How to Build a Custom Inventory Management Dashboard for Multi-Warehouse Operations

Introduction

Managing inventory across multiple warehouses can feel like juggling while riding a unicycle—especially when each site is running its own Magento instance or when you rely on extensions to tune stock behavior. If you want a single place to see stock levels, automate status updates, trigger alerts for critical shortages, and optimize transfers between warehouses in (near) real time, building a custom inventory management dashboard is a pragmatic solution.

This post walks you through building a practical, extensible inventory dashboard for multi-warehouse operations, with concrete code examples and integration tips for Magento 2. I’ll include how to integrate the Force Product Stock Status extension into the dashboard, automate stock-status updates across sites, create custom critical-stock alerts, and optimize inventory transfers with real-time synchronization.

What this dashboard solves

• Centralized visibility across multiple warehouses and Magento stores.
• Unified stock-status view (including Force Product Stock Status where applicable).
• Automated propagation of stock status changes between stores.
• Configurable alerts for critical out-of-stock situations.
• Smart transfer recommendations and automated transfer flow between warehouses.
• Near real-time updates using a message queue or WebSocket layer.

High-level architecture

Keep things modular. Here’s a pragmatic architecture I recommend:

1. Data sources: multiple Magento 2 instances (MSI enabled or not), possibly a Force Product Stock Status extension per store.
2. Sync layer: small connectors running in each Magento instance that expose normalized stock and status endpoints, and push events to a message bus (RabbitMQ) or a webhook to a central API.
3. Central API: aggregates data, stores time-series state, runs transfer-optimization logic, exposes REST endpoints for the dashboard.
4. Dashboard UI: React (or plain JS) single-page app displaying warehouse KPIs, product-level stock, transfer suggestions, and alert management.
5. Real-time channel: Socket.IO or pub/sub subscribing to the message bus so the UI updates instantly.

Core data model

Here’s a minimal data model you’ll want in the central API/database. Use this as a starting point and extend as needed:

• Warehouse { id, name, location, lead_time_days, daily_capacity }
• Product { sku, name, attributes... }
• StockSnapshot { sku, warehouse_id, qty_on_hand, qty_reserved, available_qty, stock_status, updated_at }
• Transfer { id, sku, from_warehouse_id, to_warehouse_id, qty, status, created_at, completed_at }
• AlertRule { id, sku_or_group, warehouse_id_or_global, threshold, severity, channels, active }

Step 1 — Collect stock data from each Magento instance

Start by exposing a simple connector inside each Magento site. You can either:

• Use Magento’s REST/GraphQL APIs to fetch stock and product info, or
• Create a small custom Magento module that exposes a normalized endpoint and emits events on stock changes.

I prefer the second approach for real-time integrations because it allows you to attach observers to stock-change events and push only deltas to the central system.

Magento connector: a tiny controller returning warehouse stock

Place this simple controller in a custom module so your central dashboard can call /connector/stock?api_key=XYZ and receive normalized data.

// app/code/Vendor/Connector/Controller/Index/Stock.php (simplified)
namespace Vendor\Connector\Controller\Index;

use Magento\Framework\App\Action\Action;
use Magento\Framework\App\Action\Context;
use Magento\InventoryApi\StockRegistryInterface;
use Magento\CatalogInventory\Api\StockStateInterface;
use Magento\Catalog\Model\ProductRepository;
use Magento\Framework\Serialize\Serializer\Json;

class Stock extends Action
{
    private $stockState;
    private $productRepository;
    private $json;

    public function __construct(Context $context, StockStateInterface $stockState, ProductRepository $productRepository, Json $json)
    {
        parent::__construct($context);
        $this->stockState = $stockState;
        $this->productRepository = $productRepository;
        $this->json = $json;
    }

    public function execute()
    {
        $skus = $this->getRequest()->getParam('skus'); // comma-separated or empty for all
        $list = [];
        if ($skus) {
            $skus = explode(',', $skus);
        } else {
            // NOTE: for production, paginate through products, this is simplified
            $skus = ['example-sku-1', 'example-sku-2'];
        }

        foreach ($skus as $sku) {
            try {
                $product = $this->productRepository->get($sku);
                $qty = $this->stockState->getStockQty($sku, 1); // stock id 1 default
                $status = $product->getExtensionAttributes() && $product->getExtensionAttributes()->getStockItem() ? ($product->getExtensionAttributes()->getStockItem()->getIsInStock() ? 'in_stock' : 'out_of_stock') : 'unknown';

