How do you find overstock and dead stock in EBMS ERP before you reorder?

In EBMS ERP, run the Inventory Turnover Ratio report to rank items by how many days of stock they carry, then check the slowest ones on their Activity and history year tabs before you buy more. Lower the stock levels on overstocked items, and retire dead items with zero count using the Inactivate Products utility.

This guide covers EBMS ERP by Koble (formerly Eagle Business Software) and follows Koble's current online help. Those pages do not state an EBMS version, so menus may look slightly different on older releases. Everything here uses standard reports and screens, with no extra module needed.

What is the difference between overstock and dead stock?

Overstock is an item that still sells, but you hold far more of it than you need. Dead stock is an item that has stopped selling altogether.

They need different fixes. Overstock needs lower stock levels and a pause in buying. Dead stock needs to be cleared out and taken off the purchasing list so nobody reorders it by accident. Both tie up cash you could spend on items that do sell.

How do you run the inventory turnover report in EBMS?

Open File > Reports > Inventory > Sales/Purchases > Inventory Turnover Ratio, enter a First Month and Last Month, and run it. If you use multiple warehouses, use File > Reports > Inventory > Warehouse > Inventory Turnover Ratio by Warehouse instead.

The report shows three numbers worth knowing:

Use 12 months so seasonal items are judged on a full year. Then compare turnover days with your lead time. An item with a two-week lead time and 300 days on hand is a clear overstock candidate. Koble's own case study describes an item carrying 209 days of inventory against a 60-day goal, found on a forecasting dashboard; the report's turnover days figure flags the same kind of item.

How do you check whether a slow item is really slow?

Open the item and read its history before acting. A low turnover number can come from one big purchase, a seasonal pattern or a recent price change.

1. Open Inventory > Product Catalog and double-click the item.
2. Click a fiscal year history tab. It shows monthly purchase quantity and cost, and monthly sales quantity, cost and totals.
3. To see the documents behind a month, select the total, right-click and choose Drill Down.
4. Open the Activity tab, set Doc Type to Outgoing or Sales Invoices, choose a Start Date and End Date, and click Find (F5) to list every sale.
5. Set Doc Type to Purchase Orders to see whether more stock is already on the way.

That last step matters most. The fastest way to make overstock worse is to receive an open purchase order nobody remembered.

How do you stop EBMS suggesting more of an overstocked item?

Lower the item's Minimum and Maximum on its Count tab. The Purchasing page only suggests an order when stock falls below the Minimum, and it buys back up toward the Maximum.

On the Inventory > Purchasing page, turn off "Show items with order quantities", filter by vendor or folder, and click Find (F5) to see every item, not just those with an order quantity. The list stays empty until you click Find. Compare the Net Ordered column (count plus purchase orders minus sales orders) with the Maximum. Anything sitting well above its Maximum was over-bought or has stale stock levels.

If your Minimum is 0, EBMS will not prompt a purchase until the item is fully depleted, which is a sensible setting for a slow item you want to sell through. If you use the Advanced Inventory Management module, check the item's forecast settings too, because an automated recalculation can raise the levels again. Our EBMS forecasting guide explains those settings.

What should you do with dead stock in EBMS?

Sell it down, write it off or return it, then make the item inactive. Inactive items are removed from a number of reports and are greyed out or hidden in search lists.

1. To retire one item, open it in Inventory > Product Catalog and turn on Inactive on the General tab.
2. To retire many, run Inventory > Utilities > Inactivate Products, pick folders or an item range, and set a Last Activity Date.
3. Review the list the wizard proposes before confirming.

The item count must be zero, and the utility skips anything with purchases, sales or other activity after your cutoff date. Note that Koble's help says the utility cannot be reversed, while a manual inactivation can be undone at any time.

How often should you check for overstock?

Run the turnover report quarterly and check overstock before every large buy. Seasonal businesses should also check right after the season ends, when leftover stock is easiest to see.

The cheapest moment to prevent overstock is before the purchase order exists, so it pays to look at stock value on each reorder, not only at the end of the year.

How does ReorderOwl show overstock in EBMS?

ReorderOwl is a purchasing agent for EBMS ERP that reports overstock on every reorder run. Its Excel workbook has an Inventory Value total and an Overstock Value total next to the order recommendations.

For each item it sets a target: forecast demand over the vendor lead time plus safety-stock days (60 days by default), plus the EBMS Minimum if you turn Minimums on, rounded up to the order increment. Stock above that target counts as overstock, valued at the item's inventory value times the share of units above target. It reads your open purchase orders, so stock already on the way is counted before it suggests more.

You ask in Slack or ChatGPT, review the workbook and the draft purchase orders it saves in EBMS, and nothing goes to a vendor until someone on your team sends it. See how to automate purchasing in EBMS for the weekly routine.

Frequently asked questions

Does EBMS have a dead stock report?

Koble's help does not name a dedicated dead stock report. The Inventory Turnover Ratio report, each item's Activity tab and the Inactivate Products utility's Last Activity Date together do the job.

Where is the inventory turnover report in EBMS?

File > Reports > Inventory > Sales/Purchases > Inventory Turnover Ratio. Multi-warehouse companies use Inventory Turnover Ratio by Warehouse under the Warehouse report group.

How does EBMS calculate inventory turnover?

Turnover Ratio equals Cost of Sales divided by Average Value for the period. Dividing the days in the period by that ratio gives the average days of stock on hand.

Can I make an item inactive if it still has stock?

No. Koble's help says the item count must be zero first. Sell, return or adjust out the remaining units, then inactivate it.

Does making an item inactive delete its history?

No. The item can stay in its folder, and its history stays until someone runs the purge utilities. It is removed from a number of reports and hidden or greyed out in search lists.

Sources

1. Inventory Turnover, Koble Systems, accessed 2026-10-01
2. Product Sales and Purchase Activity, Koble Systems, accessed 2026-10-01
3. Inventory History, Koble Systems, accessed 2026-10-01
4. Making an Inventory Item Inactive, Koble Systems, accessed 2026-10-01
5. Inventory Purchasing Page, Koble Systems, accessed 2026-10-01
6. Creating Purchasing Parameters, Koble Systems, accessed 2026-10-01
7. EBMS Reports Overview, Koble Systems, accessed 2026-10-01
8. Gaining a New Perspective with BI Dashboards, Koble Systems, accessed 2026-10-01