How to Perform a Stock Adjustment
Learn the step-by-step process for performing a stock adjustment to ensure accurate inventory levels.
Written by Ryan Osborne
Updated at March 27th, 2026
Table of Contents
Stock Adjustments
Maintaining accurate stock levels is essential for inventory management, and Merchanter provides a straightforward method for making quick adjustments to individual products and a longer process for making multiple changes. This guide will walk you through the process of adjusting stock quantities, whether you need to correct discrepancies, account for damaged goods, or update counts following a physical stock check.
Please note: Wholesale stock quantity changes should be handled using the stock count module. Stock adjustments are intended for little tweaks and adjustments here and there.
Making a Quick Stock Adjustment
Start by making sure you are logged in as a user who has permission to edit and maintain products.
Find and open the product you wish to adjust. Within the product record, go to the Stock tab.
Inside the Stock tab, you will see the Stock Adjustment button in the top right of the depot summary.
This button allows you to quickly create an adjustment for this specific product. While there are other ways to adjust stock levels, this is the fastest method for an individual product.
Entering the Adjustment Details
When you click the Stock Adjustment button, a form will open.
At the top of the form is a Reason field, which lets you select from a predefined list of reasons for the adjustment.
You can also enter a Reference for your adjustment, Sheet Reference if it's a stock count correction, and Notes if needed, particularly useful if your auditors may wish to review and understand this adjustment later.
Because the adjustment was opened from the product, the product itself is already added to the form. You can add a Lot or a Stock Location if your system uses these. If you no longer wish to proceed, the adjustment can be deleted from the suite of 3 buttons against the adjustment line. You may also save it as a draft without committing any changes, or select Apply Adjustments to confirm the update from the buttons in the bottom right.
Adjusting Quantities and Specifications
The current stock level is displayed. This example shows 45.6m in total over 10 Pieces.
You can change the unit of measure if necessary by clicking on the pencil on paper button next to the field.
The button to the left of Quantity Change determines whether the adjustment adds to or removes from stock. When the button is set to negative, the adjustment reduces stock. Clicking the button will switch it to positive, meaning stock will be added instead.
You then click the pencil and paper button to the right of the Qty. Change the box to bring up the stock adjustment quantity change pop-up. It clearly tells you in the header whether you are removing or adding stock to he system.
If you prefer, you can edit the quantity in the New Quantity box directly to set the total stock level you want. You can also click the paper and pencil icon to edit specifications, allowing you to add or remove particular product specifications.
Again, the header clearly denotes that you are inputting an actual quantity here.
If your product uses specifications, you can adjust these too. For instance, you may find two 2.4 metre lengths and lose one 4.8 metre length. This results in no loss of total material but updates the specification breakdown accurately.
The system will show you the previous Qty, the change and the new Qty, as well as any loss or gain in stock value.
Once satisfied with your changes, select Apply Adjustments to commit the update. The system will now amend your stock levels.
Generating Stock Adjustment Documents
When a stock adjustment is applied, the system can have a document scenario configured to automatically generate a document recording the adjustment. Different documents could be set up for the different reason types. The documents are then saved against the stock adjustment. From the menu, go to Stock → Stock Adjustments, and then open the relevant adjustment record and select the Documents tab to see any saved documents.
Please note that custom documents are outside of standard support and chargeable.
Performing a Full Stock Adjustment
If you need to make adjustments across multiple products at once, you can use the full stock adjustment method. To do this, go to Stock → Stock Adjustments and click New Stock Adjustment.
You are taken to the same screen as the quick stock adjustment but In this form, you must complete all the details manually, You can include several products within the same adjustment
After filling in the required header fields
You can now search for the products in the section below.
You may want to untick the blue In Stock filter if you are correcting a product the system thinks its at zero.
Note: You can make stock adjustments for another deport if required. just select a different Depot from the depot drop down. Please be careful when doing this as it can get confusing.
You can add as many products as you like and you can even amend the stock in lots if required.
Just like the quick adjust you can now make your changes, Cancel or Save as required.
The same documentation triggers can also be set up for the full stock adjust as the quick adjust.
Finding Old Adjustments
Go to Stock → Stock Adjustments and you will open a grid view of all stock adjustments on the system regardless of if you used the quick or longer method of raising the adjustment,
There are filters at the top of the grid and a search to help you find the adjustment you are looking for. The results can be exported into excel if required.
Summary
The quick stock adjustment option is the most efficient way to correct stock for a single product directly from its record. It saves time and reduces the need to navigate through multiple screens. However, if you need to process adjustments for several items at once, the full stock adjustment screen provides greater flexibility and control.