How to Approve Stock Transfers Before They Ship
Why unchecked transfers cause stock problems
Moving stock between warehouses or stores looks harmless because it does not change company stock. In practice an unchecked transfer can empty a site of something it needs, send high-value goods to the wrong place, or hide shrinkage as a move that never arrives.
When anyone can create and ship a transfer alone, mistakes and misuse are hard to see. Quantities are keyed wrong, goods leave without being picked, and nobody reviewed whether the destination needed them.
Approval before shipping, with the creator unable to approve their own request, a reason recorded for every rejection, and an optional pick confirmation, gives multi-site businesses control without slowing every move down.
Why this happens
- One person creates and ships transfers alone.
- High-value moves are not reviewed.
- Goods ship without being picked.
- Rejections are not explained.
- Transfers sit in transit with nobody noticing.
Biznsbook addresses this through transfer approval separation, self-approval block, required pick confirmation, in-transit tracking on the stock transfer itself, so every move is reviewed and recorded.
Small gaps in stock movement rarely fail loudly. They show up later as numbers nobody can explain. Recording each step where it happens removes the guesswork.
Step-by-step: Approve Stock Transfers Before They Ship
Written for warehouse and store teams moving stock between sites with Biznsbook Warehouse Management.
- Turn on approval separation. As company administrator, open Warehouse Operations → Warehouse settings and turn on Transfer approval separation. It is off by default, when Submit approves automatically.
- Keep self-approval blocked. Block self-approval is on by default: with separation on, the creator cannot approve their own transfer.
- Give approvers the permission. Give the people who review transfers the Approve stock transfers permission.
- Submit the transfer. Create the transfer from Stock Transfers → New transfer and Submit. It moves to Pending approval.
- Approve or reject. The approver reviews it and chooses Approve, or Reject with a reason, which sends it back to Draft.
- Require picking if needed. Turn on Require pick confirmation before shipping so Ship stays disabled until every line is picked.
- Ship and track. Ship deducts stock at the source and puts the transfer in transit. Transfers with no expected arrival date are flagged overdue after the days you set (7 by default).
Review results after the first full monthly cycle. Adjust roles, mappings, or approvals where the same exception repeats.
Screen-level flows live in the Help Center. This guide focuses on the business process; help articles cover click-by-click navigation.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Mistake 1: One person creates and ships transfers alone. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in stock moved without anyone checking.
- Mistake 2: High-value moves are not reviewed. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in stock moved without anyone checking.
- Mistake 3: Goods ship without being picked. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in stock moved without anyone checking.
- Mistake 4: Rejections are not explained. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in stock moved without anyone checking.
- Mistake 5: Transfers sit in transit with nobody noticing. Repeating this each month usually shows up first in stock moved without anyone checking.
Each of these turns into a question the warehouse cannot answer quickly. Fix the process on the record rather than in email threads or spreadsheets.
Best practices that hold up as you scale
- Turn on approval separation — As company administrator, open Warehouse Operations → Warehouse settings and turn on Transfer approval separation.
- Keep self-approval blocked — Block self-approval is on by default: with separation on, the creator cannot approve their own transfer.
- Give approvers the permission — Give the people who review transfers the Approve stock transfers permission.
- Submit the transfer — Create the transfer from Stock Transfers → New transfer and Submit.
- Approve or reject — The approver reviews it and chooses Approve, or Reject with a reason, which sends it back to Draft.
Record short and damaged quantities at the moment of receipt, with a note, rather than closing transfers later.
How Biznsbook supports this workflow
transfer approval separation is part of Biznsbook and works on the same records as the rest of stock movement, so the decision, the stock and the books stay in step and every action is recorded with who did it and when.
self-approval block is part of Biznsbook and works on the same records as the rest of stock movement, so the decision, the stock and the books stay in step and every action is recorded with who did it and when.
required pick confirmation is part of Biznsbook and works on the same records as the rest of stock movement, so the decision, the stock and the books stay in step and every action is recorded with who did it and when.
in-transit tracking is part of Biznsbook and works on the same records as the rest of stock movement, so the decision, the stock and the books stay in step and every action is recorded with who did it and when.
Recording a short or damaged receipt needs Receive stock transfers (included in Manage inventory). With Accounting, the write-off posts like a stock adjustment loss.
