Making Stock Adjustments
Stock adjustments let you correct inventory quantities and costs outside of the normal purchase order and sales workflows. Common reasons include shrinkage, damage, count variances, and cost corrections. This guide walks through every field on the adjustment form and explains how each option affects your stock.
Opening the Adjustment Form
Navigate to Inventory > Stock Adjustment from the main menu, or right-click an item in the Stock Quantities Report and select Adjust. The adjustment form opens ready for input.
Selecting an Item
At the top of the form, choose the item you want to adjust:
- Browse — Opens the inventory browser to search and select an item
- Search — Type an item name, SKU, or ID directly into the search field
- Create New — Opens the new item form if the item does not exist yet
Virtual Kits cannot be adjusted because they do not track their own stock. Only Standard items and Physical Assemblies appear in the item selector.
Once an item is selected, the form displays the item name, current stock quantity at the selected location, and the current cost and price from the item master record.
Location and Zone Selection
Select the Location where the adjustment applies. The dropdown shows only locations you have access to. If the selected location has storage zones configured, the Zone picker appears and lets you target a specific zone within that location.
If no zone is selected, the adjustment applies to the location's overall stock without allocating to a specific zone.
Adjustment Fields
The core of the form contains these fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Quantity | The number of units to adjust. Can be zero for cost-only updates where you need to correct pricing without changing quantity. |
| Reason | Required. Opens the reason code selector. Each reason determines whether stock increases, decreases, or stays the same. |
| Reference | Optional reference number or identifier for cross-referencing with external documents. |
| Date | The date of the adjustment. Defaults to today but can be backdated. |
| Notes | Free-text notes to explain the adjustment in detail. |
How Direction Is Determined by Reason
Unlike a simple add/subtract toggle, AccuArk determines the direction of the adjustment from the reason code you select. Each reason code has a built-in direction:
| Direction | Code | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Increase | + | Adds the entered quantity to current stock |
| Decrease | - | Subtracts the entered quantity from current stock |
| No Change | N | Quantity stays the same — used for cost-only corrections |
For example, if you select the reason "Shrinkage" (which has direction "-") and enter a quantity of 5, the system subtracts 5 units. If you select "Received (not on PO)" (direction "+") and enter 10, it adds 10 units.
No Change reasons are specifically designed for situations where the physical count is correct but the cost or price on the item master needs updating.
Quantity After Adjustment Preview
As you fill in the quantity and reason, the form calculates and displays the Quantity After Adjustment in real time:
- For increase reasons: Current Stock + Adjustment Quantity
- For decrease reasons: Current Stock - Adjustment Quantity
- For no-change reasons: Current Stock (unchanged)
This preview helps you verify the adjustment is correct before saving.
Updating Cost and Price
The adjustment form includes a checkbox labeled Update Item Current Cost and Price. This controls how the adjustment interacts with the item master cost:
- Checked — The cost and price values you enter on the adjustment form overwrite the item master cost and price directly. This is a manual override that bypasses the WAC calculation.
- Unchecked and quantity is greater than zero — The system applies a Weighted Average Cost (WAC) calculation. The new cost is calculated as: ((existing quantity x existing cost) + (adjustment quantity x new cost)) / (existing quantity + adjustment quantity). This is the same formula used during PO receiving.
- Unchecked and quantity is zero — No cost update occurs since there is no new stock to average against.
Markup and Profit Calculations
The adjustment form displays the same bidirectional markup and profit calculations found on the item pricing tab:
- % Markup = ((Price - Cost) / Cost) x 100
- $ Markup = Price - Cost
- % Profit = ((Price - Cost) / Price) x 100
- $ Profit = Price - Cost
Changing any one of these fields automatically recalculates the others. For example, entering a new cost recalculates the markup and profit percentages based on the current price. Entering a new markup percentage recalculates the price and profit.
Saving the Adjustment
Click Save to apply the adjustment. The system performs the following in a single database transaction:
- Updates the stock quantity at the selected location (and zone, if specified)
- Updates the item master cost and price if the checkbox is checked, or applies WAC if not
- Creates a stock transaction record with type "Adjustment"
- Logs the user, timestamp, reason, reference, and notes for the audit trail
Voiding an Existing Adjustment
If you need to reverse an adjustment that has already been saved, open the original adjustment record. The form displays two buttons:
- Void & New — Reverses the original adjustment (stock is restored to its pre-adjustment state) and opens a fresh adjustment form so you can enter the corrected values
- Void & Close — Reverses the original adjustment and closes the form without creating a new one
When an adjustment is voided:
- The stock change is fully reversed at both the location and zone level
- The original transaction is marked with transaction_type "Void"
- The notes field is updated with "[VOIDED]" prepended to the original notes
- A new void transaction is created linking back to the original
- The void action is logged in the audit trail with the user and timestamp
Voiding does not automatically reverse any cost or price changes that were applied. If the original adjustment updated the item cost, you will need to manually correct the cost through a new adjustment or by editing the item directly.
Tips
- Always select a reason — The reason code is required and drives the direction of the adjustment. Without it the form will not save.
- Use No Change reasons for cost corrections — If you only need to fix a cost or price error, select a No Change reason and set the quantity to zero. This avoids accidentally changing stock levels.
- Check the preview — Always verify the Quantity After Adjustment value before saving, especially for decrease adjustments where entering a quantity larger than current stock could result in negative inventory.
- Add detailed notes — Notes are searchable in the transaction history. Include context like "Warehouse count 2026-02-14" or "Damaged in transit, carrier claim #12345" to make future audits easier.
- Use references for external tracking — The Reference field is ideal for linking adjustments to insurance claims, carrier damage reports, or internal investigation case numbers.