What are non-inventory items?
A non-inventory item is a special product type in Luminous — alongside the standard Product and Kit types — for goods or services that have no physical stock. Unlike a regular SKU, a non-inventory item is never tracked in your warehouse: it has no on-hand, pending, or incoming quantity, and it never appears on a picklist or in a fulfillment order.
Common real-world uses include:
| Example | Why it's non-inventory |
|---|---|
| Freight / shipping charges | A cost line on a PO, not a physical unit |
| Shipping insurance / protection | A service fee, not a stockable item |
| Handling or customs fees | A charge billed by the supplier |
| Consulting or manufacturing services | Labor with no physical product |
| Digital products (e.g., software, files) | Nothing to put on a shelf or pick |
| Coupons or discount lines | No physical item to receive |
How non-inventory items behave in Luminous
Because they carry no physical stock, Luminous applies several important rules automatically:
- No inventory tracking — no on-hand, pending, incoming, or committed quantities are ever created or updated.
- Not on picklists — pickers never see these lines, because there is nothing to pull from the shelf.
- Excluded from fulfillment orders — the fulfillment auto-generator skips non-inventory lines. Orders still reach a "Shipped" status once all physical lines are fulfilled.
- Not pushed to the warehouse management system (WMS) — TrackStar and other connected fulfillment centers are not notified about these items.
- Not synced to commerce channels — they are not broadcast to Shopify or other sales channels.
- Cannot have Lot Tracking or Bills of Materials — these features only apply to physically stocked items.
- Excluded from inventory health checks — the Close the Books report ignores them when checking for zero-cost or zero-valuation items.
- Cannot be transferred — Transfer Orders require physical stock, so non-inventory SKUs are blocked.
Non-inventory items on purchase orders
You can add a non-inventory SKU as a line item on a Supplier Purchase Order just like any other SKU. This is useful when a supplier bundles a service charge (e.g., freight, tooling fees) alongside physical goods on the same PO, or when you need a paper trail for a service you are purchasing.
When you receive against a PO line that is linked to a non-inventory SKU, Luminous records the receipt but does not add any units to on-hand stock — the item is intentionally excluded from all inventory write paths.
How to create a non-inventory SKU
- Go to Inventory → SKUs and click Create (or open an existing SKU to edit it).
- In the Product Type dropdown (on the Product Information tab), select NON-INVENTORY.
- Fill in the product name, internal SKU, and any pricing fields, then save.
Note: The Non-Inventory product type option is controlled by a feature flag. If you do not see it in the dropdown, contact your Luminous administrator or support to confirm it is enabled for your account.
Once saved, the SKU can be searched and added to purchase orders, sales orders, or other documents — while all the inventory-level behaviors described above apply automatically.