Selecting an inventory type for your product

Choosing the right inventory type for your product in Checkfront determines how availability is tracked and managed, whether by date, quantity, or capacity. Selecting the proper inventory type ensures that your bookings reflect real-world limits, helps prevent overbooking, and provides customers with an accurate view of what’s available.

With this article, you can learn how to select an inventory type for your product from the Inventory tab of the Product Builder. 
 

Learn more with related articles Learn more about the Inventory tab here: Establishing inventory on products. New to the Product Builder? Read the first article in this series for an introduction to the Product feature.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Inventory > Products > Products > Add Product/Add New Product/Edit Product > Inventory
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions to manage inventory or restricted permissions to View products and assets and Manage products and assets.
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• Your account must have access to classic products (Inventory > Products), a key feature of our classic products version of Checkfront. This feature is not available for use with classic items (Inventory > Items) in our classic items version. → Learn more about products. 

Using the Inventory Type setting, you can specify how Guests or Staff book inventory and whether it relies on other assets (e.g., equipment, transport, or spaces).

What is an inventory type? Inventory type refers to the classification of your products based on the maxiumum number that can be booked: Unlimited, Simple, Assets-based.

Is your inventory unlimited? The unlimited inventory type lets you configure products without fixed inventory quantities.

The system does not require Guests to specify a quantity when booking, and there are no limits on the number of inventory items guests can book based solely on inventory numbers.

Is your inventory static, based on a fixed amount? The Simple inventory type lets you specify the product's Inventory Amount. 

• The system requires specifying a quantity when booking.
• Bookings are limited to the specified inventory amount.

This feature is a good option if you don't need to assign assets out or if you have multiple products using the same assets.

Simple inventory limits Simple inventory is limited to a quantity of 10,000.

Is your product dependent on the number of resources available (equipment, transport, rooms)? The Assets inventory type allows you to select resources to associate with your product.

What is an asset? An asset is when your product depends on a resource (equipment, spaces, modes of transportation...) to be booked. Individual assets are tracked by their SKU.

Next Steps

In the following article in this series, we examine assigning inventory based on resources (assets) in more detail.

< Determining who your product is available to with guest types  |    Assigning assets to your product >