Inventory planning
Quantity on Hand
By the Supply Chain Manager team · Updated October 16, 2026
Quantity on hand is the physical count of units of a SKU in a warehouse right now, whether or not they are already promised to customers.
It is the most basic inventory number and the one cycle counts check. It includes units that are reserved for open orders, held for quality checks or damaged, which is why it often differs from what you can actually sell.
Quantity on hand is usually tracked per warehouse and often per bin location. Adding up on-hand quantity across sites is useful for finance, but for planning, each warehouse's figure matters separately, because stock in one building cannot fill an order due today from another.
How to calculate quantity on hand
Quantity on Hand = Opening stock + Receipts − Shipments ± Adjustments
Quantity on hand example
Illustrative numbers: 1,000 units on hand, 200 allocated to open orders and 20 on quality hold. Only 780 are available to promise to a new customer.
Why quantity on hand matters for distributors
Accurate on-hand figures are the foundation of every other calculation. If the system says 50 and the shelf holds 5, no forecast or reorder rule can save the next order.
Common quantity on hand mistakes
- Selling against on-hand stock instead of available stock.
- Skipping adjustments for damage and returns, so on hand drifts from reality.
Examples on this page use made-up round numbers to show the calculation. They are not benchmarks or results from real businesses.