Suggested implementation timeline
- Week 1: Set up transfer approval separation and the permissions the people involved need.
- Week 2: Run the real process in Biznsbook only, with no side spreadsheet, for one team or site.
- Week 3: Review what was recorded with the people involved and tighten the rules where they disagreed.
- Month 2: Roll out to every team or site.
- Ongoing: Reviewing transfers each week.
The transfer flow with and without approval
Without separation, a transfer goes Draft, Submit (approved automatically), optional Pick, Ship, In transit, Receive and Received, and a draft can be shipped in one step with Approve & ship. With separation on, Submit moves it to Pending approval, and only after Approve can it be picked and shipped.
Ship deducts stock from the source and makes the transfer In transit; with Accounting, goods in transit are journaled. If the Inventory in transit account is not mapped, a warning explains it and Ship stays disabled until an accountant maps it. For lot-tracked items with no batch chosen, the lots that expire first are taken.
Receiving can be partial, and short or damaged quantities can be written off at receipt. Cancelling after shipping returns only what is still in transit to the source. Pressing a button twice, or two people acting at once, never ships or receives twice.
Settings that work alongside approval
Warehouse settings hold the other rules that shape a transfer. Require a destination bin on receive makes every received line name a bin. When a bin would go over capacity can be disabled, a soft warning or a hard block, with a near-full threshold of 80% by default and daily capacity alerts for near-full and overloaded bins.
Suggest a bin on put-away pre-selects the best bin on the Put-away screen, so approved transfers arrive into sensible locations. Together with approval and required picking, these settings decide how strict each step is, and they apply to every warehouse in the company.
Transfers can be started from templates saved from an earlier transfer's More menu, and from Stock Transfers → Replenish, which creates one draft per route. Both still follow the approval rule when separation is on, so a template or a replenishment draft never skips review.
The Stock Transfers list has Print, Excel and CSV buttons that take every transfer matching the filters, with number, date, route, status including overdue, expected arrival and notes, which is useful for a weekly review of what is waiting for approval or still on the road.
Metrics to track monthly
- Transfers partially received for more than a week
- Short and damaged quantities by route
- In-transit value at month end
- Losses in the Shrink report
Start with three metrics; trend direction matters more than a single point-in-time snapshot.
Manual workarounds vs Biznsbook
Compare common manual workarounds with Biznsbook transfer approval separation and the related capabilities.
| Capability | Manual / Spreadsheet | Biznsbook |
|---|---|---|
| Who can move stock | ❌ Anyone, alone | ✅ Creator submits, approver approves |
| Self-approval | ❌ Allowed | ✅ Blocked by default |
| Rejections | ❌ Unexplained | ✅ Reason required, back to Draft |
| Picking | ❌ Optional and unchecked | ✅ Can be required before shipping |
| In transit | ❌ Forgotten | ✅ Overdue flag after the days you set |
| Default setting | ❌ Not applicable | ✅ Off until an administrator turns it on |
Reviewing transfers each week
Once a week, check transfers pending approval for more than a day, transfers flagged overdue in transit, and the reasons given for rejections. Repeated rejections on the same route usually mean a reorder level or a habit at the source needs to change.
Write the receiving check (count, inspect, record short or damaged) into your goods-in procedure.
Frequently asked questions
Is transfer approval on by default?
No. Transfer approval separation is off by default, and Submit approves automatically. An administrator turns it on in Warehouse settings.
Can I approve a transfer I created?
Not while Block self-approval is on, which is the default with separation on.
What happens when a transfer is rejected?
A rejection needs a reason and sends the transfer back to Draft, where it can be corrected and submitted again.
What if I turn approval separation off?
Transfers already waiting are not approved automatically; they stay pending until an approver acts or someone ships them.
Who can approve?
People with the Approve stock transfers permission. Creating, picking, shipping and receiving need Manage inventory.
When is a transfer overdue?
A transfer with no expected arrival date is flagged overdue after the number of days in transit set in Warehouse settings, 7 by default.
How this differs by industry
Retail
Store groups require approval for transfers out of the central warehouse, so area managers see every move before stock leaves.
Wholesale & distribution
Distributors block self-approval for high-value goods and require pick confirmation, so nothing ships unpicked.
Manufacturing
Plants approve moves between the main store and production sites, keeping a reason for each rejected request.