The numbers do not match
Published
Before hunting for a bug, work out which of two very different problems you have.
Two screens in Fiftify disagree
Section titled “Two screens in Fiftify disagree”Usually they are measuring different things, and both are right.
Available vs On Hand. On hand is everything in the bin. Available is what is left after units committed to orders and units marked unavailable. A gap between them is normal whenever orders are open.
Available vs what a channel shows. A channel’s number moves when a sync runs, not the instant stock changes. A short lag is expected; a permanent gap is inventory not syncing.
Product total vs warehouse total. The header warehouse scopes most screens. A product with stock in two warehouses shows less on a screen scoped to one of them.
Low-stock counts that skip a product. Products with Track Qty off are excluded from stock maths on purpose, so they never appear as low or out. See inventory overview.
Allocation needed. Stock in a warehouse that is not in any bin. It counts towards the warehouse total and is in no bin’s total. See the product page.
Fiftify disagrees with the shelf
Section titled “Fiftify disagrees with the shelf”This one is real, and the log is where it is settled.
- Open the inventory log and filter to the product.
- Find the most recent row you believe.
- Read forwards. The first row that looks wrong is the event to investigate — the running Available and On Hand columns mean you never have to add anything up.
The usual culprits, in the order they turn up:
- A return put back to the wrong bin. The total is right, one bin is wrong and another is short.
- A transfer received twice, or shipped and never received. Check Expected, Shipped, and Received on it — see transfers.
- A pick that was short and never reported, so the system still believes units that are not there.
- A channel-side edit. Filter to Sync: someone changed a quantity in a Shopify admin and it arrived here.
Then settle it properly
Section titled “Then settle it properly”Correct it with a cycle count rather than an adjustment wherever you can. A count records what was found, by whom, and applies the change only once somebody has approved it — so the next person to ask this question has an answer instead of a mystery.
Adjustments are for cases with no shelf to count: breakage, a write-off, a known error.
Counting during a picking shift
Section titled “Counting during a picking shift”A variance found mid-shift is often not a variance. The picker had the units in a tote while the counter was at the bin. Count first thing, or count bins that today’s orders do not touch, and reject the counts that pick-timing explains.
Common questions
- Why do Available and On Hand show different numbers?
- On hand is everything sitting in the bin. Available is what is left after units committed to orders and units marked unavailable, so a gap between the two is normal whenever orders are open.
- Why does my sales channel show a different quantity than Fiftify?
- A channel's number moves when a sync runs, not the instant stock changes, so a short lag is expected. A gap that never closes is a sync problem rather than a counting one.
- Why does a product show less stock on one screen than another?
- Most screens are scoped to the warehouse selected in the header, so a product held in two warehouses shows less on a screen scoped to one of them. Stock that is in the warehouse but not in any bin appears separately as allocation needed.
- Should I fix a stock discrepancy with an adjustment or a cycle count?
- Use a cycle count wherever there is a shelf to count: it records what was found and by whom, and applies the change only after somebody approves it. Adjustments are for cases with no shelf to count, such as breakage or a write-off.