How can I auto-reconcile my inventory audit discrepancies with Beacon?

When using Beacon's inventory audits, at the end of the process you still need to adjust inventory to make your system match reality. That can be an intensive process and critical to get right. That's why we built a way for Admins to AUTO-RECONCILE those inventory discrepancies. 

Designate your Discrepant Custodian

Assign and Complete Inventory Audits 

Auto-Reconcile the Audit Results

Check for items still outstanding

Designate your Discrepant Custodian

The first step in setting up your account for Auto-Reconciling is to create a "discrepant custodian" that the system can use as a clearing house for the inventory adjustments it will make to correct your counts.

This means when system inventory counts are too high for a given user (not matching reality), the system will reconcile by transferring the overages to this discrepant custodian. When inventory is short (the system count for a user is lower than reality), it will look in this discrepant location to fix the shortages by transferring that inventory to the appropriate user. 

1. As an admin, navigate to your Settings > Organization
2. Scroll down to the setting allowing you to designate a Custodian-Only User for this purpose
3. This user will need to be a Custodian-Only User, to learn how to create one check out this article. 

Assign and Complete Inventory Audits 

Check out this article to learn more about assigning and completing audits. 

Auto-Reconcile Inventory Audit Results

When using the auto-reconcile feature, the system will exchange inventory between the audited custodian and the discrepant custodian (custodian-only) you specified in your organization settings. 

If you choose to reconcile excess inventory, one or more transfers will be automatically created FROM the audited custodian TO the discrepant custodian defined in your organization settings and automatically accepted. 

If you choose to reconcile missing inventory, one or more transfers will be created FROM the discrepant custodian TO the audited custodian and automatically accepted. 

1. Locate the audit in the Audits section of the system and click "View detail"
2. Open the "More" menu in the upper right corner to select "Auto-reconcile".
3. Select which type of reconciling transfer you would like to perform
   1. Reconcile excess inventory (transfer inventory FROM the audited user)
   2. Reconcile missing inventory (transfer inventory TO the audited user)
      
4. If you choose to reconcile missing inventory, also choose between:
   1. Transferring as much inventory as possible from the discrepant custodian
   2. Transfer only the Catalog/Lot # combinations that can be fully reconciled using inventory in discrepant custody
5. Transfers created by the auto-reconciliation process are automatically accepted and cannot be cancelled. The auto-reconciled inventory count will display in the "Auto-reconciled" column of the audit table.
6. Any transfers created as a result of the auto-reconciling process will be listed in the sidebar.
7. The transfer will be created with the description, " - [Audited User name] - Audit/In", but you may modify it to add more context. 
8. If there is not enough inventory to complete a transfer the system will alert you in the upper right corner and the transfer will not be created.
   
   

Check for items still outstanding

After performing a transfer TO  your audited custodian, certain items may not have been fulfilled due to stock levels in the Discrepant Custody (where the inventory comes from).

Click on the button in the upper right corner to download a spreadsheet of items which were only partially reconciled.

This will only list items which were partially reconciled. If items were not able to be reconciled at all, please refer to the Auto-Reconciled column of the audit because this inventory will need to be created or transferred from another custodian.

You may also reconcile your audits manually using the discrepancy column to note which items are missing and which have excess, or by Exporting the Full Audit and determining your discrepancies manually and fix them using inventory creation, inventory transfers, or stock adjustments.