Restocking, shortages and surpluses: how to correctly read inventory results
Inventory: how to deal with stock mix-ups, shortages, and surpluses
If large shortages, surpluses, or a stock mix-up amount appear in the sheet after inventory, this does not yet mean that all goods are actually lost. Some of these discrepancies arise due to stock mix-ups, selling into negative stock, goods receipt errors, packing errors, or confusion between similar goods. Therefore, before closing the sheet, it is important to understand the nature of the discrepancies, separate actual product loss from accounting errors, and correctly align stock balances.
Do not treat every large shortage amount as a direct loss without additional checking. Some discrepancies may result from stock mix-ups, cashier errors, sales without goods receipt, incorrect packing, or work with serial numbers. If you close the sheet without analyzing the causes, the program will align the balances, but the management conclusion about losses or staff responsibility may be incorrect. If you are not sure how to interpret large discrepancies in your inventory, contact technical support.
What inventory problems look like
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«The sheet shows a shortage, although the goods are physically in the store.»
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«Minuses appeared for one product and pluses for another at the same time.»
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«The program shows a large amount in the "Stock mix-up amount" column.»
What signs indicate a stock mix-up, shortages, or surpluses
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In the inventory sheet, the «Discrepancy» column shows large positive (surplus) and negative (shortage) values.
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The «Stock mix-up amount» column contains a value other than zero.
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There are negative balances (minuses) for certain items in the warehouse even before the inventory starts.
Why large discrepancies appear after inventory
Reason 1. Stock mix-up due to confusion between similar goods
A stock mix-up is a simultaneous surplus and shortage of the same product model but of a different type, such as color, size, and so on.
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How to recognize it? The sheet shows a shortage of black socks (-2 pcs) and a surplus of brown socks (+2 pcs).
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Why does it happen? The seller gave the customer black socks but, for speed, scanned the barcode from the brown ones because they were closer or had the same price. For the seller, goods often differ only by price, but for the program these are different products.
Reason 2. Goods were sold or entered with errors before correct goods receipt
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How to recognize it? The goods are physically in the store (surplus during inventory), but before that the program showed their quantity as negative.
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Why does it happen? The goods were sold before the receipt invoice was entered into the program (selling into negative stock). Another cause may be that the supplier sent one size during goods receipt, but another size was mistakenly entered in the invoice.
Reason 3. Packing, unpacking, or kitting error
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How to recognize it? There is a shortage of a whole package of goods and, at the same time, a surplus of individual items from the same package, or vice versa.
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Why does it happen? The goods are sold both in packages and individually. The seller opened the box but did not perform unpacking in the program and started selling the items individually.
Reason 4. Actual product shortage (theft or unregistered sale)
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How to recognize it? The sheet shows only a minus (shortage). There are no matching surpluses of similar goods that could cover it.
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Why does it happen? The goods are physically absent from the warehouse, but they remain in stock balances in the program because no warehouse document was posted to reduce their quantity: sale, return to supplier, write-off, transfer, or another operation. In this case, you need to check the product movement and determine at which stage the balance in the program stopped matching the actual availability.
Reason 5. Actual product surplus
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How to recognize it? The sheet shows a positive discrepancy that is not covered by any shortage.
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Why does it happen? The supplier accidentally delivered more goods than were listed in the invoice, and this was not noticed during goods receipt. Or the customer returned the goods, money was paid back from the cash desk, but the return was not documented in the program.
Action algorithm: how to check and fix
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Open the inventory sheet (Warehouse → Warehouse Status → Inventory Sheet) and check the columns «Receipt amount», «Write-off amount», «Stock mix-up amount», and «Shortage amount».
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Analyze the stock mix-up. The program automatically offsets surpluses and shortages for identical models. For example, if 2 black socks are missing (10 UAH each) and there are 2 extra brown socks (10 UAH each), the program will write off the brown ones and post the black ones as a receipt. The stock mix-up amount will be 20 UAH.
Attention: if the value of the shortage exceeds the value of the surplus, the difference will be included in the actual shortage. -
Check the movement of the suspicious product. Select the product with a shortage or surplus and click the Product movement button. Check whether there were sales into negative stock or canceled receipts.
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Fix errors with warranty/serial-numbered goods, if any. If there is a shortage for one serial number and a surplus for another because the seller mixed up the boxes, use the Serial number replacement in the sheet action to eliminate the stock mix-up.
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Close the inventory sheet using the Close inventory sheet button.
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The program will automatically create a Receipt document for all detected surpluses. The purchase price will be taken from the last cost.
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The program will automatically create a Write-off document for all detected shortages.
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After closing the sheet, the product quantity in stock will be brought into line with the actual quantity.
How to check that inventory aligned the balances correctly
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Go to Warehouse → Warehouse Status.
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Enable the Only with negative quantity filter. The list must be empty.
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Find the product that had a stock mix-up. Its actual quantity must exactly match the counted quantity.
What to do if an error was found after the sheet was closed
If you closed the sheet but later found another box of goods, you do not need to cancel the sheet closing if there were already sales after that (product movement). Create a new inventory sheet only for the found items, enter their actual quantity, and then close it again.