                $list[] = [
                    'sku' => $sku,
                    'qty_on_hand' => (float)$qty,
                    'stock_status' => $status,
                    'updated_at' => date('c')
                ];
            } catch (\Exception $e) {
                // log and continue
            }
        }

        $this->getResponse()->representJson($this->json->serialize(['warehouse' => 'WH-1','data' => $list]));
    }
}

Notes:

• For production, use pagination and security (API keys, signed JWTs) to avoid exposing your store.
• If you use Magento MSI, query the inventory sources and reservations to get accurate available_qty (inventory-api).
• Also include any Force Product Stock Status information if the extension exposes a product attribute or a method you can call. We’ll cover this below.

Step 2 — Integrate Force Product Stock Status

If you use Force Product Stock Status (FPS) in your stores, your dashboard must show whether a product is being forced to a specific status (for example forcing in-stock for a marketing campaign). There are two approaches:

1. Read a custom product attribute that the extension sets (common). Add that attribute to your connector output.
2. If the extension exposes its own API, call it from your connector and merge its state into the normalized response.

Example: reading a custom attribute "force_stock_status"

// Inside the previous controller loop, after loading $product
$forceStatus = $product->getCustomAttribute('force_stock_status');
$forceStatusValue = $forceStatus ? $forceStatus->getValue() : null;

$list[] = [
  'sku' => $sku,
  'qty_on_hand' => (float)$qty,
  'stock_status' => $status,
  'force_stock_status' => $forceStatusValue,
  'updated_at' => date('c')
];

Explaination: Many extensions save forced states as a product attribute or source-level flag. If Force Product Stock Status stores state differently, adjust the connector to read from its table or service.

Step 3 — Push deltas to a central API (event-driven)

Instead of polling frequently, push changes. Create an observer in Magento that listens to stock updates or product save and POSTs a small payload to your central API. This reduces load and keeps the central dashboard fresh.

Observer example (simplified)

// app/code/Vendor/Connector/etc/events.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Event/etc/events.xsd">
    <event name="cataloginventory_stock_item_save_after">
        <observer name="vendor_connector_stock_observer" instance="Vendor\Connector\Observer\StockObserver" />
    </event>
</config>

// app/code/Vendor/Connector/Observer/StockObserver.php
namespace Vendor\Connector\Observer;

use Magento\Framework\Event\ObserverInterface;
use Magento\Framework\HTTP\Client\Curl;

class StockObserver implements ObserverInterface
{
    private $curl;
    public function __construct(Curl $curl) { $this->curl = $curl; }

    public function execute(\Magento\Framework\Event\Observer $observer)
    {
        $stockItem = $observer->getEvent()->getItem();
        $sku = $stockItem->getSku();
        $qty = $stockItem->getQty();
        $isInStock = $stockItem->getIsInStock();

        $payload = json_encode(['sku' => $sku, 'qty' => $qty, 'stock_status' => $isInStock ? 'in_stock' : 'out_of_stock', 'warehouse' => 'WH-1']);

        try {
            $this->curl->post('https://central-api.internal/ingest', $payload);
        } catch (\Exception $e) {
            // log
        }
    }
}

Use the ingest endpoint to append changes to a time-series store or apply diff merging logic so you can always reconstruct the latest state.

Step 4 — Central API: normalize, store, and expose

The central API receives pushes or handles scheduled pulls, normalizes them, and writes snapshots. For fast queries, store the latest snapshot per (sku, warehouse) in a relational DB and keep a history table for trends.

Example API contract (JSON)

{
  "warehouse": "WH-1",
  "source_url": "https://store-a.example",
  "data": [
    {"sku":"sku-1", "qty_on_hand": 100, "qty_reserved": 10, "available_qty": 90, "stock_status":"in_stock", "force_stock_status": null, "updated_at":"2025-09-01T12:00:00Z"}
  ]
}

On the central side implement a lightweight endpoint that validates signatures (HMAC), upserts latest snapshot per sku/warehouse, and publishes a message to the real-time channel so dashboards update instantly.

