There are several ways to account for damaged, wasted, expired, spoiled, stolen, or otherwise "lost" inventory. This also applies to notating donations or samples.
Each industry will have a different preferred term, but no matter what you call them, we have a few different ways of handling them.
Option 1 - Using Stocktakes (Best for Detailed Tracking)
Stocktakes are a great tool that can be used to reconcile and get your inventory up to date while tracking the reasons for losses.
Create Custom Reasons for Loss
We suggest creating a custom Reason for your Stocktake to categorize different types of loss.
How to create a custom Reason:
Click the '+' next to 'Reason' when setting up your Stocktake
Name it accordingly for your records
Examples of custom Reasons:
"Expired Goods"
"Spoilage"
"Theft"
"Damaged"
"Donations"
"Samples"
Note: Once custom Reasons are created, they cannot be edited or deleted, so double-check before saving!
Add Products and Track Losses
Add your products to the Stocktake
Manually enter the quantities you want to subtract or add to your counts by editing the discrepancy column directly
Remember: Use a negative sign before any quantity you want to subtract or deduct from your "Actual" count
Example: If you have 10 damaged units, enter -10 in the Discrepancy column.
This method is best tracked on the Stocktake Discrepancy Report. There, you can set the date range and organize by Reason and quickly see the total amount adjust for any particular movement, as well as the associated cost.
Otherwise, you can also use the Inventory Change Report. Just filter by Stocktake and look under the "Removed" column.
Option 2 - The Manual Adjustment
All methods below will track the losses directly on the Inventory Change Report. Just click on the Display button and enable the "Removed" column.
Manual Adjustment from Bins View
Use the following two methods when working from the new catalog experience
From the Bins View, select the Stock Management icon, then Edit Stock Levels. Enter your new counts and click save.
You'll have the option to record the change in a Stocktake, or you can select Only Update quantities to make a quick adjustment. Make sure to leave a note!
Manual Adjustment from the Bin Details Page
If you click into a specific product from the Bins page, you'll have the opportunity to edit the quantity from the Bin Details Page.
Click the Pencil icon in the Quantity tile. Enter the correct quantity, then click the green check mark to save.
Manual Adjustment from Product Details Page
Within the Product Details Page, you can edit the Current Stock from the Inventory Section. Click on the Stock Management icon to edit the quantity.
It is also possible to receive quantities from these methods. Please note the first option, editing stock from the Bins view, allows for leaving a note for the adjustment.
Option 3 - The Discount
To track loss as part of your sales, we recommend running the products through the POS as a "sale" with a 100% discount.
This approach tracks the losses in your Discount Report and the inventory is accurately decremented.