An inventory adjustment corrects the recorded on-hand quantity, or value, of a product at a location so it matches reality: a stock count that came up short or over, damage, shrinkage, loss, or a revaluation. You enter the new quantity or value you want the stock to hold, and ZyncLedger works out the difference and posts the variance to your accounts. A storekeeper or manager raises one after a physical count, and a manager or accountant raises one to write stock up or down in value.
Unlike a Stock Transfer, which only relocates stock between your locations and touches nothing in your accounts, an inventory adjustment posts to the ledger: the change in your stock value moves between your Inventory asset and an Adjustment Account you choose. It is the document that reconciles the books to the shelf.
Find inventory adjustments under Inventory → Inv Adjustments.
You set the target, ZyncLedger posts the difference
An inventory adjustment is target-based. You do not enter how much to add or remove as a signed figure; you enter the new quantity (or new value) the stock should hold, and ZyncLedger computes the change from the current balance and posts it. Increasing the balance raises your Inventory asset and credits the Adjustment Account; decreasing it lowers your Inventory asset and debits the Adjustment Account. There is no customer, supplier, revenue, or tax.
Before you start
- The Location whose stock you are correcting must exist in Warehouses & Locations.
- Each line adjusts a product. Only Inventory-type products can be adjusted. Service and Non-Inventory items are rejected on save, because they hold no stock. At least one product line is required, and a product can appear only once per adjustment.
- Serial-tracked products cannot be adjusted here. Correct a serial-tracked item's stock with a Goods Receive Note for a surplus or a GRN Credit for shrinkage or a write-off instead.
- Every product you adjust needs an Inventory Account set on its product record. The Inventory side of the variance posts there.
- You choose an Adjustment Account for the other side of the variance. Any account works except an Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable account, which are blocked. See Chart of Accounts.
- You need the Create Inventory Adjustments permission, granted per user under Permissions. List Inventory Adjustments lets you open the screen, and Edit, View, Delete, and Print Inventory Adjustments cover the rest. See Users, seats & permissions.
Raise an inventory adjustment
Open a new inventory adjustment
Go to Inventory → Inv Adjustments and select New Inventory Adjustment. The form opens full screen.
Check the template
The Template picker sits in the toolbar at the top of the form. ZyncLedger pre-selects your default inventory adjustment template, so you can usually leave it. The template decides which fields the form shows and how the printed adjustment looks; switch it here if you keep more than one layout. See Print templates for how these are set up.
Choose the Location
Select the Location (required). This is the location whose stock you are correcting. Each line adjusts stock at this location by default, and the current quantity and value shown for each product are read from this location as at the adjustment date.
Choose the Adjustment Account
Select the Adjustment Account (required). This is the account that takes the other side of the variance: it is credited when you increase stock (a gain) and debited when you decrease it (a loss or write-off). Pick the account you use for stock write-offs, shrinkage, or inventory gains and losses. Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable accounts are not allowed and are hidden from the picker.
Set the adjustment date
Enter the Adjustment Date (required). This is the date the correction takes effect and the date the variance posts to your accounts. The current quantity and value shown for each product are the balances as at this date.
Set the transaction number
The Txn Number identifies the adjustment. How you fill it depends on the number mode for inventory adjustments:
- Automatic (the default): the field shows Auto Generated and ZyncLedger assigns the next number when you save. Leave it alone.
- Manual: you type the number yourself. It is required and must be unique across all transactions.
See Document numbering to change the mode or set up a multi-series numbering scheme.
Choose what you are adjusting
At the foot of the form, tick the adjustment type. At least one must be on:
Checkbox What it does Quantity Adjustment (on by default) You correct the on-hand quantity. Enter the new count and ZyncLedger values the change at the product's current average cost. Value Adjustment (off by default) You correct the stock value. Enter the new value and ZyncLedger revalues the stock, which changes its average cost. You can enable both to correct the quantity and the value in one line. With Quantity Adjustment on and Value Adjustment off (the usual case), the value columns fill in automatically from the average cost.
Add the adjustment lines
For each product you are correcting, fill a row in the items table:
Column What it does Product (required) The item to adjust. Must be an Inventory-type product, added only once. Selecting it loads the current quantity and value and sets New Quantity equal to the current quantity, so the line starts with no change. Location The location this line adjusts. Defaults to the header Location; change it to correct a single line at a different location. Current Quantity The on-hand quantity at the location as at the adjustment date. Read-only, for reference. Change Quantity How much to add or remove, entered as a signed figure (a negative number reduces stock). Editable when Quantity Adjustment is on. Typing here updates New Quantity, and the two stay in step. New Quantity The quantity the stock should hold after the adjustment. Editable when Quantity Adjustment is on. Enter your counted figure here, or let Change Quantity fill it. It cannot be negative. Current Value The stock value at the location as at the adjustment date. Read-only, for reference. New Value The value the stock should hold after the adjustment. Editable when Value Adjustment is on. New Cost Per Unit The resulting cost per unit (new value divided by new quantity). Calculated for you. A blank row waits at the bottom of the table, so a new line appears as you start filling the last one. To remove a line, select the trash icon at the end of its row. The Summary on the right shows the Total Adjustment Quantity and Total Adjustment Value across the lines.
