There are 26 bottles. The stock record says there should be 32.
A second count produces the same result. Six bottles are unaccounted for. The temptation is to call it waste, blame a bad count or start wondering who took them. Before any of that, there is a quieter question worth asking: where did the oil go?
This is a fictional example, but it illustrates a practical distinction. A stock count tells you what is in front of you. To explain a discrepancy, you need the record of how stock arrived, moved and was used.
What is an inventory discrepancy?
An inventory discrepancy is the difference between the stock physically counted and the quantity recorded for the same item, location and time.
That difference deserves attention. It does not, on its own, establish the cause. A short delivery, an unrecorded transfer or a case entered as a single bottle can all leave the record out of step with the shelf.
For a hospitality team, the useful investigation begins with one item in one place. Trying to explain the whole operation at once can make a small recording error much harder to find.
Follow the six bottles
In our example, the main store began with 40 bottles of oil. A delivery added 12. The kitchen received 18 from the store, and two damaged bottles were recorded as wastage.
The record therefore looks like this:
Movement Bottles Opening stock 40 Delivery received +12 Transfer to kitchen −18 Recorded wastage −2 Expected closing stock 32
Against that expected balance of 32, the physical count of 26 leaves a shortage of six.
The manager checks the transfers. Later in the day, another six bottles went to the service kitchen. Someone mentioned the movement in a message, but it never reached the stock record.
Once that transfer is verified and entered, the expected balance falls to 26. The count agrees. The receiving kitchen also needs to show those six bottles coming in; otherwise, the gap has simply moved to another location.
The bottles were where the kitchen needed them. The information had not followed them there.
How to reconcile a stock count
Start with the opening quantity. Add receipts and transfers in. Subtract transfers out, recorded issues or consumption, and wastage. Apply any authorised adjustments with their correct signs.
Expected closing stock = opening stock + receipts + transfers in − transfers out − recorded issues or consumption − recorded wastage + signed adjustments.
Keep the item, location, unit and time period consistent. Then compare the expected balance with the physical count. In this example, using physical count minus expected stock gives 26 − 32 = −6 bottles before the missing transfer is recorded.
Each event belongs in the calculation once. When oil moves from the store to the kitchen, it leaves one location and enters another. Do not also deduct it as consumption from the store. Likewise, do not subtract wastage again if it has already been included in a deducted quantity.
This is a reconciliation of the stock record. Comparing actual ingredient usage with what sales and recipes suggest should have been used is a different calculation. Both can be useful, but they answer different questions.
Five places to look when the count does not match
Check the unit before the quantity
Two cases and two bottles can look deceptively similar in a hurried entry. Confirm the pack size and the unit used in the count. Two cases containing six bottles each should add 12 bottles to a bottle-based record.
Opened containers need a consistent measurement method too. A rough estimate of litres cannot be compared cleanly with a count of full bottles.
Check what arrived, not just what was ordered
A purchase order shows what you asked for. The receiving record should show what was accepted.
If ten units were ordered and eight arrived, entering ten creates a discrepancy before the goods have even reached service. Look for partial deliveries, rejected items and quantities received into the wrong location.
Check both ends of a transfer
A storekeeper may know exactly where a carton went. The next shift may not.
Look for the sending location, the receiving location, the quantity and the time. Use names people can recognise. If three cupboards are all called “storage”, the record is already asking the team to guess.
Check waste and returns
A broken bottle, a spoiled ingredient and a supplier return need different explanations, even when each reduces the quantity on the shelf.
Look for the item, amount, location and reason. Check that the event has not already been deducted elsewhere. The point is to understand what happened while enough detail remains to investigate it.
Check the clock
A count taken at 10:00 cannot be compared fairly with a record that includes movements up to 11:00.
Agree on a cutoff. Control movements during the count or keep a separate record of them. A delivery arriving halfway through should not turn an otherwise sound count into an apparent shortage.
A short stock-discrepancy checklist
Keep these details together in the count sheet or handover record your team already uses:
Item, pack size and counting unit
Location, count time and movement cutoff
Expected quantity, physical quantity and difference
Receipts and partial deliveries checked
Transfers checked at both locations
Issues, wastage, returns and adjustments checked
Evidence supporting the explanation
Unresolved question, person following up and next action
These are general recordkeeping prompts, not a claim that Elqar has a matching field for every line.
If the difference remains unexplained, arrange a recount and preserve the original entries. An authorised adjustment may be necessary, but it should retain a reason and an approval trail. Making the total agree does not establish why it was wrong.
Leave the next shift somewhere to start
“Six bottles short” passes on a problem. It says nothing about the work already done.
A useful handover would identify the oil, the main store and the six-bottle difference, then explain that a transfer to the service kitchen is awaiting confirmation. It should be clear who is checking and what happens next.
That is where a stock record earns its place in a busy kitchen. Someone who was not there should be able to pick up the work without reconstructing the afternoon from scattered messages.
Elqar's receiving and stock-movement workflow covers receipts, issues, transfers and wastage, alongside stock review and handover. It still depends on the team recording what happened. No system can explain a movement that nobody enters.
If your team struggles to keep that record through service, explore Elqar's founding pilot. It includes free access during the pilot, hands-on setup and direct founder contact. Bring a real receiving, transfer or handover problem. That is a more useful starting point than a tour of feature