How to adjust stock after a physical count

When what is on the shelf does not match what UniAsset says, you record an Adjustment. You never edit the quantity.

When to use this

• After a stocktake or cycle count
• When units are found damaged and written off
• When stock was moved without being recorded
• When the opening balance turns out to have been wrong

If stock genuinely left the store for a job, that is an Issue, not an adjustment. Keeping the two separate is what lets you see how much of your variance is normal operation and how much is unexplained.

Requirements

• Available on: Nova, Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos
• Roles: Owner, Admin, Manager

Steps

1. Count the physical stock first. Do the count before you open the screen, not while looking at the expected number.
2. Go to Dashboard → Asset Stock and open the item.
3. Click Adjust Quantity.
4. Enter the Counted quantity — what you actually have, not the difference.
5. Enter a Reason. This is required — "Quarterly stock count", "Four units water damaged, written off".
6. Add Notes if there is more to say.
7. Review the preview of the change, then confirm.

Tip You enter the counted total and UniAsset works out the delta. That is deliberate — entering a difference invites arithmetic mistakes at exactly the moment accuracy matters.

What happens next

• An Adjustment row is written to the ledger with the delta and the resulting balance.
• The item's quantity is updated to your counted figure.
• An event is written to the asset timeline.
• If the new balance is at or below the minimum threshold, a low-stock alert fires.

The adjustment is permanent. So is its reason — which is the point.

Why the reason is required

An adjustment is a statement that the record was wrong. Without an explanation, a ledger full of adjustments tells you the numbers cannot be trusted but not why.

With reasons attached, patterns become visible: one item that adjusts down every quarter is a different problem from one that adjusted once after a flood.

Common mistakes

Adjusting to make the number look right before an audit. The adjustment and its reason are permanent and visible. An unexplained correction the week before an audit is worse than the discrepancy.

Using an adjustment instead of an issue. Adjustments should be rare. If most of your movements are adjustments, stock is leaving without being recorded.

Counting while looking at the expected figure. People find what they expect to find. Count first.

Writing "correction" as the reason. That says nothing. Say what was found and why it differed.

Troubleshooting

The Adjust Quantity button isn't there. Adjusting stock needs Manager or above.

I can't save without a reason. Correct — reasons are required on adjustments and issues.

I entered the wrong counted quantity. Post another adjustment with the correct figure and a reason explaining the mistake. Ledger rows are never edited or deleted; a correction is a new row that supersedes.

The balance still looks wrong after adjusting. Read the movement history on the item. Every row shows the balance after it, so you can see exactly where the number diverged.

I want to reset an item to zero and start again. Adjust to zero with a reason. The history stays, which is what you want if anyone later asks what happened.

Related articles

• What is Asset Stock?
• How to issue and return stock
• How to create an Asset Stock item
• Location-based asset audits
• Audit preparation