Why should you care?

Without movement history, nobody explains why stock changed overnight.

See it live — copy this example

Run in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Azure Data Studio.

USE DataVerse;
IF OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.StockMovements', N'U') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE dbo.StockMovements;
CREATE TABLE dbo.StockMovements (
    MovementId BIGINT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
    ProductId INT NOT NULL REFERENCES dbo.Products(ProductId),
    DeltaQty INT NOT NULL,
    Reason VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
    AtUtc DATETIME2 NOT NULL DEFAULT SYSUTCDATETIME()
);
INSERT INTO dbo.StockMovements (ProductId, DeltaQty, Reason)
SELECT TOP (1) ProductId, -2, 'Sale' FROM dbo.Products;
SELECT ProductId, SUM(DeltaQty) AS NetDelta
FROM dbo.StockMovements
GROUP BY ProductId;

What happened?

• Each movement records a signed DeltaQty.
• SUM reconstructs net change — pair with StockLevels for current on-hand.

Practice next

1. Create StockMovements.
2. Insert sale and receipt rows.
3. Sum NetDelta per product.
4. Filter Reason = 'Sale' for sold units.
5. Add WarehouseId to movements.

Remember

Movements explain stock changes. Current qty + history work together. Reason codes aid audits.

WMS movement log

DataVerse warehouse scans write StockMovements.

Outcome: Shrinkage investigations have a timeline.