Step 5 — Dashboard front-end

Build a responsive UI with these features:

• Warehouse filter (map or list)
• Product search by SKU or name
• Table with columns: SKU, Name, Warehouse, Qty On Hand, Reserved, Available, Stock Status, Forced Status
• Alert panel with active alert rules and recent triggered alerts
• Transfer recommendations and actions to create transfers between warehouses
• Live activity feed (incoming sync messages)

Simple HTML + JS example that fetches and renders aggregated stock

<div id="dashboard">
  <input id="skuFilter" placeholder="Search SKU" />
  <table id="stockTable">
    <thead><tr><th>SKU</th><th>Name</th><th>Warehouse</th><th>Available</th><th>Status</th><th>Forced</th></tr></thead>
    <tbody></tbody>
  </table>
</div>

<script>
async function fetchStocks(sku){
  const url = '/api/stocks' + (sku ? '?sku='+encodeURIComponent(sku) : '');
  const res = await fetch(url, {headers:{'Accept':'application/json'}});
  return await res.json();
}

function renderTable(data){
  const tbody = document.querySelector('#stockTable tbody');
  tbody.innerHTML = '';
  data.forEach(row => {
    const tr = document.createElement('tr');
    tr.innerHTML = `${row.sku}${row.name||''}${row.warehouse}${row.available_qty}${row.stock_status}${row.force_stock_status||''}`;
    tbody.appendChild(tr);
  });
}

const input = document.getElementById('skuFilter');
input.addEventListener('input', async (e)=>{
  const data = await fetchStocks(e.target.value);
  renderTable(data);
});

// initial load
fetchStocks().then(renderTable);
</script>

Step 6 — Real-time sync: message bus or WebSocket

For near-instant updates, publish stock-change messages to a queue (RabbitMQ) or a pub/sub and have your central API subscribe and forward to a Socket.IO server. That way the UI receives updates and the central store is consistent.

Quick node.js Socket.IO server (publish-only example)

const express = require('express');
const http = require('http');
const socketIo = require('socket.io');

const app = express();
const server = http.createServer(app);
const io = socketIo(server, { cors: { origin: '*' } });

io.on('connection', (socket) => {
  console.log('client connected', socket.id);
});

// Central API posts an update to this endpoint, server emits to clients
app.use(express.json());
app.post('/emit', (req, res) => {
  const message = req.body;
  io.emit('stock_update', message);
  res.sendStatus(204);
});

server.listen(3001, () => console.log('Socket server listening on 3001'));

On the dashboard, open a socket connection and update the UI in real time:

const socket = io('https://sockets.internal:3001');
socket.on('stock_update', msg => {
  // update your in-memory table row and re-render
  console.log('stock update', msg);
});

Step 7 — Automated stock-status updates between sites

Sometimes you want a stock status change in Store A to propagate to Store B (for example if a centralized fulfillment decision sets a product to out-of-stock or forces in-stock). The steps:

1. Decide which site owns inventory truth for each SKU (source of truth).
2. When the truth site changes status, the connector emits a message to the central API.
3. The central API evaluates configured rules and makes REST calls to target Magento stores to update status/attributes.

Example: propagate forced status via REST

Assume Force Product Stock Status uses a custom attribute "force_stock_status" on product. To set this programmatically on Store B, you can call Store B’s REST API to update the attribute.

# Example: update product attribute on Store B
curl -X PUT "https://store-b.example/rest/V1/products/sku-123" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin_token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"product":{"sku":"sku-123","custom_attributes":[{"attribute_code":"force_stock_status","value":"in_stock"}]}}'

Wrap that curl in a central job triggered by the ingestion pipeline. Make sure to authenticate securely and implement idempotency (e.g., only send updates when the value actually changed).

Step 8 — Alerts for critical out-of-stock (OOS)

Alerts are easy and extremely useful. Implement rules that fire when available_qty < threshold OR when a store’s forced status contradicts available inventory (e.g., forced in_stock but available_qty < 0).

