Why the warehouse and the accounts never agree on stock
Almost every distributor we talk to has two stock figures. The one the warehouse believes, and the one the accounts package shows. At year end an accountant asks which one is right and somebody spends a weekend finding out.
Neither is wrong on purpose. They disagree because they are updated by different people at different times from different pieces of paper.
The four causes
- Timing. Goods arrive Monday morning and are put away and sold by Tuesday. The delivery docket reaches the office Thursday. For three days the system thinks stock is lower than it is, and then it is higher.
- Double entry. The same goods receipt is written on the docket, typed into the warehouse sheet and typed again into accounts. Three chances to differ.
- Units. Cases, singles, kilos, pallets. If the warehouse counts cases and the system holds singles, every conversion is a place for a mistake.
- Adjustments nobody records. Breakages, samples, returns and short deliveries are dealt with on the floor and not written anywhere.
Why counting more often does not fix it
Stocktakes tell you the size of the gap. They do not tell you why it exists, and by the time the count is reconciled, the causes above have created a new gap.
One movement, recorded once
The principle is the same as with orders and pricing. Every stock movement should be recorded once, at the moment it happens, by the person doing it:
- Goods in, scanned or entered at the door, against the purchase order.
- Picks recorded as they are picked, so the order is what left the building.
- Adjustments made on the floor, with a reason, in a few seconds.
- Accounts receives stock value from the operation. It does not hold its own count.
Once that is true, the warehouse figure and the accounts figure are the same figure, because there is only one.
Where to go next
- Software for distributors and wholesalers
- Systems integration. Connecting stock to the accounts package.
- Tell us where your stock figure goes wrong
FAQ
Is a barcode scanner enough to fix stock accuracy?
Scanning helps with picking and goods in, but only if the scan updates the single stock record everyone uses. Scanning into a warehouse system that is then retyped into accounts recreates the problem.
Should stock be managed in the accounts package?
For a simple business, sometimes. For a distributor with picking, units of measure, returns and multiple locations, the accounts package is too far from the floor. Hold stock in the operations system and pass values to accounts.
How often should we do a stocktake?
With movements recorded as they happen, rolling counts of a few lines a day replace the year end weekend. The count then confirms the system rather than correcting it.