Stock Discrepancy Troubleshooting

Introduction

Sometimes when reviewing your Storages View, My Stocks View and Third Party Stocks View, you'll notice tonnage/ownership/grade variation is off. This can be very stressful, but there are many reasons this could be the case, so prior to contacting our Support Team, we will refer you to this Article to determine if any of these topics are the issue. You will find some common issues, the common reasons for these issues as well as suggested ways of fixing these issues. 

If you are unable to troubleshoot the issue,  please submit a ticket to our Support. You'll find 3 questions at the bottom of the article, please answer these questions for us so we have all the information we require to assist you.

Which view is the disparity showing in?

There are three views: "Storages" view, "My Stocks" view or "Third Party Stocks" view. "My Stocks" and "Third Party Stocks" are both considered Ownership views whereas "Storages view" is its own category.

The Storages View gives users a way to look at stock on their sites bifurcated by commodity and storage. On the other hand, the stock in Ownership View is completely distinct from the stock in storage and shows stock held by different entities. 

There is no link between the stock shown in the Storages View and the stock held in Ownership.

Actions That Affect Stock Levels:

There are 6 main actions that can affect stock in ownership or storages views:

1. Stock Update
2. Stock Empty
3. Title Transfer
4. Storage to Storage Transfer
5. Stock Swap
6. Regrade/ Reseason

A brief explanation of each:

Stock Update/ Empty

Stock Update/Empty can be done from within both the storages and ownership views. This typically results in an imbalance between the two views.

Title Transfer

Title transfers merely change the ownership of stock but not the actual location. This means that while the owner of the stock may change in ownership view, on a site level the balance between storage and ownership views is maintained.

Storage to Storage Transfer

Storage-to-storage transfers are similar to Title Transfers, but for storage. Here, the stock may be transferred from one storage location to another, but the balance between total stock in ownership and total stock on all sites remains unaffected.

Stock Swap

Stock Swaps are used by companies with storages in multiple locations to add stock in one location and take it out of another. While stock swaps may lead to a difference in ownership and storages view on a site level, total stock owned and kept at all sites will not be affected.

Regrade/Reseason

Regrade and reseason are carried out on an ownership level. However, since there is no distinction on a grade/season level in the storages, regrading and reseasoning stock will change its composition and might lead to inconsistency in a grade to grade tonnage comparison, but on a commodity and site level stock remains balanced.

How do I Keep Stocks Balanced?

The easiest way to keep stock balanced is to ensure that changes that only affect storage or only affect ownership are carried out in tandem with an appropriate change in the ownership/storage, respectively. To ensure both Storage and Ownership views are in sync, users must ensure that any adjustments made to either view include a reference to both Storage and Ownership. When making adjustments to the Storage level, you will have the option to 'Manage Ownership' simultaneously, ensuring that the two views are in sync, and vice versa.

In case of regrade/reseason of stock users will have to update storage using the update storage option to balance the stock. It is important that "Manager Ownership" option is not used while updating storage as part of this activity, since ownership view will already have been updated due to the reseason/regrade.

Similarly, if you are emptying a stock (from the ownership view), make sure to nominate which Storage the stock should be deducted from. You can do so by ticking the box "Manage Storage" in the empty stock form.

Why is my Storages View reflecting more tonnage than my physical storages or My Stocks View?

Common causes:  

Stock Empty was performed in "My Stocks", but "Manage Storages" was not ticked when this was performed.

Troubleshooting steps: 

1. To check for Stock Empties, go to "My Stocks" and select the Location, Owner (of Commodity) and NGR of Stock that was emptied. Click "Historical View" button to bring up Stock line that was emptied.
2. Click the Commodity to see the lines under it, tonnage will be +0.00, click that line to see Loads and Updates. Locate "Stock empty" and click line.
3. Nominate which Storage or multiple Storages this tonnage was emptied out of and nominate which Storages the tonnages for the Stock Empty were deducted from and click "Save". Views will balance

Why do I have a storage called "Farmgate" with stocks in it?

Common cause: Storage has not been nominated correctly in Loads, so "Farm Gate" was selected.

Troubleshooting steps: 

1. Go through "Loads" in that Commodity in My Stocks View: 
2. If Commodity tonnage is less than it should be in Storages view - check for Inloads at that Site where Storage was NOT nominated (has "Farm Gate" nominated in Storage field). If Commodity tonnage is higher than it should be - check for Outloads at that Site where Storage was NOT nominated (has "Farm Gate" nominated in Storage field).
3. Then click to open that Load, and edit the Inload or Outload details to reflect the correct storage.

Why does My Storages View show a different Grade spread of a Commodity than My Stocks View?

Note: Storages View shows grade bifurcation at the storage level to make it transparent to the user what transactions they performed on the storages. System doesn't try to balance between Storage and Ownership view on a Grade level. It can only track this balance at the Commodity level. This is because, users frequently outload a grade from a Storage that doesn't even contain that grade to begin with.

Common causes: Grade that was Inloaded was different to Grade that was Outloaded in one or more loads, and that tonnage of Commodity was not Regraded appropriately prior to being Outloaded as another Grade.

Troubleshooting steps: Enter Storages View. Click "Historical View" button to bring up history and browse for the historical Inloads and Outloads of a Grade, will be able to see if a Grade was Inloaded as one Grade but Outloaded as another. Then use Regrade/Reseason to correct the Grade Spread in Storages View.

Why is the tonnage of a Commodity more than it should be at one of my Sites?

Common cause: When user has used "Stock Swap", they've added a Variety to the commodity that was not already recorded for the Commodity - so now it hasn't been deducted from the original site but has been added to the desired site.

Troubleshooting steps: Enter My Stocks or Third Party Stocks View. Select "All Locations" and all NGR's if you have more than one. Click "Historical View" button to bring up history and browse for Commodity lines with the same Grade and Season, but one with a Variety and the other without. Open those lines, and compare with the Storages View of both sites. 

Why do I have a negative tonnage line in my Storages View?

Common causes: The Storage nominated in a Movement or Update of Stock was the wrong one.

Troubleshooting steps: Enter Storages View. Click "Historical View" button to bring up history and browse for the historical Inloads and Outloads of a Commodity. Check the Storage nominated for Loads are the correct storage.

I've done a physical stock take, and need to adjust my Stock completely, how do I do it?

Troubleshooting steps: There are many ways to do it - manually adding Inloads and Outloads is a common one. However, the best way to do it is by using "Update Stock", you just need to adjust the Stock lines to what you've physically calculated in terms of Grades and Tonnage, the system will add Inloads and Outloads as required automatically. This will lead to more accurate records as it removes human error.

Still can't solve it? Submit a ticket to Support, please answer the listed questions in your ticket.

Reach out to our Support team by visiting https://agrichain.freshdesk.com/support/home, and raise a ticket. 
Please include answers to these questions in your ticket:
1. Which exact Commodity and Grade/s do you feel have the wrong tonnage?
2. Is the total of that Commodity and Grade correct in either Storages or Ownership View?
3. When was the last time the totals were right in both views? Can you provide us a date or date range of when it showed discrepancies?