Posting Inventory Differences
Use
There are various options for posting inventory differences depending on the processing status of the physical inventory transaction.
A physical inventory document has already been created, and the count has already been posted. You only have to post the inventory differences.
A physical inventory document has been created, but the count has not yet been posted. The count results are available. You enter the count and post the differences in one step.
You have a count result without reference; that is, no physical inventory document has yet been created for this physical inventory transaction. You create a physical inventory document, enter the count, and post the differences in one step.
Prerequisites
The posting of physical inventory differences is subject to certain time constraints:
The posting period is automatically set during counting. Therefore, the inventory difference must be posted to the same period or - if postings to the previous period are allowed - in the following period.
The fiscal year is set by specifying a planned count date when creating a physical inventory document. All subsequent postings to this document must take place in this fiscal year and/or in the first period of the following fiscal year, if postings to the previous period are allowed.
You can give a reason for the inventory difference for each item. For example, you can specify that a physical inventory difference resulted because of theft.
In Customizing for Inventory Management, you can define the following value tolerances for posting inventory differences for a user group:
If the amount of a document exceeds the document tolerance defined for the user group, the user is not allowed to post any inventory differences for this document.
If the total value of the document is less than the document tolerance, but some items exceed the maximum amount per item, the user is not allowed to post any differences for these items. However, other items can be processed by the user.
Posting Differences After the Count Has Been Posted
The initial screen appears.
By entering a value in the Threshold value field, you can control that, on the following overview screen, all of the differences that are smaller than or the same as the threshold value are preselected.
An overview appears with the items whose difference is larger than the threshold value so that differences are to be posted.
(Since the inventory difference is calculated as the quantity counted minus the book inventory balance, it can be a negative number. The threshold value is independent of the sign. Thus, for a threshold value of 100, all differences that are not between -100 and +100 are listed.)
The items whose difference is smaller than the threshold value and the items that you selected in the overview are balanced.
Posting the Count and Differences Simultaneously
The initial screen appears.
The collective processing screen for the physical inventory count is displayed.
If a quantity of zero was counted for an item, enter this by selecting the ZC (zero count) column. It is not sufficient to enter 0 in the Quantity in column, because the system interprets a zero as "not yet counted."
Entering the Count Without a Document Reference
The initial screen appears.
The item selection screen is displayed.
If a quantity of zero was counted for an item, enter this by selecting the ZC (zero count) column. It is not sufficient to enter 0 in the Quantity in column, because the system interprets a zero as "not yet counted".
Result
After the inventory differences have been posted successfully, the system issues the message:
Diff. for I-document nn posted with M-document mm.
When you post the physical inventory difference, the system creates a material document that records the adjusted stock balances and an accounting document that contains the necessary account activities.