Field Notes ·
How to survive your first inventory observation
What finance and warehouse teams in Taiwan should prepare before auditors count stock on the floor.
Inventory observation is where many first-time auditees feel the audit become real. Auditors are not there to run your warehouse — they are there to see whether the quantities in the perpetual records exist on the floor at period end.
A week before the count
Freeze unnecessary transfers between locations if you can. Print location maps. Assign a warehouse lead who knows slow-moving SKUs and damaged goods. Tell auditors which bays are hazardous or require escorts so the count plan is realistic.
On the day
Bring cut-off documents for the last receipts and shipments. If trucks are loading during the count, stop and document those movements. Partial counts of high-value items often matter more than racing through every carton of packaging supplies.
After the count
Reconcile differences the same day while memories are fresh. Large unexplained shortages rarely improve with time — they attract more testing. If your records were already weak, expect follow-up samples rather than a polite shrug.