Inventory Accuracy Rate: The Fulfillment Metric That Keeps Your Entire Operation Honest

Inventory accuracy problems start long before the numbers stop matching

An inventory accuracy rate is one of the most fundamental indicators of whether a fulfillment operation is healthy. Research shows that brands now expect near-perfect accuracy because customers are unforgiving when orders ship late or incomplete. When inventory accuracy slips, everything else slips with it: order accuracy, replenishment speed, financial reporting, and customer confidence.

Many brands who switch to G10 describe the same issue with previous 3PLs: mismatched counts, unexplained shrinkage, missing units, and constant reconciliation work. These breakdowns usually begin with gaps in workflow discipline, missed scans, or poor visibility. They become expensive problems when teams cannot see errors early enough to correct them.

As Maureen Milligan said, "Most of the customers who come to us from another 3PL, their challenges have always been access to their data, order accuracy and efficiency, and basically just meeting the committed requirements. So we've seen a lot of people come disillusioned by their last 3PL, where their orders weren't getting fulfilled in time, their inventory accuracy was not there, and they were not able to satisfy customer orders." A strong inventory accuracy rate is the antidote to that disillusionment.

Accuracy depends on real time tracking, not delayed updates

Inventory accuracy is not protected by spot checks or end-of-day reconciliation. It depends on capturing every movement as it happens. Receiving, putaway, transfers, replenishment, picking, packing, and shipping each create an opportunity for accuracy to rise or fall.

Bryan Wright explained the level of precision needed when he said, "Absolutely. We have portals that show you the data. We have history that shows you all of that tracking. It shows the product landed on the dock at 8 o'clock. At 8:10, John picked it up and took it to location XYZ, and at 10 o'clock, we picked two items off of that pellet in the location 1, 2, 3, 4, order, you know, ABC, and at 11 o'clock, we packed it, we put it in this box and put this label number on it, and all the way through the process onto the truck and to the customer." Inventory accuracy depends on this kind of detailed event history.

When every movement is recorded instantly, inventory becomes a reliable system of truth instead of an approximation.

Scan-based workflows are the backbone of inventory accuracy

Nothing undermines inventory accuracy faster than unscanned product movement. A single missed scan can cascade into widespread discrepancies. Accuracy requires consistent scanning at every touchpoint.

As Connor Perkins said, "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper. You can lose a lot of money in this industry by you know having people ship stuff wrong, or store it wrong, and now it's lost somewhere. So having a 3PL and WMS that is 100% scan-based is crucial." This is the foundation of a high inventory accuracy rate.

Connor also described the consequences of weak practices when he said, "One of the pain points our clients have experienced with previous 3PLSs is inventory accuracy; maybe their previous 3PL wasn't great at picking the orders accurately. So they were losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items." A strong accuracy rate requires eliminating exactly these points of failure.

Real time visibility portals improve accuracy through transparency

Inventory accuracy improves when customers can see what is happening inside the warehouse. Transparency encourages operational accountability, and it highlights discrepancies before they become systemic failures.

As Maureen said, "We're in the last stages of developing a new portal that will give customers real-time visibility to their on-time order fulfillment, inventory accuracy, and even inventory levels so that they can monitor those things directly in our systems. They'll have visibility to what the statuses of their orders-are they getting processed as they expect?-and things like that." Real time visibility allows brands to validate accuracy directly.

She added, "A lot of the 3PL customer expectations are that order fulfillment is happening extremely timely, that our inventory is accurate, that we're able to execute on their orders very quickly, and get them shipped the same day. So what these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility." Visibility and accuracy rise together.

Connor provided a deeper look at how this works when he said, "Our clients get best-in-class visibility and transparency. They can see their daily orders, they can see KPIs, and they can see historical transactions. They can look at a daily level or go into the more granular version where they're looking at transactional history on an item." This kind of access makes accuracy measurable and actionable.

He also said, "You have easy access to reporting and you can export to Excel, or really any format that you like you know directly from our WMS portal." This flexibility helps teams analyze patterns and investigate exceptions quickly.

Early detection prevents accuracy drift

Inventory accuracy problems begin as tiny discrepancies: a bin off by one unit, a mis-slotted SKU, a rushed pick, or a skipped receiving step. Without real time reporting and dashboards, those small gaps accumulate into large discrepancies that are expensive to unwind.

With strong visibility and analytics, teams can identify and fix accuracy issues at their source before they disrupt fulfillment or customer experience.

As Maureen said, "We will take in your inbounds, we will get them received and reported back to you within our SLAs, and oftentimes more quickly than what we contracted for. We will ship your orders out the day they're required. And our inventory accuracy is generally right there at that 99.7% that we agreed. So that's one of the areas where we really do excel, and where we've been able to win business." This level of accuracy is the product of early detection and consistent execution.

Accuracy rebuilds trust after failed 3PL relationships

Brands often switch 3PLs after losing confidence in the numbers. Conflicting reports, unexplained variances, and repeated mismatches destroy trust quickly. A strong inventory accuracy rate helps repair that trust.

As Maureen said, "For customers who have come to us from a bad 3PL relationship, they experience relief. They're suddenly seeing their business scaling, that the data supports what we agreed to, and then the trust begins to build." Inventory accuracy is one of the clearest proofs that operations are under control.

A high inventory accuracy rate is now a competitive necessity

As ecommerce accelerates and customer expectations tighten, inventory accuracy is no longer an operational checkbox. It is a strategic differentiator. A high accuracy rate reduces errors, lowers costs, strengthens forecasting, and improves customer satisfaction.

As Connor said, "This is one of our strengths. G10 is on the cutting edge for this kind of transparency and feedback for clients." Inventory accuracy is one of the strongest expressions of that commitment.

If your brand wants fewer discrepancies, fewer surprises, and a fulfillment engine that behaves predictably, improving inventory accuracy is the most impactful step you can take.