How to find and fix stock discrepancies

Have a second person count the bin, without seeing the first count or the system figure. Many gaps close here. A miscounted carton, a skipped shelf and a count taken while someone was picking all look like stock problems and are not.

• Unit of measure. A carton of 12 counted as one unit gives a gap of 11 for every carton.
• The neighbouring bins. Stock put away one bay over shows as short in one place and over in another.
• The same item in more than one bin. Count all of them before you call it missing.
• Similar SKUs. Sizes and colours of the same product are easy to mix up on the shelf.

Look at the movements since the last time the numbers agreed: receipts, picks, returns, transfers and write-offs. You are looking for a receipt booked to the wrong item, a pick recorded against the wrong SKU, a return that never went back on the shelf, or a damaged item that left the shelf and stayed on the books.

One odd variance is noise. Several with something in common is a process problem. Ask whether the gaps cluster in one zone, one supplier's deliveries, one shift, one type of item, or the bins next to the dock. Where they cluster is where your process is leaking.

If you found the cause and it is a recording error, correct the record. If stock is truly gone and you cannot explain it, write it off and note that it is unexplained. Do not leave a variance open because nobody wants to sign for it.

Always record a reason. Someone will ask in six months why a quantity changed.

Fixing the number is the easy part. Change whatever produced the error: add a check when receiving, label the bins that were confusing, split a case size that kept being miscounted. Then run a cycle count on that area to see whether the fix held.

The Variances tab of a session shows each count against your imported quantity. A second count of the same item becomes a recount instead of overwriting the first. The Financial Impact tab, visible to Managers and above, puts a dollar value on the gaps and produces a PDF report for sign-off. When a Team Leader or above commits the session, the counts lock. The steps are in How It Works, and the stock take guide covers the run-up to a full count.