Adjust on-hand stock

Manually override an item's recorded on-hand count with a reason and optional photo — and have it flagged to admin as a variance to resolve.

Sometimes the recorded on-hand for an item is just wrong — a miscount, a breakage nobody logged, something that expired in the back. A stock adjustment lets a manager or owner set the item’s on-hand to the true number directly, instead of waiting for the next stock take. The difference is written to the stock ledger and the override is flagged to admin for review.

Note: this posts the same underlying variance adjustment as logging wastage — a single-line stock adjustment of the variance type. The difference is the surface: wastage is a write-off you count down; an adjustment is you typing the true on-hand and letting the system work out the difference. New to these terms? See the Glossary.

Who can adjust

Only owners and managers see the control. It lives inside the per-item detail, not in a staff-facing screen — outlet staff correct stock by counting in a stock take, not by overriding the number.

Note: the adjustment always targets the item at the location whose detail you opened. There’s no location picker on this control — the location is fixed by where you came in from.

Make an adjustment

From any inventory list, open an item to bring up its detail drawer (on-hand, par, recent movement, and the movement ledger). Below the headline figures, managers and owners get an Adjust on-hand quantity action.

1. Open the item and tap Adjust on-hand quantity. The control expands inline under the item’s on-hand figures. Everything below happens in that panel — you don’t leave the item.
2. Enter the true on-hand count. Type the new on-hand count in the item’s base unit (UOM). The panel shows the current count and the signed change it’s about to post — e.g. Current 12 → −3 if you set it lower, or a green + if higher. The count must be 0 or more, and it must differ from what’s already recorded — set it to the same number and there’s nothing to adjust.
3. Pick a reason (required). Choose why you’re overriding: Count correction, Damage, Spoilage, Expiry, Wastage, or Other. The reason is mandatory and is stored on the adjustment so admin can see why the number moved.
4. Add remarks (optional). A short free-text note — what happened, where the discrepancy came from.
5. Attach a photo (optional). Tap Add photo to attach a supporting receipt or evidence shot. Unlike wastage — which requires a live in-app photo — an adjustment photo is optional and picked from your device (a file picker, not the live camera). It’s compressed in your browser and uploaded before you submit; you’ll see Uploading…, then Photo added, and can remove it or retry if the upload fails.
6. Adjust quantity. Tap Adjust quantity. The override posts immediately and you’ll see “Quantity adjusted · sent for admin review.” On-hand at that location jumps to your new number right away.

Warning: an adjustment posts to live stock the moment you submit — there’s no draft to sit on and no silent undo. On-hand changes immediately and the override is flagged to admin. Double-check the new count and reason before you tap.

What posting actually does

Under the hood the override is recorded as a single-line variance adjustment — the same document type wastage uses — created and posted in one go (both steps must succeed for stock to move):

• On-hand is set to your number. The system posts the signed difference (new count − current count) as one ledger line, so on-hand lands exactly on the count you typed.
• The stock ledger gets a row, so the correction is auditable later — it appears in the item’s movement ledger like any other adjustment.
• A correction up doesn’t change average cost. A positive correction blends the added quantity in at the item’s current average cost, so a pure quantity fix leaves the per-unit cost untouched. A correction down simply removes quantity at the current average.

How it’s flagged to admin

A manager’s override isn’t a silent edit — it’s surfaced for an admin to vet. Because the override posts as a variance adjustment, it shows up in the Variances page as Open and stays there until an admin works through it.

Note: the stock has already moved by the time the variance is Open — resolving it is an audit acknowledgement, not a second approval that releases the change. This is the same flag wastage and stock-take variances raise, so admins review every off-book stock change in one place.