What 'Not Stocked' Means for a Product's Planning in EDGEBIC

Marking a product as not stocked in EDGEBIC by User Solutions switches off all of its inventory behavior at once: EDGEBIC skips netting demand against on-hand, skips posting receipts and issues to the ledger, skips replenishment suggestions, and drops the product from the inventory matrix, while the product still exists and still schedules. It is the right setting for anything you never hold as inventory, and the wrong setting for a make-to-stock item, which is why the two together are flagged as a misconfiguration.

This post explains what the setting turns off, when to use it, the trap it creates with make-to-stock, and how to reverse it cleanly. For the attributes that govern a product's planning, see EDGEBIC products and planning attributes explained, and for the wider loop start from the EDGEBIC planning guide.

What the Setting Turns Off

Every stocked product carries an inventory life: a balance, a place on the calendar, and a stream of receipts and issues. The stocked setting is the master switch for that life. Turn it off, and four things stop for that product.

First, netting stops. The scheduler no longer satisfies demand from on-hand, because there is no on-hand to draw from. Second, ledger posting stops. Completing a build posts no receipt, and consuming stock posts no issue. Third, replenishment stops. No suggestion fires, because there is no balance to fall below a trigger. Fourth, the product leaves the inventory matrix, since it has no balance to show.

What does not stop is the rest of the product. It still exists, still carries a routing, and still schedules through finite capacity. The not-stocked setting removes the inventory dimension only; it does not remove the product.

When Not Stocked Is Correct

The setting exists for items you genuinely never hold as inventory. A few clear cases:

• A service item or overhead SKU that represents work or cost, not physical stock.
• A one-off custom part that always ships direct to the customer and is never held.
• Any item where tracking a balance would be noise rather than signal.

For these, inventory netting and replenishment are the wrong tools. You do not want a projected balance, a reorder trigger, or a place on the matrix for a service line. Marking it not stocked keeps it out of the inventory calendar entirely and stops the scheduler from posting ledger entries for its orders, which is exactly the clean behavior a non-inventory item should have.

The Make-to-Stock Trap

The one combination to avoid is a product that is both make-to-stock and not stocked. These two settings contradict each other, and the effect is a silent failure.

A make-to-stock product is meant to build ahead into inventory. But the not-stocked setting suppresses all inventory posting. So a make-to-stock, not-stocked product builds normally, completes, and posts no receipt. The output goes nowhere the ledger can see. Demand for the product never nets against stock either, because there is no stock to net against. The product looks like it should be filling inventory and quietly is not.

EDGEBIC surfaces this as a configuration anomaly. The check flags any make-to-stock product that is not marked stocked, precisely because the pairing produces a build that vanishes from inventory. The fix is to resolve the contradiction: mark the product stocked so its builds post receipts and its demand nets, or change its build method away from make-to-stock so it is honestly not an inventory item.

Reversing It Cleanly

The stocked setting is a switch, not a delete. Turning it off suppresses inventory behavior while it is off, but it never erases the ledger. That matters when you change your mind.

Say you turned off stocked for a part months ago and now want to track it again. Turn the setting back on, and the historical ledger entries are restored to the running balance immediately. The part picks up its true on-hand from the sum of what actually posted, rejoins the inventory matrix, and resumes netting, receipts, and replenishment from there. Nothing was lost while the switch was off; the behavior was simply paused.

Because of this, treat the setting as a deliberate configuration choice rather than a temporary hold. If you only want to pause activity briefly, know that turning it back on brings the full history back into the balance at once.

Keeping the Setting Deliberate

Not stocked is a clean, useful setting when it matches reality: a product you never hold. Use it for service items, overhead, and always-direct one-offs, and keep it off for anything you carry as inventory. Never pair it with make-to-stock, and if the anomaly check flags that combination, resolve it rather than ignore it. When you do reverse it, expect the full ledger history to return to the balance immediately.

For the alternative of shipping a specific order direct without changing the whole product, read the per-order build-to-inventory override, and for how stocked products net demand against inventory, read how EDGEBIC nets demand against stock. For the item-master view, see EDGEBIC products and planning attributes explained.