Business Concepts
Audience: Business stakeholders, domain experts, product managers, business analysts
Purpose: This folder contains pure business concepts and domain knowledge without technical implementation details. No code, no technical jargon—just the business rules, processes, and concepts that drive the inventory management system.
What You'll Find Here
This section is designed for people who need to understand what the system does and why, without needing to know how it's implemented technically.
Core Concepts
Fundamental business ideas that form the foundation of inventory management:
- Inventory Basics - What is inventory? Why do we track it?
- Stockable vs Non-Stockable Items - Items we track in warehouses vs items we don't
- Units of Measure - How we measure quantities (kg, liters, pieces, boxes)
- Measurement Systems - Metric vs Imperial systems
- Item Categories - How we organize and classify inventory
Location Management
How we organize physical and logical storage spaces:
- Storage Locations - Warehouses, bins, zones, and how they're organized
- Location Hierarchy - Parent-child relationships in storage (Warehouse → Zone → Aisle → Bin)
- Location Types - Different kinds of locations (warehouse, retail, virtual)
- Location Purposes - What locations are used for (storage, production, sales, quarantine)
Inventory Transactions
The five types of business events that change inventory levels:
- Stock Movements - Moving inventory from one location to another
- Stock Adjustments - Correcting inventory levels (gains, losses, damages, found items)
- Purchase Receipts - Receiving goods from suppliers
- Sales Shipments - Sending goods to customers
- Assembly Transactions - Converting components into finished products
Manufacturing
How we produce finished goods from raw materials:
- Bill of Materials - Recipes that define what components make up a finished product
- Assembly Process - How we convert components into finished goods
- Component Explosion - Calculating how much raw material we need
Business Rules
The policies and constraints that govern inventory operations:
- Negative Stock Policy - Can we ship items we don't physically have?
- Location-Based Tracking - Tracking quantities separately per location vs combined
- Item Categories Hierarchy - Multi-level classification of items
Integration Points
How inventory connects to other business modules:
- Finance Integration - How inventory transactions post to the general ledger
- Purchasing Integration - How purchase receipts connect to supplier invoices
- Sales Integration - How sales shipments connect to customer invoices
Navigation Tips
If you're new to inventory management:
- Start with Inventory Basics
- Read Stockable vs Non-Stockable Items
- Understand Storage Locations
- Learn about the five Inventory Transactions
If you need to understand how inventory transactions work:
- Go directly to the Inventory Transactions section
- Each transaction type has its own document with real-world examples
If you're defining business requirements:
- Review Business Rules to understand current policies
- Check Integration Points to see how changes affect Finance, Purchasing, and Sales
If you need to explain the system to stakeholders:
- Use documents in Core Concepts for high-level overviews
- Reference Manufacturing for how production works
Documentation Standards for This Folder
✅ What Belongs Here
- Business terminology and definitions
- Business rules and policies
- Process workflows (from a business perspective)
- Business scenarios and examples
- Decision criteria and business logic
- Regulatory and compliance requirements
- Business benefits and trade-offs
❌ What Doesn't Belong Here
- Code examples
- Technical architecture
- API specifications
- Database schemas
- Implementation details
- Technical frameworks or libraries
- Developer tooling
Writing Guidelines
- Use business language: Say "item" not "aggregate", "stock level" not "entity state"
- Focus on the 'what' and 'why': Not the 'how' (technically)
- Use real-world examples: E.g., "When a truck arrives with 100 boxes of paper..."
- Explain business impact: E.g., "This ensures accurate financial reporting"
- Avoid technical jargon: No "REST endpoints", "domain events", "repositories", etc.
Related Documentation
- For technical implementation: See
/domain/and/api/folders - For architectural decisions: See
/architecture/folder - For end-user procedures: See
/user-guides/folder - For educational content: See
/sections/folder
Contribution
When adding new business concepts:
- Use the templates in
/business-concepts/templates/ - Follow the naming convention:
kebab-case.md - Keep documents focused on one concept
- Cross-reference related concepts
- Update this README with links to new documents
Last Updated: 2025-10-28 Maintained By: Business Analysis Team & Product Management