units reserved for orders. |
| Available stock |
Units free to sell or pick — on-hand minus reserved. See Stock Levels Explained. |
| Reserved stock |
Units that are physically present but already committed to open orders, so they cannot be sold again. |
| Reorder point |
The stock level at which a product is treated as low and should be reordered. See Low Stock Alerts. |
| Low stock |
A product whose available stock has fallen at or below its reorder point (or the company-wide low-stock threshold). |
| Reorder quantity |
The number of units suggested for purchase when you restock a product. |
| Inventory item |
A record of one product's stock at one location (and lot, when lot tracking is used). |
| Stock movement |
A logged change in inventory — a receive, transfer, pick, adjustment, count, return, or damage. See Stock Movements Audit Trail. |
| Stock adjustment |
A manual correction to inventory used to record damage, loss, or counting errors. |
Warehouse
| Term |
Definition |
| Warehouse |
A physical site where you store inventory. WareSquared supports operating multiple warehouses. |
| Zone |
A section within a warehouse that groups locations (for example "Receiving", "Cold Storage", or "Aisle A"). |
| Location / Bin |
The smallest addressable storage spot in a warehouse — a shelf, bin, or slot that holds stock. |
| Pallet |
A movable platform holding multiple units or cartons, tracked as a single unit during receiving and putaway. |
| Putaway |
Moving received goods from the receiving area to their storage locations. |
Suppliers & Purchasing
| Term |
Definition |
| Supplier |
A business you purchase inventory from. |
| Preferred supplier |
The default supplier for a product, used for quick reordering and purchase orders. |
| Purchase order (PO) |
A document sent to a supplier listing the products and quantities you want to buy. See Purchase Order Management. |
| Lead time |
The number of days between placing a purchase order and receiving the goods. |
| MOQ |
Minimum Order Quantity — the smallest amount a supplier will sell in a single order. |
| Receiving |
Logging goods into the warehouse as they arrive from a supplier. See Receiving Goods. |
Lot & Batch Tracking
| Term |
Definition |
| Lot / Batch |
A group of units produced or received together and tracked under a shared lot number. |
| Expiration date |
The date after which a lot should no longer be sold or used. |
| FEFO |
First Expired, First Out — a picking rule that ships the soonest-to-expire lot first. See FEFO Picking. |
| FIFO |
First In, First Out — a picking rule that ships the oldest stock first. |
| Quarantine |
A hold status that blocks a lot from being picked or sold while it is inspected. |
| Recall |
Pulling a lot out of sale because of a safety or quality issue. |
Orders & Fulfillment
| Term |
Definition |
| Order |
A customer's request to buy products, which moves through statuses from draft to fulfilled. |
| Order status |
The current stage of an order — for example draft, processing, shipped, completed, or cancelled. |
| Fulfillment |
The overall process of turning an order into a shipped package: picking, packing, and shipping. |
| Pick list |
A worksheet that tells warehouse staff which items to collect for one or more orders. See Creating Pick Lists. |
| Picking |
Physically collecting items from their locations to fulfil orders. |
| Wave / Batch picking |
Picking strategies that group several orders so their items can be collected together in one trip. |
| Packing |
Boxing picked items and preparing them for shipment. |
| Shipment |
A package leaving the warehouse with its own carrier and tracking number. One order can have several shipments. |
| Transfer |
Moving stock from one warehouse or location to another. See Inter-Warehouse Transfers. |
| Cycle count |
A scheduled physical count of part of your inventory to keep stock records accurate. |
| Reconciliation |
Comparing a count against the system's records and correcting any differences. |
Tip: Searching the Help Center for a term surfaces this glossary
alongside the in-depth article for that topic.
See also: Stock Levels Explained, Kits and Bundles, Low Stock Alerts and Reorder Points