What are the causes of discrepancies in inventory stock management and what are the steps to be taken during investigation of stock management?

There can be
several causes of discrepancies in inventory stock management. A
discrepancy in inventory stock is when the
actual stock in a warehouse of a retail store
does not match the recorded inventory stock
count. For instance, if a Borders Bookstore inventory stock record indicates that there ought to
be 20 copies of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code but the on-shelf inventory
stock has a count of only 17, there is a discrepancy in inventory stock management.


Such discrepancies, whether in warehouse or
retail store inventory stock, can show a deficit (too few) or a surplus (too many) and are
typically caused by a variety of things:

• shoplifting (removal by customer without payment) (deficit)


• pilfering (removal by employee without payment) (deficit)


• transactions not yet or not correctly recorded (deficit)
• items on
  consignment not owned by the business (surplus)
• error in size of units
  (e.g., recorded in "dozens" but counted in "eaches") 


• mislaid goods (i.e., stored in second location or stored in an incorrect
  location)
• misread or missing parts numbers

Steps taken during investigation--before the
discrepancy and failure to reconcile the counts is accepted--are to:

• recount with a different person performing the second count


• verify outstanding transactions
• track down incorrectly recorded
  transactions
• identify consignment items
• confirm and
  reconcile the size of units so units are consistent
• track down second
  storage locations
• isolate incorrectly stored items and restore them to
  their correct storage
• verify part number or locate missing part numbers