Inventory Accuracy Reporting: How to Turn Counts Into Decisions, Not Debates

Inventory accuracy reporting is where operations stops being a rumor mill and starts being a measurable system. Without clear reporting, inventory accuracy becomes a vague feeling. Someone thinks the count is wrong. Someone else thinks the pick team is missing it. Finance thinks the books are off. Customer service thinks the warehouse is slow. Meanwhile, the business keeps selling, and the gap keeps growing. Good reporting turns that chaos into evidence.

When you are scaling, reporting matters because accuracy problems do not stay small. A minor drift on a top SKU can trigger oversells, cancellations, and lost repeat customers. A minor drift on a retailer SKU can trigger shorts, chargebacks, and compliance headaches. Reporting is not a vanity project. It is how you identify where accuracy is breaking, and how you prove whether fixes are working.

Why inventory accuracy reporting is often misleading

A lot of reporting is built on averages and snapshots. It shows an overall accuracy percentage, and everyone relaxes. The trouble is that overall accuracy can look fine while your fast movers are constantly wrong. Or the report can show a clean count while inventory is stuck in staging and not actually pickable. When the report does not match reality, teams stop trusting it, and you end up back in spreadsheet land.

Bryan Wright, CTO and COO of G10 Fulfillment, described the root issue behind many failures: "A bad WMS system will not track inventory 100%, as it should." If the WMS is not capturing every inventory touchpoint, the reporting is going to be incomplete. Incomplete data creates reports that look confident and act wrong.

The alternative is transaction-level tracking. Bryan desfcribed what strong tracking looks like: "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." When you track every touch, your reporting can show not only the number, but the story behind the number.

What accurate reporting should actually include

Inventory accuracy reporting should answer four practical questions. First, how accurate is the inventory record versus physical reality. Second, where are variances happening, by SKU and by location. Third, what is the trend over time, so you can tell if changes are helping. Fourth, what is the audit trail, so you can investigate quickly.

This is where visibility matters. A report that shows accuracy without showing traceability is like a weather forecast with no radar. It might be right, but it cannot tell you why it is wrong.

Bryan described how deep traceability can get when a system is designed correctly: "At any point in time, I know that Bobby has this product on fork 10 right now, and if I needed to go find that product, I just got to go find Bobby on fork 10." Reporting that can trace inventory by location, including while it is moving, reduces the time spent hunting for inventory during audits and investigations.

Scan-based capture is what makes reporting believable

Inventory accuracy reporting is only as good as the transactions feeding it. If warehouse work is not captured in real time, reporting becomes a polite summary of missing information. That is why scan-based execution is the baseline.

Connor Perkins, Director of Fulfillment at G10 Fulfillment, described the rule that keeps the data trail intact: "You want everything to be scanned in the warehouse, nothing done on paper." Paper creates invisible work. Invisible work creates missing transactions. Missing transactions create reporting that cannot explain variances.

Connor also described the cost brands pay when accuracy and verification are weak. They were "losing money by shipping wrong items or wrong quantities of items." Reporting helps you find those patterns, but scanning is what makes the patterns real and traceable.

Reporting should spotlight SKUs that create the most pain

The most useful accuracy reporting is not a single percentage. It is a way to prioritize action. That means reporting by SKU, by velocity, by value, and by channel impact. If a SKU drives a big share of revenue, a small variance matters more. If a SKU is involved in retailer compliance, a small variance can trigger big penalties.

When reporting is SKU-aware, you stop wasting time chasing low-impact variances and start fixing the errors that drive the majority of customer complaints, refunds, and chargebacks.

Cycle counts and reporting should work as one system

Cycle counting produces the raw truth that keeps inventory honest. Reporting turns that truth into a trend you can manage. If cycle counts show variances, reporting should tie those variances to locations, transaction history, and process steps, so you can correct root causes.

This is also where exception reporting matters. If a location is repeatedly off, the report should highlight it. If a SKU repeatedly drifts, the report should highlight it. The point is to turn drift into a signal, not a recurring surprise.

Bryan described the kind of audit trail that supports investigation: "We have portals that show you the data. We have history that shows you all of that tracking." When reporting is connected to that history, you can move from "the count is off" to "this is where it went off" much faster.

Customer-facing reporting reduces tickets and interruptions

Accuracy reporting is not only for internal teams. Customers need visibility too. When customers cannot see accuracy trends, inventory status, and order progress, they ask. Those questions turn into tickets. Tickets interrupt warehouse execution, and interruptions create missed scans and errors that reduce accuracy.

Maureen Milligan, Director of Operations and Projects at G10 Fulfillment, described the benefit of customer-facing access: "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility." She also described what that enables operationally: "They can actually watch those progressions going on." When customers can self-serve data, they stop guessing, and the warehouse can stay focused on consistent execution.

Omnichannel reporting must prevent channel oversells

Accuracy reporting becomes even more important when inventory feeds multiple channels. If your inventory count is wrong, omnichannel availability becomes wrong. That is when channels fight over the same units and you end up disappointing someone.

Jen Myers, Chief Marketing Officer at G10 Fulfillment, described the omnichannel need: "You want to make sure your inventory is tracked across those two different systems, to make sure that there's enough inventory." Reporting should help here by showing inventory by status and allocation, so teams can see what is truly available and what is committed.

How G10 approaches inventory accuracy reporting

G10 treats inventory accuracy reporting as a shared operating system between the warehouse and the customer. Connor summarized the baseline that keeps the data real: "Having a 3PL and WMS that is 100% scan-based is crucial." Bryan described the tracking standard that makes reporting meaningful: "A good WMS tracks inventory through the warehouse at every point that you touch it." Maureen connected reporting to customer confidence through visibility: "What these real-time portals provide our customers is 100% visibility."

If you are tired of inventory accuracy being a debate, accuracy reporting is the lever that changes the conversation. When the system captures every touch, and reporting shows accuracy by SKU, by location, and over time, you can fix the real causes of drift, prove improvements, and sell with fewer surprises.