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What this page is for

A Transfer Order (TO) moves stock between two of your own warehouses to rebalance inventory - taking surplus or stranded stock from a location that has too much and sending it to one that is short. Nothing is bought or built; you are just relocating stock you already own. This page explains how to read a transfer: the quantities that track it from the sending dock to the receiving shelf, and the dates that tell you when the stock actually becomes usable at the destination.

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The header fields

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Quantities explained

Each line item’s quantity tracks the stock from dock to shelf: Two things planners often miss:
  • ETR (Estimated Time of Release) = ETA + the destination warehouse’s handling lead time. ETA is when the truck arrives; ETR is when the stock is actually put away and becomes available to use or ship. Plan against ETR, not ETA, when timing matters.
  • The same transfer can be read from either end: it is incoming stock at the To warehouse and outgoing stock at the From warehouse.

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Statuses

Before a transfer is written to your ERP it carries a Spherecast-only status; after it is written it takes on a real status from your ERP. (An ERP is your company’s system of record. The status names below are NetSuite-style examples - the exact wording varies by company.) Every transfer also belongs to a scenario - the live plan or a what-if copy - and shows a warning if its last write to the ERP failed.

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Step by step: rebalance a short warehouse

  1. Find a warehouse projected to run short, and another holding surplus or stranded stock of the same product.
  2. Create a transfer with the surplus site as the From warehouse and the short site as the To warehouse.
  3. Set the Quantity, the Truck type (Reefer or Dry), and, if used, the Route.
  4. Check the ETR - confirm the stock becomes available at the destination early enough to cover the shortage.
  5. Route for approval, then write it to your ERP. See Writing to your ERP.
  6. Track the line: Open shrinks as stock ships (In-transit rises), then Received grows until the transfer is complete.

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Example

A central warehouse holds surplus while a satellite warehouse is heading toward a stockout. You create a transfer to move 300 units from central to satellite:
  • The full 300 ship, so at the central (sending) end the stock is outgoing and now In-transit = 300, Open = 300 at the destination.
  • 200 arrive first → Received = 200, In-transit = 100, Open = 100.
  • The last 100 land → Received = 300, In-transit = 0, Open = 0, and the transfer reads Received.
If the satellite warehouse needs two days to put stock away, the ETR is two days after the ETA - that later date is when the 300 units are truly available to ship or sell.
Tip: Transfers are the fastest way to cover a deficit without buying - recommended transfer orders are generated to do exactly that. Plan the arrival against ETR, not ETA, so you don’t count stock as available before it’s on the shelf. See Transfers metric, Available, and Locations & warehouses.