Inventory Error Alerts: Catching Mistakes Early Before They Turn Into Stockouts and Oversells

Inventory errors are expensive because they arrive late

Inventory error alerts matter because most inventory mistakes do not announce themselves. They hide until the worst moment: when an order needs to ship, when a customer buys the last unit, or when a warehouse team cannot find a SKU that should be available. Research shows that inventory inaccuracies drive stockouts, oversells, late shipments, and support tickets, especially as catalogs grow and order volume accelerates.

Many brands come to G10 after dealing with inventory problems that felt random. Counts changed without explanation. Picks failed because locations were wrong. The business oversold because the system never signaled the drift. Inventory error alerts are how you stop learning about problems from angry customers. Alerts surface the warning signs while there is still time to fix 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." Error alerts help address that disillusionment by highlighting accuracy issues early instead of letting them pile up.

Alerts depend on real time inventory events

Inventory error alerts only work if the system can see inventory changes quickly. If receiving updates arrive late, if movement is recorded after the fact, or if adjustments are delayed, alerts fire too late to prevent customer impact. Research shows that delayed receiving and delayed inventory adjustments are common drivers of oversells because the system keeps showing availability that no longer exists.

Bryan Wright described the level of real time event tracking that supports accurate visibility 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 error alerts become meaningful when inventory events have this kind of timestamped history behind them.

Scan-based workflows reduce errors and make alerts accurate

Alerts are only useful when they are based on reliable data. Scan-based workflows are the foundation because scans convert physical movement into system truth. Without scans, the system guesses, and alerts either fail to trigger or trigger constantly.

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." Scan-based execution reduces the number of errors that can happen quietly, and it gives alerts better signals when something goes wrong.

Connor also 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." Alerts help prevent this kind of loss by flagging risk areas like frequent adjustments, repeated mispicks, and recurring location failures.

Receiving alerts prevent the first mistake from becoming the baseline

Receiving is where inventory becomes your problem. If inbound counts are short, mislabeled, or received to the wrong SKU, the system starts wrong. Research shows that receiving variances are a common root cause of inventory inaccuracies because every downstream workflow assumes the receiving count was correct.

Inventory error alerts should flag mismatches between expected and received quantities, unusual receiving delays, and receiving exceptions that could affect availability. When alerts fire early, teams can correct the record before the SKU goes live across sales channels.

Location alerts reduce wasted picking time

One of the most common warehouse errors is a location error. The system says the SKU is in one location, but the physical inventory is somewhere else. Research shows that location accuracy improves picking speed because it eliminates the search time that does not create value.

Inventory error alerts can flag suspicious patterns like repeated relocations of the same SKU, picks that fail in the same zone, or frequent adjustments tied to a specific location. Those signals often point to labeling issues, training gaps, or a workflow shortcut that needs to be corrected.

Allocation and availability alerts protect against oversells

Many oversells happen because on-hand inventory is confused with available-to-sell inventory. Inventory error alerts should warn when available inventory drops near zero, when allocation spikes unexpectedly, or when a SKU is repeatedly oversold due to state confusion. Research shows that multi-channel brands are especially vulnerable when allocation is not enforced consistently across systems.

Alerts work best when they reflect inventory state changes in real time: available, reserved, allocated, picked, packed, shipped, damaged, and inbound. When those states are visible, the business can protect availability and prevent selling the same unit twice.

Adjustment alerts help detect drift and process breakdowns

Adjustments are not always bad, but repeated adjustments are a signal. Inventory error alerts should flag SKUs with frequent adjustments, large adjustments, and recurring adjustments tied to specific workflows. Research shows that adjustment transparency improves accuracy over time because it reveals patterns that can be fixed.

When alerts point to a SKU that constantly needs correcting, teams can investigate the root cause. Is the SKU being miscounted at receiving. Is it stored in a confusing location. Does it have packaging that looks like another SKU. Alerts help prioritize what to fix first.

Transaction history is how alerts become actions

Alerts are only useful if they lead to action. Transaction history is what allows teams to investigate quickly. When an alert fires, teams need to see what changed, when it changed, and who touched it.

As Connor 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." Inventory error alerts become far more effective when they are tied to transaction history because the history shows what triggered the alert.

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." Exportable reporting helps teams document investigations, share findings internally, and validate whether fixes worked.

Portals help brands monitor alerts and accuracy signals

Inventory error alerts are not only a warehouse tool. Brands, planners, and customer support teams also need to see inventory risk signals. A portal that surfaces inventory accuracy and inventory levels helps brands monitor issues without waiting.

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." Inventory error alerts become more useful when brands can monitor inventory accuracy and levels directly, because they can adjust merchandising and purchasing decisions quickly.

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." Alerts are part of that visibility because they show where accuracy risk is rising.

Error alerts reduce stockouts, oversells, and customer-facing surprises

Inventory error alerts reduce surprises by catching drift early. They reduce oversells by warning when availability is at risk. They reduce stockouts by highlighting receiving delays and location failures. They reduce support tickets because customers receive what they ordered and shipments go out on time.

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." Alerts support that performance by helping teams catch issues before they affect orders.

Error alerts rebuild confidence after bad inventory data

Brands often switch 3PLs because inventory stopped being believable. They were tired of learning about problems too late. Inventory error alerts rebuild confidence by creating early warning signals that keep inventory truth aligned with reality.

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." Alerts contribute to that relief because they reduce surprises and make issues easier to investigate.

Inventory error alerts are now essential

As fulfillment becomes faster, the cost of late detection rises. Inventory error alerts require real time event capture, scan-based execution, portals that expose accuracy signals, and transaction history that turns alerts into investigations.

As Connor said, "This is one of our strengths. G10 is on the cutting edge for this kind of transparency and feedback for clients." If your brand wants fewer oversells, fewer stockouts, and fewer customer apologies, inventory error alerts are a practical place to focus.

If you want to see what alerts look like when every movement is captured and every variance signal is visible in real time, ask for a walkthrough that maps your current inventory surprises to a clearer, more defensible visibility model.