Alert flow

1. User configures AlertRule (sku or group, warehouse/global, threshold, severity, channels like email/Slack/SMS).
2. Central ingestion detects condition and creates an AlertEvent (store in DB).
3. AlertDispatcher sends notifications via configured channels and optionally creates a ticket in your support system.

Example: Node.js alert dispatcher snippet (Slack + email)

const fetch = require('node-fetch');
const nodemailer = require('nodemailer');

async function sendSlack(webhook, text){
  await fetch(webhook, {method:'POST', body:JSON.stringify({text}), headers:{'Content-Type':'application/json'}});
}

async function sendEmail(smtpConfig, to, subject, text){
  const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(smtpConfig);
  await transporter.sendMail({from: smtpConfig.auth.user, to, subject, text});
}

async function dispatchAlert(alert){
  const text = `ALERT: ${alert.sku} in ${alert.warehouse} low: ${alert.available_qty} (threshold ${alert.threshold})`;
  if(alert.channels.includes('slack')) await sendSlack(process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK, text);
  if(alert.channels.includes('email')) await sendEmail({host:'smtp.example', port:587, auth:{user:'noreply@example', pass:'pw'}}, 'ops@example.com', 'Critical stock alert', text);
}

Design considerations:

• Throttle repeated alerts with a cooldown window to avoid spamming.
• Allow escalation: email → SMS → phone call for severity levels.

Step 9 — Optimize transfers between warehouses

Transfers should be smart and actionable. The goal is to minimize stockouts but avoid overstocking. A simple algorithm works well initially:

1. For each warehouse, compute target safety stock = max(daily_demand * lead_time_days + min_buffer, minimum)
2. Compute surplus = available_qty - safety_stock. Surplus > 0 means available to send.
3. Compute deficit = safety_stock - available_qty for warehouses with deficits.
4. Create transfer suggestions by matching biggest surplus to biggest deficit, considering transit time and transfer cost.

Example: simple transfer suggestion in JS

function suggestTransfers(warehouses, sku) {
  // warehouses: [{id, name, available_qty, daily_demand, lead_time_days}]
  warehouses.forEach(w => {
    w.safety = Math.max(Math.ceil(w.daily_demand * w.lead_time_days + 5), 10); // 5 units min buffer
    w.surplus = w.available_qty - w.safety;
  });

  const donors = warehouses.filter(w => w.surplus > 0).sort((a,b)=> b.surplus - a.surplus);
  const receivers = warehouses.filter(w => w.surplus <= 0).sort((a,b)=> a.surplus - b.surplus);

  const suggestions = [];
  for(const r of receivers){
    let need = Math.abs(r.surplus);
    for(const d of donors){
      if(need <= 0) break;
      const canSend = Math.min(d.surplus, need);
      if(canSend > 0) {
        suggestions.push({sku, from: d.id, to: r.id, qty: canSend});
        d.surplus -= canSend;
        need -= canSend;
      }
    }
  }
  return suggestions;
}

Once a transfer is approved in the dashboard, create a Transfer record and send an instruction to the source warehouse to pick and ship, update reservations, and then mark the transfer completed when received. Use the message bus to update the central system at each step.

Step 10 — Syncing transfers in real time

To ensure transfer states are accurate, follow these best practices:

• When a transfer is created, reserve inventory in the source warehouse immediately (create a reservation or a pick ticket).
• Emit events for the pick, ship, and receive actions so the central dashboard mirrors the state.
• Use optimistic UI updates but always show "last verified" timestamps so operators understand eventual consistency behavior.

Operational considerations and hardening

Before you go all-in, consider these practical topics:

• Security: sign webhooks (HMAC) and use TLS everywhere.
• Idempotency: ensure repeated deliveries don’t create duplicate transfers.
• Visibility: keep audit trails for who forced stock statuses and why.
• Rate limits: avoid too-frequent REST calls to Magento stores — prefer event-driven updates.
• Testing: simulate inventory events and run chaos tests for network partitions to validate reconciliation logic.
• Backups: periodically snapshot your central inventory state for reconciliation or forensic analyses.

