Auditors do not attend stock counts to catch warehouse staff in mistakes. They attend to see whether the count instructions work when trucks are waiting and night-shift leads are tired.
Freeze instructions that people can follow
Issue written freeze rules at least a week ahead. Name who may move goods after the cut-off, how returns are segregated, and what happens to partially picked orders. Ambiguous freezes produce the same debate every year: whether a shipment left before or after the count sheet was signed.
Tag what will not be counted twice
Damaged stock, consignment held for customers, and goods already billed but not shipped need physical tags. Auditors will ask. If the tags are missing, fieldwork slows while someone reconstructs the story from invoices.
Brief the supervisors, not only finance
The people who know which aisle holds slow-moving resins are rarely the same people who close the general ledger. Invite them to the pre-count meeting. A five-minute explanation of why auditors re-count selected bins prevents defensiveness on the floor.
Keep a quiet room for queries
When the count runs long, auditors still need a table for reconciling test counts to the listing. A noisy loading bay is a poor place to decide whether a variance is a sheet error or a real shortage.
If your year-end is approaching and inventory is material, speak with us early about observation dates — calendars fill quickly in late March.