CoolFocus Inventory Tracking is how your team keeps a catalog of goods (tests, prenatal vitamins, diapers, clothing, and other material support) and the on-hand quantities clients can receive.
It lives under the sidebar module Points & Inventory, with pages for Inventory Items, Stock, and Checkouts.
Package note: Inventory Tracking is available on the Premium subscription. If you do not see Points & Inventory or cannot manage inventory, check Settings → Plan & Billing, or contact Support about upgrading. Regular Points on client records (balance, give points, class attendance) is separate and can still apply on other plans. This article is about catalog and stock, not the Points tab itself.
These two ideas work together:
• Inventory item - The catalog listing (for example "Pregnancy test kit" or "Diapers"). It has the name, optional category, point cost when you use points checkout, and settings such as low-stock threshold. Creating an item alone does not mean you have quantity on the shelf.
• Stock (stock lot) - The quantity you actually received and still have on hand for an item. Receiving a purchase or donation adds to your stock. Client checkouts reduce your stock. Clients can only claim what is on hand for the location you select.
Wherever the product mentions both terms, look for the short info tooltips that explain the same split.
1. Open Points & Inventory in the main sidebar.
2. Use Inventory Items to build and maintain the catalog.
3. Use Stock to receive lots, review quantity on hand, lot numbers, expiration dates, and vendor/donor notes.
4. Open an Inventory Item for a single-item view of on-hand totals and movement history when the Inventory tab is available on that record.
5. Use Checkouts to review claim history after items leave stock.
Looking for the old Inventory lists? That page is no longer used for day-to-day work. Your former inventory items and lots were moved into Points & Inventory. Add and update your stock here going forward.
1. Go to Points & Inventory → Inventory Items.
2. Create a new item and enter the name your staff will recognize at checkout.
3. Set category, point cost (if clients claim with points), low-stock threshold, and whether the item tracks inventory.
4. Add a picture so staff can recognize the item at a glance in the catalog and at Register. If you skip this, the item shows a colored icon instead, and if a picture is set but fails to load, staff still see the item's initials rather than a broken image.
5. Save. Then receive stock before staff try to check the item out.
Each item already scans on its canonical SKU. Use barcode aliases when a real donation stream gives the same product more than one printed code, for example a manufacturer UPC, a re-boxed case code, and a locally printed label. Add every code that should scan to the item as an alias instead of creating a separate catalog item for each one.
• Open the item and add a barcode value under its Barcodes field. You can optionally note the barcode's type (UPC-A, EAN-13, CODE128, and so on) for your own reference.
• A barcode has to be unique across your active catalog. Trying to add one already used by another item shows an error naming the item that owns it.
• Removing an alias from an item frees that barcode so it can be added to a different item later.
• Register accepts a scan of the SKU or of any active alias, and treats them the same way once it identifies the item. See Register: Fast Checkout with Catalog Search and SKU Quick-Add.
1. Go to Points & Inventory → Stock (or receive from flows that create a stock lot).
2. Choose the Inventory Item, quantity, and center when applicable.
3. Add optional lot number, expiration date, vendor/donor, and notes.
4. Save. On-hand quantity for that item increases.
You need permission to create Stock (shown under user group permissions for Stock / inventory stock).
In-kind gifts (Giving) will record non-cash donations from a donor, goods, or supplies, for the purposes of stewardship, receipts, and giving reports. That gift record does not automatically put items on the boutique shelf.
When you’re ready for the donated goods to be available for clients (for example diapers or formula from a donor), staff will receive those goods into inventory and link the stock lot back to the in-kind gift:
1. Open Giving → In-Kind Gifts and open the gift.
2. On the gift, find Linked Boutique Stock (shown when Inventory / Points & Inventory is enabled for your organization).
3. Select Receive into Boutique.
4. Choose Existing item (pick from the catalog) or New item (name a new catalog item that tracks inventory).
5. Enter quantity. Optionally add a lot number.
6. Select Receive Stock.
What happens next:
• A stock lot is created under Points & Inventory.
• The lot is stamped as a donation source and linked to that in-kind contribution.
• Quantity available for checkout increases so clients can claim the items (with points or your normal checkout process).
• The same lots appear again under Linked Boutique Stock on the gift for reconciliation.
Notes:
• Recording the in-kind gift alone is enough for donor history and value; receiving into boutique is the extra step when those goods become claimable inventory.
• If you do not see Receive into Boutique, confirm that you have the CoolFocus Premium subscription which provides you with access to the Inventory tool so that your user group can create Stock.
• You can receive more than one lot from the same gift if more goods arrive later.
For gift headers, funds, and soft credit on in-kind records, see Grants, Pledges, and In-Kind Gifts.
• Staff claim items from a client's Points tab (Shop) or related checkout flows when your center uses points. Catalog and stock must already exist for the selected center.
• Low-stock badges and thresholds help staff see when an item is running out before promising goods.
• Voiding a checkout reverses points and restores stock together when the void succeeds.
• A checkout line always keeps the item name and point cost as they were at the moment of that sale. Later edits to an item's name, price, picture, or barcodes only affect checkouts made after the edit, past receipts and points history do not change.
Step-by-step client checkout: Claiming Items With Points.
Client Points tab overview: Points on Client Records.
Set these on Settings → Security → User Groups:
• View clients / Points - so staff can open client records and balances when your plan includes Points.
• Stock – Create - receive inventory (including Receive into Boutique from an in-kind gift).
• Checkouts – Create - claim items for a client.
• Checkouts – Update - void a claim when needed.
Exact labels may still show older "Material Support" wording in a few permission lists; they refer to the same Points & Inventory area.
• I don't see Points & Inventory - Confirm your CoolFocus subscription is set to the Premium level on Settings → Plan & Billing, and that the module is enabled for your organization. Contact Support if the plan looks correct but the menu icon is missing.
• Shop says, “Nothing is set up for this center” - Add Inventory Items and Stock for that center; an empty Shop is almost always missing stock, not a broken Shop button.
• “Receive into Boutique” is missing on an in-kind gift - Inventory module not available on the plan, or your user cannot create Stock.
• On-hand amount looks wrong after a claim - Refresh the item or Stock list. If a void failed, stock and points stay as they were until the void can complete successfully.
• A barcode won't save - It's likely already assigned to another active item in your catalog; the error names that item. Remove the alias from the other item first if the barcode should move.
• Grants, Pledges, and In-Kind Gifts
• Claiming Items With Points
• Points on Client Records
• Points Activity: Unified Points Across Sources
• Donors and Contributions
• Register: Fast Checkout with Catalog Search and SKU Quick-Add
