Two branches create problems one branch never has. Stock that exists but nobody can locate. A customer holding the last unit in one branch while it sits unsold in the other. A transfer agreed on a phone call and never written down. Numbers that disagree at month end, with no way to tell who was right. None of this needs a large system; it needs a few decisions made before any software is configured.
A single pool with location tracking treats inventory as one quantity while recording which branch holds each unit, so a sale anywhere reduces the pool. Separate stock treats each branch as a small warehouse with its own reorder level. One pool suits retailers who transfer often and care about total availability. Separate stock suits branches serving different buyers who rarely exchange goods. Choose deliberately rather than inheriting the current habit.
Every movement between branches should carry a numbered record: date, items, quantities, who sent it, who received it, both confirmations. Without it, goods in transit belong to nobody. The sender has removed them, the receiver has not added them, and the loss hides in that gap. Settle approval rules up front, and count goods on arrival instead of accepting them silently.
Double-selling usually starts with a reservation that never expires. A phone order holds a unit, the hold is not recorded, the unit sells in the shop, and the other customer is told it is unavailable. Give every hold a timestamp and an expiry, and release it automatically. If you sell on several channels, keep one figure for available stock instead of counts per channel that drift apart.
Labels printed at one branch with different codes from the other guarantee that counts never reconcile. Define the SKU format once, print centrally, and treat every size, colour or pack as a distinct item. Old labels get removed, not covered. Then count a rotating set of items weekly, starting with high-value and fast-moving stock, and record who counted. Each branch manager answers for the accuracy of their own location, and variances get investigated within days, while the cause is still traceable.
Do not switch everything on in one week. Clean the SKUs, then run one branch live for a month until its numbers settle, then enable transfers with approvals, then cycle counting, then the weekly report. Q8DM builds inventory and point-of-sale systems for Kuwaiti businesses, and the projects that run smoothly are the ones where the owner settles the pool question before development starts.
Q8DM has worked in software, design and training in Kuwait since 1998, which is long enough to have seen both the tidy rollouts and the expensive ones. See how the team works at q8dm.com.