Negative balances: how to find and fix them

Negative balances in the accounting program are a signal of disorder in business processes in the warehouse, in documents with suppliers or customers. The appearance of negative and non-existent balances (when there is a product in the program, but it is not in the warehouse) is a sign that business processes need to be reorganized and control should be strengthened.

Causes of negative balances

They forgot to enter the arrival of goods into the accounting program, but the sale to the negative is allowed. This problem is solved by posting the goods retroactively. To detect such a situation in time, turn on the "Warn about negative sales" setting. In this case, the sellers will report the disputed situation, and the merchandiser will be able to quickly find the cause and decide how to sell the goods.

You got the wrong product. By mistake, the wrong product was delivered to the receipt, and the seller sells unprofitable items. In such a situation, you need to analyze the movement of goods, create the missing revenue, and find the goods that were posted by mistake and correct their movement.

Forgot to put the invoice into effect. The receipt document was created in advance, but at the time of the actual arrival of the goods, it was forgotten to be active. Solution: in the Warehouse - Receipt Register menu, find the receipt document, open it, and check the "Active invoice" box.

Re-sorting: the wrong product was sold or moved. If the seller made a mistake in the sale, such negative balances are equalized in the inventory. If there is an error in the write-off, return to supplier, or internal transfer documents, you need to make corrections to the document. Please note that editing a return to the supplier may affect mutual settlements.

Retroactive changes were made to income documents. Even a complete ban on negative sales will not save you from this situation. If someone intentionally or mistakenly corrected the quantity in a sales invoice, negative balances may not appear immediately, as there may be many subsequent postings and few expenses. Retroactive adjustments to documents must be strictly verified. Write a comment to the invoice item - this will help you remember what you did faster and correct discrepancies in the best way.

Failure to comply with technological maps. Accounting errors in flow charts can occur in the modes of production of finished goods, sale of complex services or kits, and if there are weight or fractional goods in the warehouse.
If, according to the flow chart, N units should have been written off, but in fact less was used in production, then material for the manufacture of another unit appears in the warehouse, but when it is produced, the components are in the red. In such a situation, monitor staff compliance with technical standards.

Weighted goods. Weighted goods always bring a lot of trouble in accounting - shrinkage, disturbance, holes in bags and packages, theft, and overweighting. This will synchronize the real warehouse with the accounting of goods in the program.
The main reason for negative balances is the packaging of a smaller amount of goods with a higher weight. The excess weight of the goods is compensated for by the aforementioned shrinkage and shaking.
It is not entirely correct to correct negative and non-existent balances only with the help of an inventory statement, since recalculation does not eliminate the cause of errors and may affect settlements with suppliers - you and the supplier will have different supply data. If 5–10 kilograms of fruit "dries out" in your store every month, you first need to find out the reason for this "microclimate".

Causes of negative balances:
1. The goods are not impounded.
2. Re-sort.
3. Deletion of receipt invoices.
4. Permission to sell goods at a loss.
5. Inventory errors.
6. Theft.
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How to control negative and non-existent balances

Prohibit the sale at a loss for all goods except for weight. The seller will not be able to sell the goods that were forgotten to be put on the receipt or mixed up in the accounting, and the commodity expert will promptly correct the situation.

View the warehouse status with a filter by negative balances on a daily or weekly basis to detect errors in a timely manner and avoid accumulating them.

How to correct negative balances: the procedure

1. Find out which of the business processes led to the error: the arrival of goods, movement between warehouses and outlets, theft or loss of goods. The easiest way to track the path of goods is in the "Goods movement" mode. If you can't do it yourself, contact the technical support service of Torgsoft.
2. Save the database before making any changes.
3. Act step by step, leave comments, and monitor the result after each action.
4. If the reason is that the documents were submitted late, take administrative action. Enter the missing warehouse documents and be sure to leave a comment.
5. If the reason is re-sorting, then re-account for the type of goods.
6. In principle, there should be no situation with retroactive changes to the quantity of goods. But if there is a suspicion that the document has been edited, then all actions can be tracked in the Document Change Log.
7. Failure to comply with production technology or weighing is corrected with the help of an inventory. Manual creation of receipt invoices will distort mutual settlements with suppliers.

How to prevent negative balances?

• Prohibit sales at a loss. A strict prohibition of sales in the red will allow you to immediately and on the spot deal with the causes and not accumulate errors.
• Administratively disable item selection from the warehouse and search by name. These methods can be used in some cases when you need to identify a product. But the constant selection of goods from the warehouse manually increases the number of errors due to the seller's inattention.
• Create a clear, unique description, attach a photo of the product when adding it to the accounting system so that the employee can visually check which product they are adding to the sale or warehouse document.
• Close documents when you're done with them. This protects against accidental or intentional changes.
• Minimize manual entry and automate processes. For the sale of weighted goods, activate the function "Connecting electronic scales for weighing goods during sale" so that sellers do not enter the weight of the goods manually.
• Write instructions for employees. If an entrepreneur allows a violation of the order in warehouse documents, this inevitably leads to mistakes and abuse. Monitor and motivate compliance with the rules. Appoint and train people who are financially responsible.