Inventory Variance Report Generator
Compare system inventory with physical stock counts, identify shortages and excess, calculate quantity and financial variance, and create a printable inventory variance report.
Report Information
Enter the basic information for this report.
Inventory Items
Enter your system quantity and physical count.
| # | SKU / Item Code | Description | System Qty | Physical Qty | Variance | Variance % | Unit Cost | Variance Value | Status |
|---|
Variance Summary
Automatic summary based on your inventory data.
Report Actions
Export or print your completed inventory report.
How to use the Inventory Variance Report Generator
Enter report information
Add your company, warehouse, report date, preparer's name and currency.
Add inventory
Enter SKU, description, system quantity, physical quantity and unit cost.
Calculate
DIXANI calculates quantity variance, percentage and financial variance.
Export
Export your data as CSV or print the report to PDF.
What Can You Use an Inventory Variance Report For?
An inventory variance report helps compare the stock quantity recorded in your inventory system with the quantity found during a physical stock count.
Shortages may indicate issues such as picking errors, unrecorded movements, damages, incorrect receipts or inventory adjustments. Excess quantities can result from similar transaction or counting differences.
This tool also calculates the financial value of each variance using the item's unit cost, helping you identify discrepancies that may require further investigation.
What Should You Check When Physical Stock Does Not Match the System?
Finding a stock variance does not automatically explain why the difference occurred. Before making an inventory adjustment, the variance should normally be investigated to identify possible transaction, counting or operational errors.
Recheck the Physical Count
Confirm the item, location, unit of measure and counted quantity. For significant discrepancies, a second count by another person can help rule out counting or recording errors.
Review Receiving Transactions
Check recent receipts against purchase orders, delivery documents and system postings. A receipt may have been physically completed but entered incorrectly, posted to the wrong item or not posted at all.
Check Issues and Outbound Movements
Review sales, picking, dispatch, consumption and goods-issue transactions. Stock may have physically left the location before the corresponding system transaction was completed or corrected.
Review Internal Transfers
Check transfers between warehouses, bins or storage locations. Inventory can appear short in one location and excess in another when a physical movement was not correctly recorded in the system.
Check Damages, Returns and Adjustments
Review damaged stock, customer or supplier returns, write-offs, inventory adjustments and quarantine locations. These transactions can create differences when the physical movement and system posting do not match.
Check Item and Unit-of-Measure Errors
Confirm that the correct SKU, pack size and unit of measure were used. Differences between pieces, cartons, cases or other units can create significant apparent variances even when the physical stock itself is correct.
After investigating the cause, document the findings and follow your organization's approval procedure before posting an inventory adjustment. Repeated variances for the same item or process may indicate a control issue that requires further corrective action.
Understanding Shortage, Excess and Net Variance
An inventory variance can represent either a shortage or an excess. Looking only at the final net value can sometimes hide important item-level discrepancies.
Shortage
A shortage occurs when the physical quantity is lower than the system quantity. In this report, the variance is calculated as physical quantity minus system quantity, so a shortage produces a negative quantity variance.
For example, if the system shows 100 units but only 95 units are physically counted, the variance is -5 units.
Excess
An excess occurs when the physical quantity is higher than the system quantity. This produces a positive quantity variance.
For example, if the system shows 100 units and the physical count is 108 units, the variance is +8 units.
Variance Value
Variance value converts the quantity difference into a financial amount using the item's unit cost. This can help prioritize investigation of discrepancies that have a greater financial impact.
A small quantity difference on a high-value item may require more attention than a larger quantity difference on a low-value item.
Net Variance
Net variance combines positive and negative variance values into an overall result. It can provide a useful summary, but it should not be used by itself to judge inventory accuracy.
For example, a QAR 1,000 shortage and a QAR 1,000 excess may produce a net variance of zero even though two significant stock discrepancies still require investigation.
For inventory control purposes, review shortages and excesses individually as well as the overall net variance. Opposing differences should not automatically be treated as cancelling each other without investigating their causes.
Inventory Variance Report — Frequently Asked Questions
What is an inventory variance?
Inventory variance is the difference between system quantity and the quantity physically counted. A negative variance generally indicates a shortage, while a positive variance indicates excess stock.
How is inventory variance calculated?
DIXANI calculates variance as physical quantity minus system quantity. Variance percentage is calculated against system quantity. If system quantity is zero, percentage is shown as N/A.
Can I import inventory from Excel?
Version 1.2 supports CSV files, which can be exported from Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets and most inventory systems.
Is my inventory data uploaded to DIXANI?
No. Calculations happen directly inside your browser. Your inventory data is not sent to a DIXANI server.
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