Classifying the causes of shortages

The revision table shows a line that reads "shortage: 4,380,000 so'm". Looking at that figure, most people ask first: "Who took it?" That question is premature. A shortage is like a cough: it can come from a cold or from something else, and the treatment depends on the cause. So in practice every difference is first placed in one of four groups, and only then is action decided.

A shortage is a symptom, not a diagnosis.

The four groups

Each group has its own signs.

1. Recording and counting errors

This is the most common and the "cheapest" cause. It includes:

• confusion of units: kilograms in the records, bags in the warehouse (or the other way round);
• an issue document entered twice, or not entered at all;
• returned or transferred goods booked on one side and forgotten on the other;
• similar article codes swapped;
• a slip when copying a figure from the count sheet.

The signs: differences come in pairs (a shortage in one position, a surplus in its neighbour), the amounts are round or the same digits repeat, and the documents keep a trace of the mistake.

2. Natural loss

Some goods lose weight in storage and transport: dried fruit shrinks, loose products spill from open bags, liquids evaporate. The signs: the shortage is small, even, found only in such goods, and grows with storage time. This kind of loss is accepted within an allowance, and whatever exceeds the allowance moves to another group.

3. Spoilage and damage

Expired products, glass containers broken during unloading, cardboard soaked by rain, a sack gnawed by rodents, meat lost when a freezer switched off. The goods were physically there, then became unusable, but no write-off report was made. In the records they are still listed; in the warehouse they are gone. The signs: the damaged goods are still lying to one side, or were thrown away earlier with no paperwork to show it.

4. Deliberate removal

Theft, selling without recording the sale and pocketing the money, "adjusting" documents after the fact. The signs: small, expensive, easy-to-sell items; a difference that matches the working days of one person or one shift; documents corrected later; a shortage that grows over time; an attempt to cover it with a surplus found elsewhere. This group is the rarest but the costliest, which is exactly why it should be established with evidence, not guesses.

Placing a difference in a group

Ask four questions about each shortage:

1. Is there a document trail: a receipt, issue, return, transfer? If so, it is probably an error.
2. Is the difference paired, with an equal surplus in another position? If so, it is a mix-up.
3. Does it depend on the type of goods and the storage time? Then it is natural loss or spoilage.
4. Does it line up with a person, a shift or a time? Then a deeper check is needed.

A hypothetical example: at a building-materials depot a revision found a shortage of 4,380,000 so'm. After classification the picture was this:

• 2,150,000 so'm — a unit error: paint was kept in litres in the records and in 5-litre buckets in the warehouse;
• 520,000 so'm — natural loss of loose dry mix from open bags;
• 1,110,000 so'm — items broken during unloading and never written off;
• 600,000 so'm — the part with no explanation found.

So almost half of the shortage was a plain unit mix-up, and a deeper investigation was needed for only about 14 percent of the total. Without classification everyone would have believed that 4.38 million had "disappeared".

Why it matters

Each group calls for its own response. Errors are fixed by fixing the process: a list of units is drawn up, and important documents are checked by two people. For natural loss, you look at the allowance and the storage conditions. For spoilage, you set up a write-off routine and a place for damaged stock. If intent is suspected, a separate inquiry is held and access to the warehouse is restricted.

You can go wrong in both directions. If you treat everything as theft, honest employees start hiding paperwork and the real cause gets buried. If you treat everything as an "error", genuine theft goes unnoticed.

Conclusion

Once the cause of a shortage is classified correctly, half the work is done, because it is clear which response to choose. The Reviziya team can help sort differences into these four groups and back each one with documents.