Putting it all together: example workflow

1. Operator in Warehouse A sells a popular SKU; stock goes below threshold.
2. Magento connector detects the change and emits a stock_update event to the central API (via the observer). It includes Force Product Stock Status info if present.
3. Central API upserts snapshot and runs the alert rules — triggers a critical alert to Slack and email.
4. Central API recalculates transfer recommendations and suggests moving stock from Warehouse B to A.
5. Operator approves the transfer in the dashboard; central API creates a Transfer and sends a pick instruction to Warehouse B's connector (which reserves inventory).
6. Warehouse B picks and ships; its connector emits a transfer_shipped event and the dashboard updates in real time. When received at A, Warehouse A connector emits transfer_received and the available_qty updates.
7. If a marketing team wants to force the item to "in_stock" for a promotion, they change Force Product Stock Status in Store A. The connector reports the forced state and the central dashboard shows both forced state and real available_qty so ops can act if needed.

Example: reconciliation job (cron) for safety

Event-driven systems are great, but build a nightly reconciliation job that pulls full snapshots from each store, computes diffs, and fixes drift. For example, query all SKUs changed in the last 24 hours and reconcile with central records.

// pseudo cron job
async function nightlyReconcile(stores) {
  for(const store of stores){
    const allStock = await fetch(`${store.connector}/stock?all=1`);
    for(const row of allStock){
      const central = await db.getLatest(row.sku, store.warehouseId);
      if(!central || central.available_qty !== row.available_qty) {
        // log discrepancy and upsert
        await db.upsertSnapshot({sku: row.sku, warehouse: store.warehouseId, available_qty: row.available_qty, updated_at: row.updated_at});
      }
    }
  }
}

SEO and checklist for Magento store owners (magefine.com focus)

While building this dashboard, keep the following SEO / site-relevance points in mind for the content you publish on magefine.com:

• Include the term "Magento 2 inventory" and "multi-warehouse" naturally across headings and meta description.
• Mention Force Product Stock Status explicitly in the text when describing forced-state behaviors and integration steps.
• Write practical how-to sections (like the code examples above) so search engines detect useful content for developers searching for solutions.
• Include case studies or screenshots in the final article on the site to increase engagement and dwell time.

Performance tips

• Cache aggregated results with short TTLs (10–30s) to lower load on the central DB while providing near-real-time experience.
• Use Redis for ephemeral state (active alerts, open transfers) and Postgres for durable snapshots.
• Compress socket payloads and send only diffs instead of entire snapshots on every event.

Wrap up and next steps

Building a custom inventory dashboard is a highly practical way to regain control of multi-warehouse operations. Start small: expose a secure connector per Magento instance and implement a basic central API that stores snapshots and emits socket events. Incrementally add Force Product Stock Status support, alerting rules, and transfer optimization algorithms.

Prioritize security, idempotency, and reconciliation jobs to keep the system robust. Once you’ve nailed the basics, you can add features like predictive replenishment (using historical sell-through data), SLA-based transfer routing, and advanced forecasting.

If you want a checklist to get started this week

1. Create a Magento connector module (simple controller + observer) and secure it with an API key.
2. Expose Force Product Stock Status info in the connector output.
3. Build a central ingest endpoint that upserts snapshots and publishes messages.
4. Set up a basic Socket.IO server and a simple dashboard UI to render live updates.
5. Implement a single alert rule for critical low stock and test Slack/email notifications.
6. Create a simple transfer suggestion script and a manual approval flow in the dashboard.
7. Add a nightly reconciliation job to fix drift.

If you want, I can provide a repository skeleton (Magento module + Node socket server + central API stub + simple React dashboard) so you can clone and iterate quickly. Tell me which stack you prefer for the central API (Node, PHP/Lumen, Laravel, or Symfony) and I’ll scaffold an initial repo.

Good luck—this is a game-changer for multi-warehouse merchants. If you hit a snag integrating Force Product Stock Status with a specific store, paste the extension attribute names or a DB snippet and I’ll help you map it into the connector output.

— Your colleague in inventory engineering