{"id":7614,"date":"2025-09-04T03:40:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T03:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sblog.seebiz.com\/blog\/?p=7614"},"modified":"2025-09-04T03:47:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T03:47:50","slug":"what-is-an-inventory-discrepancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sblog.seebiz.com\/blog\/what-is-an-inventory-discrepancy\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an inventory discrepancy, and how can you prevent and mitigate it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your system says 100, but your stock says 90. Now you have 10 customers waiting to get that order you don’t have.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the customer side –\u00a0 she placed an order, she is excited about getting her fav shoe within 3-5 days and then she received an email saying \u201cSorry we have to cancel your order\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you think your customer will feel? Yes, she might lose trust and you might lose finance and in addition have an unhappy customer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All this happened due to inventory discrepancy. Inventory discrepancy is a situation created where there is a mismatch between the recorded inventory and the actual inventory you physically have. These discrepancies could be small or big, but the outcomes might be serious. Even a slight discrepancy can cause you financial loss, operational distortion, and unhappy customers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No, let\u2019s see how we can identify these discrepancies beforehand and mitigate them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is an inventory discrepancy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Inventory discrepancy is a mismatch between the actual inventory physically available in a storage\/warehouse and the recorded inventory, either in books or the system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Inventory discrepancy is one of the major problems in overall inventory management that results in either a shortage of stock or surplus stock.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Inventory<\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

How to calculate an inventory discrepancy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By subtracting the physical inventory available in the storage from the recorded inventory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Core method<\/b><\/p>\n

Inventory Discrepancy = Physical Count \u2212 System Count<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

If the number you get after subtraction is positive, that means the physical inventory is surplus and it’s a positive inventory discrepancy; if the number that comes is negative, that means a shortage in on-hand inventory.<\/span><\/p>\n