Overview
In-transit inventory in Luminous is stock that has left (or is expected to leave) its origin but has not yet been received at the destination. Luminous tracks this across Purchase Orders, PO Shipments, Inbound Shipments, and Transfer Orders. There are two main tools: the In-Transit Drill-down report for visibility and reporting, and the Inbound Shipments page for reconciling what Luminous shows against what your 3PL or warehouse has logged.
Note: The In-Transit Drill-down report is enabled per account behind a feature setting. If you do not see it, contact Luminous Support to have it turned on.
Step 1 — Find your in-transit inventory
- Go to Insights → Accounting → Drill Down → In-Transit Drill-down.
- Set the As of date and time to the moment you want to snapshot (defaults to right now).
- Use the filter bar to narrow the results:
| Filter | What it does |
|---|---|
| SKU | Limit to a single SKU |
| Source | Choose between Transfer Order, PO Shipment, Purchase Order, or Inbound Shipment tiers (all checked by default) |
| PO Status | Filter by purchase order status — defaults to Active, Production Started, Production Completed, and In-transit (Completed is excluded by default) |
| Shipment Status | Filter by the status of PO Shipments (e.g., Created, In-transit, Receiving) |
| Source / Destination Warehouse Group | Scope to a specific leg of the journey |
| + Add Exclusion | Exclude specific pathways entirely (e.g., AWD → FBA transfers) |
- Review the summary tiles at the top: Lines (or Orders) count, total Qty In Transit, and total Value In Transit.
Step 2 — Choose a view
Line detail (default): Each row is one SKU on one order/shipment. Columns include SKU, Product, Warehouse, Source, Reference #, ETA, Qty In Transit, Unit Value, and Extended Value.
By Order: Rows are grouped per order/shipment. Use this when you want a per-document total rather than a per-SKU breakdown. Orders whose value equals or exceeds 5% of your filtered total are highlighted in amber — these are your highest-concentration in-transit items. A callout above the grid shows what share your top few orders represent across the full result set (not just the current page).
Switch between views using the toggle in the filter bar. Your choice is remembered across visits.
Step 3 — Understand the values
How a line's Unit Value and Extended Value are calculated depends on the source:
- Purchase Order line: unit price from the PO plus any shipping unit cost, plus PO-level and shipment-level extra costs averaged across outstanding quantity. If no PO price exists, Luminous falls back to the product's estimated landed cost. If neither is available, the value shows as blank (never a misleading zero).
- Transfer Order line: the actual per-unit cost already depleted from the outbound Sales Order shipment (weighted average across cost layers), plus any extra costs on the TO's linked inbound PO. If the outbound SO hasn't shipped yet, Luminous falls back to the same PO price/estimated landed cost chain.
Step 4 — Export for comparison
To compare Luminous in-transit data against a 3PL's report:
- Configure your filters (Source, Warehouse Group, status, exclusions) to match the scope of the 3PL report.
- Click Export. Luminous queues a full-dataset XLSX export via the Download Center — you'll get a notification when it's ready.
- The export includes all columns shown on screen (SKU, Product, Warehouse, Source, Reference #, ETA, Qty In Transit, Unit Value, Extended Value) plus Source/Destination Warehouse Group.
- Compare the exported SKU-level quantities against the 3PL's inbound or on-hand report for the same date.
Save frequently-used configurations by clicking Presets. This avoids reconfiguring warehouse groups, exclusions, and status filters every time you run the comparison.
Step 5 — Reconcile discrepancies with your 3PL
When your 3PL confirms receipt of goods that are still showing as in-transit in Luminous, reconcile them through Inbound Shipments:
- Go to Inventory → Inbound Shipments and open the Pending tab.
- Find the shipment your 3PL received and select one of the reconciliation options:
- Existing Purchase Order — link to the PO already in Luminous
- New Purchase Order — create a new PO for this shipment
- Transfer Order — use this when inventory was transferred from your own warehouse (the TO auto-creates a linked PO and Sales Order)
- Existing Shipment from a PO — connect to a shipment already on a PO
- After reconciling, Luminous begins tracking the shipment automatically and creates a receiving report when the goods are confirmed received, removing the quantity from in-transit and adding it to on-hand.
Automatic Reconciliation
If you repeatedly reconcile the same type of shipment the same way, Luminous can learn the pattern. Go to the Automatic Reconciliation panel in the Pending tab, enable Run saved rules automatically, and review the rules Luminous has suggested based on your history. Active rules run nightly and immediately when a new rule is saved.
Variance adjustments from your 3PL
If Luminous and your 3PL still show different quantities after reconciliation (for example, the 3PL reported a short receipt), Luminous posts a stock variance automatically. You can review these in the Adjustment Drill-down report (Insights → Accounting → Drill Down → Adjustment Drill-down) by filtering the Type column for External 3PL Sync Variance. Each variance entry shows the Qty Delta and running balance, so you can trace exactly where the count diverged.
Tips
- Transfer Orders don't need manual in-transit tracking: when a Sales Order tied to a Transfer Order ships, Luminous automatically marks the corresponding PO as in-transit. The In-Transit report picks this up without any manual steps.
- Close-the-books workflow: the In-Transit report can be opened directly from the Close-the-Books wizard, pre-set to the period end date, so you can review any high-value orders (amber rows) that may need an accrual entry before closing.
- FBA / AWD flows: inventory moving from your warehouse to Amazon FBA goes through Transfer Order reconciliation, not the standard Push to WMS path. See How do transfer orders work in Luminous? for the full FBA workflow.