Transaction Auditing 101
Most Accounting, Inventory Distributions and POS Systems have built-in functionality that allows for both auditing and editing of work before posting (i.e. finalizing) it.
Failure to use these built-in tools can result in various anomalies and issues surrounding all data entered into your system. A recent example of this was as follows:
A customer called in with various inventory related complains. The top four of these complaints were:
- Quantity On Hand was incorrect.
- Quantity Committed was Incorrect.
- Item had the wrong barcode assigned to it.
- The cost was disappearing from Inventory Valuation report.
This was later determined to be due to all of the following:
The wrong item number was being selected. – User was searching by description and was typing in a partial description and selecting the very first item found in a group of items with a similar description, but not the correct item.
Data Set-up issues – The same item was entered into the system twice using the exact same description. each item had a different barcode assigned to it. When selling the item, user were scanning the barcode, picking the first item. When editing the item, the users were doing a look-up by description and choosing the second item.
Unposted Inventory Related transactions – There were multiple unposted inventory Adjustment transactions and Receiving’s transactions on file from two years earlier that had not been posted. No one had audited or posted these transactions, and the user logged into the software wasn’t authorized to post transactions dated in either previous periods, or previous years.
Additional Insufficient Security Levels – A user running the Inventory Valuation Report was NOT authorized to see costs, so the cost values on the report were masked. Another user with a different security levels was running the same report without issue.
In the annuls of Tech Support, the above issues would fall into all of these support related categories:
- Usage – The user who entered the transactions did not post their work.
- Training – The user who entered the transaction should have understood that auditing and posting was required.
- Auditing – The user was not reviewing their previously entered and saved transaction data, nor was anyone else on staff else
- Security – The user doing the work was not authorized to post transactions outside of the current period date range. So once enough time had passed, the could have addressed the situation if they had tried. Also, this same user was not authorized to view costs.
If you have similar issues to the above, please call the CCS Retail Systems Support Department in order to work out a resolution.
– John