Item Settings: Display, Stock Tracking and Notes

Beyond the basic fields like name, price, and cost, every inventory item has a set of checkboxes and flags that control how it behaves in the POS, whether stock is tracked, and how it appears throughout the system. This guide covers every setting.

Stock Tracking Settings

Track Stock

The Track Stock checkbox is the master switch for quantity tracking on an item:

• Checked — AccuArk monitors the quantity of this item at each location. Stock increases when you receive on a purchase order or make a positive adjustment, and decreases when you sell at the POS or make a negative adjustment. The item appears in stock reports, cycle counts, and reorder alerts.
• Unchecked — No quantity tracking occurs. The item can be sold unlimited times without affecting any stock count. Useful for services, digital products, or items you do not need to track.

Important automatic behaviors:

• Service items (Type = 1) automatically have Track Stock disabled. You cannot enable it for services.
• Virtual Kits (PackageType = 1) automatically have Track Stock disabled. Kits do not track their own stock — their components track stock individually. When a kit is sold, each component's stock is deducted.
• Physical Assemblies (PackageType = 2) DO track their own stock. Assemblies must be built before they can be sold.

Allow Orders Exceeding Stock

The Allow Orders Exceeding Stock checkbox controls backorder and oversell behavior:

• Checked — The item can be sold at the POS even when the current stock quantity is zero or negative. This is useful for items you can backorder from your vendor, or for businesses that take orders before receiving stock.
• Unchecked — The POS will prevent selling more than the available quantity. If stock is zero, the item cannot be added to a sale.

This flag also affects the Inventory Browser's "Available for Sale Only" filter. Items with this flag enabled always appear as available, even with zero stock.

POS Display Settings

Display in POS

The Display in POS checkbox controls whether the item appears in the POS item browser:

• Checked — The item shows up in the POS item list and can be added to transactions by browsing or searching
• Unchecked — The item is hidden from the POS item browser. It can still be added via barcode scanning or direct ID entry, but it will not appear when browsing or searching.

Is Modifier Only

The Is Modifier Only checkbox designates an item as an add-on modifier rather than a standalone product:

• Checked — The item can only be used as a modifier/add-on attached to another item at the POS. It cannot be sold on its own as a line item. Enabling this flag automatically disables the Display in POS checkbox.
• Unchecked — The item behaves normally and can be sold as a standalone line item.

Use this for items like "Extra Cheese", "Gift Wrapping", or "Rush Processing" that only make sense as additions to another product.

Print and Note Settings

Prompt Note

The Prompt Note checkbox controls whether the POS prompts the operator for a note when the item is added to a sale:

• Checked — When this item is scanned or added at the POS, a note dialog appears prompting the operator to enter additional information. The note is attached to the line item and can be printed on the receipt or invoice.
• Unchecked — No prompt appears. The item is added to the sale silently.

Use this for items that need customization details (e.g., engraving text, special instructions, size specifications) captured at the time of sale.

Print Description

The Print Description checkbox (also labeled Print Description on Invoice) controls whether the item's description text appears on printed documents:

• Checked — The description text from the General tab is included on invoices and receipts below the item name
• Unchecked — Only the item name appears on printed documents; the description is not included

This is useful when your item descriptions contain details customers need to see (specifications, ingredients, terms) versus when descriptions are internal-only.

Internal Notes

The Internal Notes field is a free-text area for notes that are visible only to staff within AccuArk. Internal notes are:

• Not printed on any customer-facing documents (invoices, receipts, packing slips)
• Not visible at the POS during transactions
• Only visible when viewing or editing the item in the item form

Use internal notes for information like vendor contact details, handling instructions, sourcing notes, or any context that helps your team manage the item but should not be shared with customers.

Disabled Status

The Disabled checkbox sets an item to inactive status. When an item is disabled:

• It is hidden from the POS item browser and cannot be added to new transactions
• It retains all history — stock quantities, transaction records, pricing, and all other data remain intact
• It continues to appear in historical reports where it was part of past transactions
• It can be re-enabled at any time by unchecking the Disabled checkbox
• It appears in the Inventory Browser with a red background and yellow text to visually distinguish it from active items

Disabling is not the same as deleting. Use it for discontinued products, seasonal items that are temporarily out of rotation, or items you want to stop selling without losing their data.

Allows Attributes

The Allows Attributes checkbox on the General tab enables attribute selection for the item at the POS:

• Checked — When the item is added to a POS transaction, the operator is presented with the item's assigned attributes (such as size, color, or add-ons) and can select from them
• Unchecked — No attribute selection prompt appears at the POS, even if attributes are assigned to the item on the Class Attributes tab

You must have attributes assigned to the item (via the Class Attributes tab) for this checkbox to have a visible effect at the POS.

Settings Summary Table

Tips

• Enable Track Stock for physical products — Without it, you have no visibility into quantities and cannot use reorder rules, cycle counts, or stock reports for the item
• Use Allow Orders Exceeding Stock carefully — It is helpful for backorder scenarios but can lead to negative stock if not monitored
• Combine Is Modifier Only with low prices — Modifier items often have small add-on charges; marking them as modifier-only prevents accidental standalone sales
• Use Prompt Note for customization — This is much more efficient than having operators manually add notes to each transaction line
• Disable rather than delete — You can never delete an item that has transaction history. Disabling achieves the same practical effect while preserving compliance records