Add notes (optional)
Use the Adjustment Notes box to record why you are adjusting, such as a stock-count reference or a damage report, if your template shows it. For notes you keep as standard wording, pick one from the note selector to autofill; a note marked default fills in on its own for a new adjustment. You can also enter an Adjustment Reference in the header for your own reference number, which must be unique across adjustments if you use one.
Save
Select Save & New to save and start another adjustment, or Save & Print to save and print this one. Use Print to print without saving and Reset to clear the form. The stock and the variance post the moment you save, and the adjustment is saved with a status of Posted.
What it posts
Saving an inventory adjustment does two things: it moves the on-hand quantity or value to the target you set, and it posts the difference in stock value as a variance to the ledger. Each line posts on its own, so an adjustment can raise value on one line and lower it on another.
Stock. For a line with Quantity Adjustment on, on-hand quantity at the line's location moves to the New Quantity you entered. An increase adds units valued at the product's current average cost, and a decrease removes units at that same cost, so a quantity-only adjustment does not change the product's average cost. For a line with Value Adjustment on, the stock value moves to the New Value you entered, which revalues the stock and changes its average cost. The change shows in your inventory reports, where the location's balance updates.
Ledger. ZyncLedger posts the change in stock value between the product's Inventory Account and the Adjustment Account you chose. The direction depends on whether the value went up or down:
Increasing stock value (a gain: you counted more, or revalued up):
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| The product's Inventory Account | Value increase | |
| The Adjustment Account | Value increase |
Decreasing stock value (a loss or write-off: you counted less, damage, shrinkage, or revalued down):
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| The Adjustment Account | Value decrease | |
| The product's Inventory Account | Value decrease |
The amount posted is the change in the stock's value: for a quantity-only line, the quantity added or removed times the current average cost; for a value line, the difference between the new and current value. There is no revenue, no receivable, no payable, no customer or supplier, and no tax, because an adjustment is not a sale or a purchase. The entry balances on its own and flows through to the Trial Balance, the General Ledger, the Profit & Loss (where your Adjustment Account sits), and the Balance Sheet (the Inventory line).
Where each side of the variance posts
The Inventory side is fixed by the product: it always uses the product's Inventory Account, set on the product record. The other side is the Adjustment Account you pick on the header, the one account you control per adjustment. To change where the Inventory side posts, edit the product; to change the offset, pick a different Adjustment Account.
Inventory adjustment status
An inventory adjustment carries a simple status. You never set it by hand.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Posted | The adjustment is saved and the stock and variance have posted. This is the status of every adjustment while it stands. |
| Deleted | The adjustment has been deleted and everything it did reversed (see below). The record is kept for the history. |
An adjustment is Posted or Deleted, nothing in between
An inventory adjustment either stands (Posted) or is deleted. It has no Open, Partial, or Closed stage, and nothing is settled or returned against it. It is a standalone correction that takes full effect the instant you save it.
Tips & gotchas
A quantity adjustment values the change at the current average cost
When you correct only the quantity, ZyncLedger values each unit added or removed at the product's current moving-average cost. Adding stock this way raises Inventory and credits the Adjustment Account by quantity times that cost; removing stock debits the Adjustment Account. The product's average cost per unit does not change. To set a specific value rather than let the average decide, enable Value Adjustment and enter the New Value.
A product with no cost adjusts at zero value
The value of a quantity-only change is the product's average cost at the adjustment date. If a product has no cost history yet (no goods have ever been received into stock for it through a Goods Receive Note or an opening balance), its average cost is zero, so adding quantity posts no variance: the count changes but no value moves. To give newly found stock a real cost, receive it in first, or use Value Adjustment to set the value.
New Quantity cannot go below zero
The New Quantity you enter is the on-hand figure after the adjustment, and it cannot be negative. An adjustment can reduce a location's stock down to zero but not below it, so it cannot drive on-hand negative the way an issue can.
Editing or deleting is blocked once a period is closed or entries are reconciled
You cannot edit or delete an inventory adjustment whose date falls in a period closed by the Ledger close date, or whose ledger entries have been reconciled on a bank reconciliation. Editing re-posts the stock movement and the variance to match the new figures.
Deleting an adjustment reverses the stock and the variance
Deleting an inventory adjustment sets its status to Deleted, zeroes its lines, and unwinds it: the stock movement is reversed at each line's location and the variance entry is removed, so your Inventory asset and the Adjustment Account return to where they were. The record is kept so its number and history stay intact. You cannot delete an adjustment in a closed period or one whose ledger entries have been reconciled.
Related
- Stock Transfer moves stock between locations without changing its value or posting to the ledger. Use it when goods relocate rather than need correcting.
- Issue Note removes stock and books its cost as an expense when goods leave for consumption or a write-off against a specific reason.
- Goods Receive Note receives stock in and is how you correct a serial-tracked item's surplus; GRN Credit handles its shrinkage or write-off.
- Products & Items hold the Inventory Account the variance posts to. Only Inventory-type products can be adjusted.
- Chart of Accounts is where you set up the Adjustment Account for the other side of the variance.
- Inventory reports show the on-hand balance and the movement an adjustment creates.
- Document numbering controls the adjustment's transaction number.
