# Fishbowl: Cannot add inventory with negative cost

> Inventory costs must be zero or positive; you've entered or calculated a negative value.

## What it means
You've tried to add or receive inventory with a negative cost value. Fishbowl requires inventory costs to be zero or positive; negative values aren't permitted in this operation. This usually means you entered a minus sign in a cost field, or a calculated cost came out negative.

## What to check
- The cost value you entered: look for an accidental minus sign or negative number
- Whether the cost is being auto-calculated: if so, verify that source values are positive
- Whether you intended a cost adjustment instead of simple inventory addition

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*From Israel Lopez Consulting (ILC). Custom Fishbowl Inventory integrations and software, and Fishbowl experts since 2015. Written by Israel Lopez. Questions about this topic, or want to reach the people who wrote it? Visit https://israellopezconsulting.com/contact*