What to prepare for technical support if discrepancies do not match
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Torgsoft version (Help → About the program).
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Inventory sheet number and its closing date.
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Barcodes or item codes of 2-3 problem products.
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Screenshot of product movement for these items.
How to prevent stock mix-ups, shortages, and surpluses in the future
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Prohibit selling into negative stock. In the Settings → Parameters → Accounting menu, enable Prohibit selling into negative stock. This will prevent negative balances from appearing.
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Restrict seller permissions. Disable sellers’ access to view warehouse balances. If the seller does not see that the goods are absent in the database, they will not be able to adjust the count to match expected numbers.
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Label all goods with unique barcodes. If the manufacturer uses the same barcode for different clothing sizes or colors, generate your own Torgsoft barcodes and relabel the goods. This will prevent stock mix-ups at the cash register.
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Control product cancellation. Enable the Register removal of goods from sale setting with mandatory reason entry. This will make it possible to identify who takes money but cancels the receipt.
Frequently Asked Questions
Reassortment is a situation in accounting when during inventory a simultaneous shortage of one product and an excess of another (usually of a different variety, color or size) is detected. For example, you actually lack two black pairs of socks, but have two extra brown ones.
The Torgsoft program is able to automatically analyze such discrepancies and offset surpluses and shortages if they concern the same product models. The difference in value between these mixed products is recorded in a special column of the statement - "Amount of reassortment".
Most often this happens due to an unintentional error by the seller at the checkout or confusion with barcodes. For the seller, similar products (for example, T-shirts of different colors, but with the same price) visually seem identical, so for speed, he can scan the barcode from the item that is closer, and physically give the buyer another.
As a result of such actions, the computer writes off the product whose barcode was scanned from the warehouse (forming its virtual shortage), while the product actually sold remains "hanging" on the balances in the database, forming a surplus.
Yes, a restocking is closed automatically within one inventory statement. When you complete the count and click the "Close statement" button, the program itself analyzes the actual balances that you entered and compares them with computer data.
After that, Torgsoft automatically creates a receipt document for all detected surpluses (valuing them at the last purchase price) and a write-off document for all shortages. Thanks to this, the quantity of goods in the warehouse is automatically brought into line with the actual quantity without the need to create corrective documents manually.
Huge shortages most often occur due to two main groups of reasons. First, it can be a real theft of goods from the sales floor or unscrupulous actions of staff (for example, when a seller takes money from a client, but then completely cancels the sale in the program). If all inventory data constantly shows a large number of shortages and re-sorting, management should carefully check the activities of sellers.
Secondly, shortages can be “virtual” (accounting). They arise due to packaging or assembly errors (the goods are sold individually, without unpacking the box in the program), or when the goods were actively sold “at a loss” before the incoming invoice was entered. The reason may also be unissued invoices or errors by cashiers who scan other goods instead of the sold ones.
The main difference between a mistake and a theft is the presence of the same reassortment. If it is a simple cashier's error or confusion, then the shortage of one product will necessarily be covered by an excess of another, very similar in characteristics or price of the product.
If the inventory report records only a positive amount of the shortage (i.e. only minuses for the product), and there are no overlapping surpluses, this is a clear signal of a real loss of the product or a sale past the cash register. To check a suspicious item more deeply, you need to select this product and use the "Product movement" function, where you can track all operations, sales and cancellations related to this unit.
Confusion with barcodes directly leads to a distortion of the real picture of the balances and the constant formation of reassortment. For example, if a manufacturer uses the same barcode for different sizes or colors of clothing, the program will not be able to correctly write off specific items sold, which makes accurate dimensional accounting impossible.
To avoid this chaos, the Torgsoft program has the ability to generate its own unique barcodes for each variation of the product (different color, size or batch). Using unique barcodes and printing your own labels completely eliminates situations where the cashier chooses the product "by eye", guaranteeing that the item that was physically given to the buyer will be written off from the cash register.
The product may not be included in the list if the filtering parameters were incorrectly configured when it was created. For example, you could accidentally add products of only a certain type, or part of the product could "hang" in third-level warehouses or in incomplete internal movements.
It also depends on the basic settings of the inventory list itself. If in the field "If the product is not found in the list" you selected the option "Report an error", then when scanning a product that was not in the previously formed list, it will not be added automatically. In order for new, unaccounted products to be included in the audit during scanning, you need to set the parameter "Add product to the list".
The most important step to avoid distortions and errors is to correctly block the product during counting. When creating a list, be sure to select the setting "Block product when adding to the list" (if you are conducting an audit in a closed store) or "Block product after the first scan" (if trade continues in parallel). This will allow you to fix the balances and avoid confusion between current sales and counting.
In addition, it is critically important to limit the rights of sellers. In the personnel role settings, you need to enable a ban so that the salespeople who conduct the audit do not see the computerized quantity of goods in the warehouse. This will force them to enter the actual physical quantity of the counted goods and eliminate any possibility of fraud or "adjustment" of the counts to the numbers expected by the system.
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