Finding the stock discrepancies
Two systems that never agreed on stock, and a month-end that closed on an unexplained difference.
The situation
Stock in the operational system and stock in the ledger had never agreed. Each month the difference was investigated by hand, partially explained, and the rest written off to a variance nobody could account for.
What it was costing
Three days a month of skilled time, and a set of accounts that closed on a number the finance team couldn’t defend if asked.
What changed
We built a reconciliation that matched both sides on a consistent key. Additional fields were added to the data to provide useful filters, along with flags highlighting the locations and items with material differences. The exceptions are presented as a single list, ranked by value, so the biggest issues are dealt with first.
Where it landed
The reconciliation runs in under an hour, and the residual difference is now small rather than “material and under review”. The month-end conversation moved from what is this to what do we do about it.