What is in the template
This stock adjustment form is a log of manual corrections to your on-hand inventory: shrinkage, damage, expired goods, count corrections and found stock. Each row records the item, location, quantity before, quantity after, the difference, a reason code and who approved it.
Use it after a cycle count or whenever someone needs to change a quantity by hand. The point is accountability: an unexplained adjustment is either a mistake or a leak, and the log lets you tell which. Review the reason codes every month to see which causes repeat.
The sample rows are fictional and can be deleted. The file is plain comma-separated text, so it opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers; add formulas for any calculated columns after you import it.
Columns explained
| Adjustment_ID | Unique reference for the adjustment. |
| Date | Date the change was made. |
| SKU | Item code that was adjusted. |
| Product_Name | Name of the item. |
| Location | Bin or shelf where the change applies. |
| Quantity_Before | On-hand quantity before the adjustment. |
| Quantity_After | On-hand quantity after the adjustment. |
| Difference | After minus before; negative means a reduction. |
| Reason_Code | Standard reason such as DAMAGED, EXPIRED or COUNT_CORRECTION. |
| Approved_By | Person who authorised the change. |
| Notes | Free text for context. |
How to record a stock adjustment, step by step
1. Confirm the real quantity with a physical count of that bin, not from memory. 2. Write the quantity before (what the system says) and the quantity after (what you counted); the difference is calculated from those two. 3. Pick one reason code from your short list, such as DAMAGED, EXPIRED or COUNT_CORRECTION. 4. Have someone other than you sign off in Approved_By. 5. Only then change the quantity in your inventory record, and note the Adjustment_ID there so the two always match.
The same form covers an inventory write-off: record damaged, expired or lost stock as an adjustment with the matching reason code, and add what happened in Notes. Keep adjustments separate from normal sales, receipts and transfers, which already have their own records.
Where a spreadsheet template breaks down
A spreadsheet log does not change your stock: the adjustment still has to be entered in the inventory record, which means two steps that can get out of sync. It also has no approval workflow, so nothing stops a row from being added without sign-off.
Over time the log grows long and is hard to search by item or by date range, and there is no automatic link to the stock count that triggered the change.
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