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Inventory tracks two kinds of stock in one place: PACE booklets and library books. Every change to stock is recorded as a movement, a purchase, an issue, a return, a loss, or an adjustment, in a running list that only ever adds new entries. Zion reads that list and works out the quantity on hand for you. You never edit the on-hand count directly.
A list of inventory items showing quantity on hand and reorder status

The inventory items list with quantity on hand for each item

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Who can use it

Full access: view items and reports, add and edit items, import the PACE catalog, receive shipments, adjust stock, and archive or restore items.
Only administrator and supervisor accounts can open the inventory area at all. Within that, an administrator can grant a supervisor extra access one piece at a time: viewing items and reports, checking out library items, and managing stock are each granted separately. Find the module under Programs & Resources > Inventory in the sidebar.

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Why stock changes only through movements

Quantity on hand is never a field you fill in directly. Every increase or decrease is written as an entry in the movement list, with a reason: Zion recalculates the on-hand total from these entries automatically. This keeps every stock change traceable to who did it, when, and why, and it works the same way whether the change came from a shipment, a student assignment, or a manual correction.
Quantity on hand can go negative. A negative balance represents a recorded stock debt rather than a hard floor, and adjustments that would push a count negative show a confirmation dialog before they are saved.

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Assigning a PACE reduces stock automatically

When a PACE is assigned to a student, Zion matches it to an inventory item by PACE number and subject and records an issue movement for one unit. The item’s stock decreases automatically. No separate step is needed to record that a booklet went out. If a PACE is assigned but no inventory item exists with a matching number and subject, there is nothing to decrease, so stock does not change. Zion surfaces this as an untracked PACE nudge on the reports page so you can add the missing item. See

Inventory reports

Inventory reports
for details.

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Adding and editing items

1

Open Inventory Items

Go to Programs & Resources > Inventory > Add Items.
2

Choose the item type

Click ‘Add PACE’ for a curriculum booklet, or ‘Add Book’ for a library item.
3

Fill in the details

For a PACE, enter the name, PACE number, and optional subject. For a library book, choose whether it is General or PACE-required.
4

Set opening quantity and reorder threshold

Opening quantity only applies when creating the item. The reorder threshold controls low-stock alerts; setting it to 0 turns those alerts off for that item.
5

Save

A duplicate PACE number and subject combination is rejected with an inline error.
Editing an existing item (the row’s Edit action) changes name, reorder threshold, and other details only. Quantity on hand cannot be edited from here: use the Adjust Stock action described in

Receiving and adjusting stock

Receiving and adjusting stock
.

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Archiving and restoring an item

Zion never permanently deletes an inventory item. To retire one, choose Archive from its row menu instead. The item drops out of the active items list, reports, and low-stock alerts, while every movement and shipment ever recorded against it is kept. A library book with copies still checked out cannot be archived until every copy has been returned. To bring an archived item back, switch the list to Archived items and choose Restore from its row menu. It reappears in every list, report, and alert it was hidden from, with its full history intact.

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Importing the PACE catalog

Rather than adding every PACE by hand, the ‘Import PACE catalog’ button on the items page seeds an inventory item, with zero opening stock, for every curriculum PACE your school does not already track. Items are matched by PACE number and subject, so re-running the import is safe: it skips PACEs you already have and only adds what is missing.

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Removing PACEs you have never stocked

Importing the catalog can add hundreds of zero-stock PACEs your school never actually carries, which buries the ones you do stock in a long list. When this happens, a ‘Remove unstocked PACEs’ button appears next to Import PACE catalog. It archives every PACE booklet you have never received or adjusted, that is, still at zero stock with no history, leaving only the PACEs you actually hold. Nothing is lost: an archived PACE can be restored from the Archived items list, or is brought back automatically the next time you import the catalog.

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Where to go next

Receiving and adjusting stock

Record a PACE shipment line by line or by subject, or correct a count with a reasoned adjustment.

Inventory reports

Stock on hand, low-stock alerts, PACE burn-rate forecasts, and the library overview.

Library overview

Checkout, return, overdue, and lost-book workflows for library items tracked in the same catalog.

PACE assignments

Assign PACEs to students, the action that drives the automatic stock decrease.