Five questions to ask yourself about a shortage

At the end of the month you counted: the notebook says 48 toy cars should be there, but the shelf holds 36. Twelve are missing, and at 35,000 so'm each that is 420,000 so'm. The first thought is "somebody took them". In fact most shortages are not theft: the cause lies in the paperwork, in the location or in the count itself. Ask these five questions in this order, from the cheapest check to the most expensive. Only after that move on to other guesses.

Question 1: did you recount?

A large share of shortages disappear on the second count. Count in a different direction and, if you can, with a different person. Look at the back row, behind the boxes, and at the top and bottom shelves. For example, 6 cars stand in the front row while 6 more are hidden behind a big carton. Write the result by row and shelf, not as one total, so you can see where the gap comes from. The check takes five minutes, which is why it always comes first.

Question 2: are the documents right?

The figure in the notebook may not match reality:

• the same receipt was entered twice;
• boxes were entered instead of pieces (or the other way round);
• a sale landed on another item's code;
• the supplier's paperwork shows more than actually arrived.

In our example this is exactly what happened: the invoice says 4 boxes (4 × 12 = 48 pieces), but three arrived, which is 36. Twelve pieces were "lost" before they ever reached the shelf. So at goods-in never sign the invoice without checking the boxes against it.

Question 3: is it somewhere else?

The goods may have ended up on another shelf, in the back room, in the display window, on the returns shelf, in a "reserved" box or in a parcel packed for a customer. Check similar variants too: if there are 6 fewer black cars and 6 more white ones, nothing is lost, the items were simply mixed up. The total adds up, and the difference sits in two rows with opposite signs. Look in the sales area too: an item a customer carried off and left in the basket by the till or on the fitting table also looks like a shortage.

Question 4: is it a gift or breakage?

An unrecorded issue also looks like a shortage: goods given to a customer, opened as a sample, broken and thrown away, or taken home. Think back over the last two weeks and ask your helpers. Ask not to blame but to jog memories: "Did you give anyone a car, or open one to show?" People often simply forget to write such small things down. If a penalty hangs over every shortage, they will stay quiet about small gifts, so aim the conversation at the cause, not at punishment.

Question 5: has this item gone missing before?

One shortage may be chance; a repeated one is a flaw in the system. For that you need a difference notebook: date, item, difference, which question helped, cause. After two or three months a pattern shows up. Goods sold by weight always come out 1–2 per cent short, items vanish from the shelf by the door more often, one supplier delivers short every time. Once you find the pattern, you fix the system rather than one shortage: check the scale, move the shelf away from the till, show the supplier your own count at every delivery.

How much time to spend

Hunting for a shortage costs time and money too. The rule is simple: the search should not cost more than the shortage. Sitting for an hour or two over a 420,000 so'm gap is justified; for a 15,000 so'm gap it is enough to write "shortage, cause not found". Keep that entry in the notebook, though: if the same item falls short again, the fifth question will answer it.

Conclusion

Five questions: recount, check the documents, look for the goods elsewhere, recall unrecorded issues and look for repetition. Most shortages are settled by one of them, and the difference notebook reveals the rest. If there are many differences and no time to sort them out, the Sanab team counts the goods with a double check and shows the discrepancies in a clear report.