To get the most out of Katana, it’s important to establish a clear workflow from the very beginning. This guide walks you through a basic reseller workflow — from receiving customer orders to fulfilling them, while keeping your stock and purchasing organized.
Before you begin, we recommend reading:
Basics of Katana screens — to understand navigation and layout
Basics of Inventory Management — to learn how Katana tracks stock across your items and suppliers
Step 1: Create and manage sales orders
All customer sales start in the Sell screen. This is where you’ll manage your orders, track availability, and monitor delivery progress.
Each sales order (SO) lists:
The customer and order details
The products sold
The stock availability of each item
The order’s delivery status
Key columns:
Sales items: shows the availability of products included in the order
Ingredients: displays the status of ingredients connected to products
Delivery: helps you track whether an order is Not delivered, Packed, or Delivered
You can open any SO to view more details about stock levels or expected delivery.
Tip: Use filters or search to quickly find orders that need your attention (e.g., pending delivery, or overdue orders).
Step 2: Monitor stock levels
Your Stock screen provides a live overview of your products and materials, showing what’s available, reserved, or on the way.
Key columns:
In stock: what’s physically available in your warehouse
Expected: items you’ve already ordered from suppliers but haven’t yet received
Committed: stock already allocated to sales orders
Katana automatically updates these numbers as you receive orders, make purchases, and fulfill deliveries — giving you a real-time view of what’s available to sell.
Tip: Use Safety stock levels to prevent overselling. Katana will alert you when your inventory falls below the threshold you've set.
Step 3: Purchase missing stock
If you don’t have enough items in stock to fulfill an SO, create a purchase order (PO) to restock from your suppliers.
You can create a PO in several ways, such as:
From the Sell screen — click Not available under stock and select + Buy to order missing items
From the Stock screen — click + Buy next to the item you need
Or from the global + button — select + Purchase order
Each PO lists the items you’re buying, their quantities, expected delivery dates, and supplier details.
When you create a PO, it appears on the Buy screen, where you can track and update its status.
Tip: Use the Calculated stock value on the Stock screen to see how much to reorder — Katana considers open sales, existing stock, and any incoming deliveries.
Step 4: Receive purchased items
When your supplier delivers items, open the PO and mark it as Received all or Receive some (if only part of the order arrived).
Once received, the items are automatically added to your stock levels, and Katana updates product availability across your sales orders.
This helps you instantly see which customer orders can now be fulfilled.
Step 5: Fulfill customer orders
When all items for an SO are In stock, it’s ready to ship.
You can manage fulfillment directly from the Sell screen:
Mark an order as Packed when it’s prepared for shipment.
Change the status to Delivered once the order has been shipped.
Tip: If you use shipping or fulfillment integrations, Katana will automatically update these statuses when orders are dispatched.
Step 6: Keep priorities and stock in sync
Katana dynamically prioritizes stock allocation based on the order list. If multiple sales orders require the same product:
Higher-priority orders reserve the items first.
Lower-priority orders will show Not available until stock is replenished.
You can change priorities at any time by dragging and dropping sales orders in the Sell screen — Katana instantly recalculates availability to reflect the new order.
Step 7: Track performance and stay organized
With your workflow in place, you can:
See which orders are waiting for stock or shipment
Track supplier deliveries and costs
Forecast restock needs using calculated stock and safety stock
Ensure your customers receive their orders on time
Katana helps resellers maintain a steady flow of products from suppliers to customers — minimizing delays and stockouts.
Summary
A complete reseller workflow in Katana typically follows this path:
Create an SO in the Sell screen.
Check stock availability and identify missing items.
Create POs for restocking.
Receive items from suppliers into stock.
Ship and mark orders as delivered.
This process keeps your sales, stock, and purchasing tightly connected — so your team can focus on selling, rather than chasing spreadsheets.
Your feedback is invaluable. Let us know your thoughts on this article or anything in Katana you'd like to see improved: [email protected]