What is Inventory reconciliation?

If your Shopify inventory numbers drift away from what is actually on the shelf, your forecasts and reorder decisions get worse over time. A candle store that thinks it has 40 units of a scent but only has 25 will run out before it reorders, and will not know why sales suddenly stopped.

Reconciliation should happen on a regular schedule, not just once a year. Many small stores do it weekly or monthly for their best sellers, and less often for slow movers. When you find a mismatch, record the adjustment and note the likely cause, whether that is theft, damage, a receiving error or a counting mistake, so you can fix the root problem instead of just the number.

Formula

Example

A coffee shop's system shows 60 bags of dark roast on hand. A physical count finds 52 bags. The variance is 8 bags. The owner checks recent deliveries and finds a case of 8 bags was received but never logged into Shopify, so they correct the record to 52 and add a note about the missed receiving entry.

Common mistakes

• Only reconciling once a year instead of on a regular cycle.
• Adjusting the number without investigating why the variance happened.
• Reconciling total stock across all variants instead of checking each SKU or variant separately.

Inventory reconciliation and SteadyShelf

Accurate reconciled stock counts matter for SteadyShelf because its forecasts and order-by dates are only as good as the on-hand quantities feeding them.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related terms

Inventory accuracy · Cycle count · Physical inventory count · Inventory adjustment · Inventory shrinkage

Full inventory glossary

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