## Zoho Inventory Documentation Index

Access the complete documentation index at:
https://www.zoho.com/inventory/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available documentation pages before proceeding.

# Stock Allocation

Stock Allocation lets you assign available inventory to confirmed sales orders and reserve it for fulfilment. When multiple customers request the same item, this ensures committed stock is clearly tracked and prevents the same inventory from being allocated more than once.

**Note:** Stock Allocation only earmarks available inventory to a sales order. Physical inventory is reduced only when the items are shipped.

### Enable Stock Allocation

**Prerequisite:** Enable **Locations** for your organisation before using Stock Allocation.

To enable Stock Allocation:

*   Click the ![Settings](/inventory/help/images/icons/gear-icon.png) icon in the top right corner.
*   Under _Module Settings_, click **Items** under _General_.
*   Open the **Preferences** tab.
*   Scroll to the **Advanced Inventory Tracking** section and check **Stock Allocation**.
*   Click **Save**.

**Note:** Stock Allocation is currently available in Early Access for organisations on the Enterprise plan.

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### How Stock Allocation Works

Once enabled, you can allocate stock from a confirmed sales order in two ways:

**From the What’s Next? section**

*   Create and confirm a sales order as you normally would.
*   In the _What’s Next?_ section of the sales order, click **Allocate Stock** to assign available inventory to the order.

**From the More menu**

*   Open the confirmed sales order.
*   Click the **More** icon in the top right corner of the sales order.
*   Select **Allocate Stock** from the dropdown.

After allocating, continue your regular fulfilment workflow by creating a picklist, then a package, and finally a shipment.

As items are shipped, the allocated quantity is fulfilled automatically. For partial shipments, the remaining allocated quantity stays associated with the sales order until the remaining items are fulfilled or the allocation is changed.

**Insight:**

*   The **ALLOCATED** column on the Sales Orders list page shows whether each order is **Allocated** or **Unallocated**.
*   You can filter the Sales Orders list to view only allocated orders.
*   You can allocate stock for batch-tracked and serial-tracked items.

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### Deallocate Stock

Once stock is allocated, a **Deallocate Stock** action appears in the _What’s Next?_ section of the sales order. Use it to release the reserved stock and make it available for other orders.

To deallocate stock:

*   Open the sales order for which you want to deallocate stock.
*   In the _What’s Next?_ section of the allocated sales order, click **Deallocate Stock**.
*   In the confirmation, enter a reason for deallocation.
*   Click **Proceed**.

**Note:**

*   Deallocation is available only when the allocation status is **Allocated**. It is not available after the status becomes **Completed**.
*   Deallocation is blocked if picking or packing is already in progress for that order.

### Related Pages

*   [Preferences](/inventory/help/settings/preferences.html)
*   [Sales Orders](/inventory/help/sales-orders/sales-orders-overview.html)