Editing past counts and receipts
Counts and receipts both create inventory data, but they behave very differently when you edit them after the fact. Counts are append-only ground truth — they don't cascade. Receipts are derived data — they do cascade. Understanding the difference saves a lot of "why did this number change?" confusion.
Counts are append-only
When a count session is completed, the per-product count values become the baseline. To "edit" a past count, Rinvy doesn't overwrite the historical value — instead, you record a new count, and the new count becomes the most recent ground truth.
That's why a completed inventory session can't be "rolled back" or "deleted" easily — its counts are part of a historical timeline.
The 24-hour staff edit window
Inside the 24 hours after a session completes, staff (anyone with canEditCompletedInventory plus a recent completion) can edit count values in that session directly. This window exists for catching obvious typos before they harden into history.
After 24 hours, staff can no longer edit. Owners and managers can override at any time — but the system records who did the override and when, and the change is auditable.
How to "fix" a wrong historical count
You have two options:
- Within 24 hours, while still active staff: open inventory history, find the session, edit the wrong row, save.
- Outside 24 hours, or as a manager: take a fresh count for that product. The new count supersedes the old number as the current baseline. The wrong historical count stays in the record, but isn't acted on going forward.
The fresh-count option is the cleaner long-term move — it's what reports expect, and the audit trail stays intact.
Receipts cascade
Receipts behave differently. Unlike counts, receipts create mutable inventory entries. The receipt itself can be edited, and editing it cascades through any subsequent stock changes.
What "cascade" means
If you received 2 case of chicken on Monday, then receipted prep that used some of it on Tuesday, then sold some on Wednesday — and then realized the original receipt should have been 3 case, not 2:
- Edit the Monday receipt to
3 case. - Rinvy recomputes stock forward from Monday — the Tuesday prep deduction still happens, the Wednesday sale still happens.
- The current stock ends up reflecting the corrected starting point.
The cascade stops at the next manual count. If a count happened on Friday, Friday's count overrides the cascaded stock as the new ground truth.
Why receipts cascade and counts don't
A count is "here's what's physically on the shelf right now." Changing a historical count would mean changing physical reality retroactively — which doesn't make sense.
A receipt is "this much product arrived from a supplier." If the receipt was recorded wrong (missed a case, wrong unit), the inventory it implied was wrong too. Cascading the fix forward propagates the correction.
Permissions
| Action | OWNER | MANAGER | STAFF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Take new count | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Edit recent (24h) completed count | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Edit older completed count | ✅ (override) | ✅ (override) | ❌ |
| Edit a receipt | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Delete a receipt | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
canEditCompletedInventory is what gates the recent-edit window for staff. canEditAnyCompletedInventory is what owners/managers have for the override.
What edits show up in reports
- Editing a count within the window: updates the count, and from that point forward all reports use the corrected value. Reports that were already generated with the old value aren't retroactively changed (they're report-time snapshots, but the underlying data is corrected).
- Editing a receipt: updates the receipt and cascades stock changes. Reports that include the receipt's date range update on next view — weighted average cost, spending, variance, all see the new number.
Common mistakes
Trying to delete a count to 'undo' a session
You can't. Counts are append-only. To correct, take a new count.
Editing a receipt and not understanding the cascade
If you up the receipt quantity by 1 case, current stock goes up by 1 case across all subsequent non-count entries. That's usually what you want — but if there's been a count since the receipt, the count overrides the cascade for everything that happened after the count.
Staff manager-overriding their own old count
Staff don't have the manager-override capability. If a staff-recorded count is wrong and outside the 24-hour window, an owner or manager has to make the edit. Don't waste time trying — escalate it.