--- title: "Getting Started with Stock History & Reports Manager for WooCommerce" description: "Install Stock History & Reports Manager for WooCommerce, take your first stock snapshot and find the product history, reports and tools." url: "https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-getting-started/" updated: "2026-10-05" category: Getting Started --- # Getting Started with Stock History & Reports Manager for WooCommerce To start tracking stock with [Stock History & Reports Manager for WooCommerce](https://wpfactory.com/item/stock-snapshot-for-woocommerce/), install and activate it, then go to **WPFactory > Stock Snapshot** (also reachable at **WooCommerce > Settings > Stock Snapshot**). It records stock on every product update and once a day by default, so history starts building right away. ## What Stock History does Stock History takes **stock snapshots**: a record of a product's stock quantity at a moment in time. It saves a snapshot each time a product is updated (for example after a sale, a refund or a manual edit) and also on a schedule for every product. From those snapshots you can: - See each product's stock history, with who or what changed it, in a box on the product edit screen. - Run a stock change report for any date range, filtered by user, category or restocked products. - Compare stock levels across days, months or years in one table. - Export any of these views to CSV. - Show recently restocked products on your store with a shortcode. - Pro: receive snapshot emails and scheduled daily report emails. ## Requirements - WooCommerce, installed and active. - Products with **Manage stock?** enabled (on the product's Inventory tab). Products that do not track a quantity have no stock number to record. - Working WP-Cron for scheduled snapshots. The plugin uses Action Scheduler, which WooCommerce includes. ## Install and activate 1. Go to **Plugins > Add New Plugin**. 2. Search for the plugin name to install the free version, or click **Upload Plugin** and choose the Pro zip file from your WPFactory account. 3. Click **Install Now**, then **Activate**. 4. Go to **WPFactory > Stock Snapshot**, or click **Settings** under the plugin name on the Plugins screen. If both the free and Pro versions are installed, the free copy steps aside while Pro is active. ![WPFactory, Stock Snapshot General section with the section links (General, Tools, Report, History, Emails) visible](https://wpfactory.com/wp-content/uploads/stock-history-getting-started-1.png) ## First steps 1. On the **General** section, review the defaults. **Product update snapshots**, **Extra data**, **Include variations** and **Periodic snapshots** (every 86400 seconds, once a day) are all on. 2. Take a first snapshot of your whole catalog so every product has a starting point: open the **Tools** section, tick **Take snapshot** and click **Save changes**. A message confirms how many products were recorded. 3. Open any stock-managed product. Scroll to the **Stock Snapshot** box to see its history. 4. Open the **Report** section later to see stock changes over the last day, or pick a longer range. ## The settings screen at a glance - **General**: when snapshots are taken, what data they store, how variations are handled, and whether reports are prepared in the background. - **Tools**: take a snapshot now, delete all snapshots, or clear the plugin's cached report data. - **Report**: a list of every stock change in a date range, with filters and CSV export. - **History**: a table of stock levels per product across dates, with CSV export. - **Emails**: snapshot emails and daily report emails (Pro). ## Free and Pro Snapshots, the product history box, the Report and History sections, CSV exports, the shortcode and the tools are all free. The **Emails** section is Pro: in the free version its switches are disabled. See [Stock History Free vs Pro](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-free-vs-pro/). ## Where to go next - [How to See WooCommerce Stock History for a Product](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-product/) - [How to Create a WooCommerce Stock Change Report](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-stock-change-report/) - [How to Schedule Automatic WooCommerce Stock Snapshots](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-schedule-snapshots/) - [Stock History settings reference](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-settings/) ### Get more from Stock History Tracking and reports are free. [Stock History & Reports Manager for WooCommerce](https://wpfactory.com/item/stock-snapshot-for-woocommerce/) Pro adds stock snapshot emails and scheduled daily report emails. [See what Pro unlocks](https://wpfactory.com/item/stock-snapshot-for-woocommerce/). Need a hand? Our team answers every ticket on the [Stock History support forum](https://wpfactory.com/support/). Related articles - [Stock History Troubleshooting: Missing Snapshots, Slow Reports and Emails](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-troubleshooting/) - [Stock History Developer Reference: Hooks, Filters and Data](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-developers/) - [How to Email WooCommerce Stock Reports Automatically](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-email-reports/) - [How to See WooCommerce Stock Levels on a Past Date](https://wpfactory.com/docs/stock-history-past-stock-levels/)