Inventory Adjustments
An Inventory Adjustment is the transaction you use to correct an item's stock (increase or decrease it) when the change doesn't come from a purchase, a sale, or a movement between warehouses or bins: physical counts, shrinkage, damage, donations, samples, or any difference between what the system says you have and what's actually on the shelf.
What is it and what is it for?
Each line on an Inventory Adjustment specifies an item and a quantity: positive to increase stock, negative to decrease it. When you save the document, AdmCloud updates the item's stock at the specified Location, automatically calculates its cost (based on your company's costing method, typically Average) and generates the matching accounting entry: it debits or credits the item's Inventory account against an Adjustment Account.
It isn't used to move stock between warehouses (that's a Location Transfer) or between bins within the same warehouse (that's a Bin Transfer). It also doesn't replace purchases or sales — use it only when the stock change has no other document explaining it.
How to use it
- Open the Inventory Adjustments list and click Create.
- Confirm the Date, the Subsidiary (if applicable) and the Location (warehouse) where the adjustment happens.
- Optionally pick an Adjustment Account other than your company's default one; you can set it for the whole document or, if you need to split the accounting impact, line by line.
- Add one line per item: pick the Item and enter the Quantity (positive to add stock, negative to subtract it) with its Unit of Measure.
- If the item requires a Bin, a Lot, Serial Numbers, Attributes (such as Color or Size) or a Customs Declaration, fill them in on the line; AdmCloud asks for them based on the item's setup. If every line uses the same Bin, type the value on the first line and click the blue arrow in that column header to copy it down to the rest of the detail. The bin only goes to lines whose item uses bins; if a line is left out, AdmCloud tells you.
- Attach supporting files if needed (for example, the physical count sheet) and click Save. The document number is generated automatically.
Location Unload: if you need to bring an entire warehouse's stock down to zero (for example when closing or reorganizing it), don't create the adjustment item by item. Use the Location Unload option in the same module: pick the Location and, optionally, Department, Division and Item Class to filter, and AdmCloud automatically generates a single Inventory Adjustment with a negative line for every item that has stock, bringing it down to zero. The process runs in the background; you can follow its progress and result from the Processes screen. It doesn't cover serialized items.
Main capabilities
- Filter the list by date range, Subsidiary, Location and Item, and customize which columns show and in what order, saving your own configuration.
- Duplicate an existing document to speed up recurring adjustments.
- Print the document with different templates, including a cost breakdown.
- View the generated journal entry directly from the document.
- Attach supporting files (count sheets, damage photos, authorizations).
- Add your own Custom Fields to the form, or build your own variant with Custom Forms (requires the Enterprise plan).
- The Location Unload option automatically generates the adjustment that brings a warehouse's entire stock down to zero.
Key fields
| Field | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Date | Date of the adjustment. Must fall within an open Inventory accounting period. |
| Location | The warehouse where the adjustment happens. Required. |
| Subsidiary | Only shown and required if your company has Subsidiaries enabled; must match the Location's Subsidiary. |
| Adjustment Account | The ledger account the inventory difference posts against. If left blank, AdmCloud uses the adjustment account configured on the item, on the item class or, failing that, on your company. |
| Department, Division and Item Class | Optional header-level accounting dimensions (only shown if your company has them enabled). |
| Transaction Type | Only shown if your company configured Transaction Types for adjustments. |
| Item | The product being adjusted. Must be active. |
| Quantity | Positive to increase stock, negative to decrease it. Together with its Unit of Measure, within the item's unit-of-measure plan. |
| Bin | Required only if the item requires Bins. |
| Lot | Required only if the item requires Lots. |
| Serial Numbers | Required only if the item is serialized; one per unit of the adjusted quantity. |
| Customs Declaration | Required only if the item requires one. |
| Attributes (Color, Size, etc.) | Required only if the item has attributes configured. |
| Reference and Notes | Free text to identify or document the adjustment. |
Validations when saving
- The Inventory accounting period must be open for the document's date.
- The Location must belong to the Subsidiary specified on the document.
- At least one line with a valid item is required, and the document allows a maximum number of lines per adjustment.
- The item must be active.
- Unit of Measure is required and must belong to the unit-of-measure plan configured on the item.
- A Bin is required if the item requires Bins; a Bin is rejected if the item doesn't use them.
- A Lot is required if the item requires Lots; a Lot is rejected if the item doesn't use them.
- Serial Numbers are required if the item is serialized, and can't duplicate serials already in stock.
- Customs Declaration and Attributes are required whenever the item requires them.
- Kit type items are not supported on this document.
- A line's calculated cost cannot exceed a maximum allowed limit per item.
- When a quantity reduces stock, AdmCloud checks that enough is available at the Location (and Lot, if applicable) before saving.
Voiding and deleting
An Inventory Adjustment can be voided (it stays marked as voided but is kept for audit purposes) or deleted, depending on your user group's permissions. In either case AdmCloud reverses the stock movement and the accounting entry it generated. Neither action is possible if the document has linked records (for example, cost movements that have already been consumed) or if the accounting period for the document's date is already closed.
Availability, permissions and conditions
- This feature is part of the Inventory module, included from the Basic plan onward (from the October 2021 version). On the Enterprise edition, the Inventory module must be active for your company; otherwise the screen shows a "not available on this edition" message.
- Access is controlled with the "Inventory Adjustments" permission of the user group, with separate levels for browsing, adding, editing, deleting and voiding.
- The Bin, Lot, Serial Number, Attributes and Customs Declaration fields only appear if your company has those Advanced Inventory features enabled, and are only required on items configured to use them.
- With Subsidiaries enabled, the list and the Location selector are limited to your current Subsidiary.
- Location Unload uses the same permission and likewise depends on the Inventory module being active.
Tips and common mistakes
Always document the reason for the adjustment in the Reference, the Notes or an attached file (count sheet, damage photo); that's the evidence your accounting team or an auditor will ask for later.
Don't use an Inventory Adjustment to move merchandise between warehouses or bins. That's what Location Transfers and Bin Transfers are for — they don't require an adjustment account or generate an accounting difference.
If you're emptying an entire warehouse, use Location Unload instead of typing every line by hand — it's faster and avoids typos in the exact quantity to subtract.