Inventory Tracking helps you manage a limited number of interchangeable items that are shared across multiple products.
For example, if you have 12 SUP boards, those same boards may be used for lessons, rentals, or private sessions. Viking keeps track of how many are already in use and prevents new bookings from exceeding the available quantity.
Inventory Tracking is intended for shared capacity, not for tracking specific individual assets such as a particular board, kite, or sail.
On this page
- When to use Inventory Tracking
- Create an inventory item
- Assign inventory to products
- Set inventory per group or student
- Use different inventory settings for variants
- How Viking calculates inventory availability
- Inventory across locations
- View inventory in Planning
- Add manual inventory reservations
- Check inventory in the Day Planner
- Be careful when moving students manually
- Check inventory availability
When to use Inventory Tracking
Inventory Tracking works best when several products use the same limited pool of interchangeable items.
For example, the same SUP Boards inventory could be used by:
- SUP lessons;
- SUP rentals;
- private lessons;
- other products that use the same boards.
Viking dynamically divides the available inventory between these products based on existing bookings and their duration.
This means you do not need to reserve a fixed number of boards for lessons and another fixed number for rentals.
Inventory Tracking can be used with all product types.
For Bundle products, inventory is not configured on the Bundle itself. The Bundle uses the inventory settings of the individual Course or Rental products included in it.
If you do not see Inventory in your Viking account, contact Viking support. Inventory Tracking can be activated for accounts where it is relevant.
Create an inventory item
Go to Settings → Inventory.
Create an inventory item and enter:
- Name
- Available quantity
For example:
- Name:
SUP Boards - Available quantity:
12
The available quantity is the total number of interchangeable items Viking can allocate at the same time.
Assign inventory to products
Inventory is connected to products from the product settings.
Go to Settings → Products.
Open the product you want to configure and assign the relevant inventory items.
A single inventory item can be shared by multiple products.
For example, SUP Boards can be connected to both a SUP lesson and a SUP rental. Viking then checks the same shared quantity for both products.
Set inventory per group or student
For each product, inventory can be assigned in two ways:
- Inventory items for group — one item is used for each group.
- Inventory items for student — one item is used for each student.
You can use both at the same time when they represent different requirements.
For example, a SUP lesson might use:
- one SUP board per student; and
- one additional SUP board for the instructor.
In that case, add SUP Boards to both the student and group inventory settings.
You can also assign different inventory items to the same group or student. For example, a product could require one SUP and one Wing.
You cannot assign the same inventory item twice within the same group or student setting.
Do not add the same inventory twice
Inventory assigned in the main product settings and inventory assigned in a specific variant are both counted.
For example, if SUP Boards is set to one item per student in the main product settings and the same inventory item is also set to one item per student in the selected variant, Viking will count two SUP boards per student.
This is usually not intended.
If you use variant-specific inventory, it is therefore best to leave that inventory item out of the general product inventory settings and configure it only on the relevant variants.
Use different inventory settings for variants
Inventory settings can also be configured per variant.
This is useful when different variants of the same product require different equipment.
For example:
- Equipment included → 1 SUP board per student;
- Bring your own equipment → 0 SUP boards per student.
When using variant-specific inventory, avoid assigning the same inventory item in the general product settings as well, because both allocations are added together.
Configure the variant-specific inventory in the advanced settings of the relevant variant.
How Viking calculates inventory availability
Viking uses the product duration to calculate how long inventory remains occupied.
For example:
- you have 12 SUP boards;
- 5 students book a three-hour lesson at 11:00;
- those 5 boards remain in use until 14:00.
During that period, 7 boards remain available for other products that use the same inventory.
At 14:00, all boards used by that lesson become available again.
This is what allows Viking to safely share one inventory pool across lessons, rentals, and other products without overbooking it.
Inventory also affects availability in the booking form. If there is not enough inventory for a booking, that booking time is not available.
Inventory across locations
An inventory item has one shared available quantity.
It cannot hold a different quantity for each location.
If the same inventory item is used by products at multiple locations, those locations share the same inventory pool.
If locations have separate physical inventory, use separate products and inventory items so each location can be managed independently.
View inventory in Planning
When Inventory Tracking is enabled, Planning includes an Inventory tab.
There are two views:
Timeline
The Timeline shows inventory use across the day and makes it easier to see how long items remain occupied.
You can select a time block to see which bookings and products are using the inventory.
Time slots
The Time slots view shows how many inventory items remain available for each start time.
You can select the availability number to see the existing reservations using that inventory.
Add manual inventory reservations
You can also reserve inventory manually.
From the Inventory tab in Planning, click + Add reservation.
This is useful when inventory is unavailable for a reason that is not connected to a Viking booking, for example:
- a walk-in customer;
- equipment that has been set aside;
- another temporary use of the inventory.
Manual reservations reduce the available quantity in the same way as inventory used by a booking.
Check inventory in the Day Planner
In the Day Planner, groups that use inventory show an inventory icon next to the instructor.
Hover over the icon to see which inventory items and quantities are allocated to that lesson.
This gives planners a quick way to see which groups are using shared equipment.
Be careful when moving students manually
If you change a student's start time by dragging and dropping them to another time slot, Viking does not warn you if that move creates an inventory overlap.
After moving students this way, always check the Inventory view to make sure enough inventory is available at the new time.
Check inventory availability
If you expect a product to be bookable but no availability appears in the booking form, use the Availability Tester.
When inventory is connected to the product, the Tester shows:
- the inventory item;
- how many items are available;
- how many are needed for the tested booking.
For the full troubleshooting process, see Test product availability.