Inventory discrepancies at a 3PL, when the system and the shelf disagree.
A cycle count comes up short. A crushed carton still shows as available. The client portal says 48 and the shelf says 44. At a 3PL, an inventory discrepancy is also an argument with the client who owns the stock. Today it goes into a spreadsheet and waits for whoever usually sorts these out. We build the queue that puts it in front of a named person, with the photos and scan history, before the next order is picked against it.
Example workflow. Not client work.
All warehousing and 3PL problemsInbound receiving visibility
Why the numbers drift
The WMS (warehouse management system) knows what was scanned. It does not know that a carton was crushed by a forklift, that a picker took from the wrong slot because the right one was blocked, or that a pallet was moved to make room for a late truck. Each of those is a small gap between what happened and what was recorded.
When a count finally shows the gap, the investigation is manual: export the transactions, open a spreadsheet, ask around. In most buildings a few experienced people carry that work in their heads, on top of their own jobs, while the day’s plan changes around them. When one of them is off, variances wait.
What we would build
- Input. On-hand quantities by location and the recent movements for each item, read from your WMS through its API or export, plus the rules your team sets: which variances matter, and who owns which zone, client or shift.
- Capture. A counter, picker or receiver who finds something wrong scans the location and item and picks what they found: short, over, damaged, wrong item, empty. The scanner or phone takes a photo. It takes seconds, and nobody has to find a supervisor to report it.
- Check. The count is compared with the system quantity for that location. The last movements into and out of the location are pulled up beside it, so the likely cause is often visible before anyone walks over.
- Exception. Every mismatch becomes a ticket with a named owner, a deadline and the evidence attached. Damaged or missing units are marked unavailable straight away, so no order is picked against stock that is not there. A ticket nobody picks up moves to the shift supervisor.
- Record. A ticket closes only with a reason: found in another location, damaged in handling, mis-pick on an order, receiving error. The adjustment goes to your WMS the way it accepts one, and the reasons build a history of where variances come from.
How it fits beside your WMS
- Your WMS stays the inventory record. The queue reads quantities and movements from it and sends adjustments back where it accepts them. What it can read and write depends on that system's API or export. Cargohold keeps stock by client, location and lot on a ledger that is not edited after the fact, in its inventory module.
- The variance spreadsheet is what goes. Exports, side sheets and messages asking who moved what are replaced by one queue your supervisors and inventory lead work from. It is one of the custom internal tools we build, shaped around how your building already runs.
- Clients can see it, if you choose. A client can be shown their own open variances and how each one closed, so a portal count that does not match the shelf comes with an explanation instead of a support ticket.
- Built on devices you already own. Counts, photos and tickets run on your existing scanners, phones and tablets.
Where your team decides
The system opens tickets, attaches evidence and holds damaged stock. It never posts an inventory adjustment by itself. Your inventory lead decides whether a variance is a real loss, a mis-pick or a counting error, and what happens to damaged units (rework, return to the vendor, dispose) is agreed with the client who owns them. Who owns which zone and how long a ticket may sit are your rules.
Sample variance
Send a floor discrepancy to the person who owns it.
Interactive simulation · sample data
A fictional location, A-12-03, holding a fictional client's item. The system says 48. Pick what the counter finds.
Choose what happens
Pick one above. Nothing here is live: no call is placed, no message is sent and nothing is saved.
Questions
What causes inventory discrepancies in a 3PL warehouse?
Almost always a physical event that nobody recorded: a carton crushed by a forklift, a pick taken from the wrong slot because the right one was blocked, a pallet moved to make room for a late truck, a receipt closed on a count that was never checked. The system holds what was scanned, not what happened around the scan.
Who is liable when a client's count does not match?
Your contract with that client decides it, not the software and not us. What the record does is show what was counted, when, by whom and with which photo, so the conversation is about evidence instead of memory.
Do we have to replace our WMS?
No. The queue sits beside it and reads from it through an API or export where one exists. If your inventory already lives in spreadsheets, the queue can be the record instead, and that is agreed in the scope.
Does this replace cycle counting?
No. It makes each count that finds a problem end in an owned, closed ticket, and it lets anyone on the floor report a problem between counts.
What devices does this need?
The scanners, phones or tablets your team already uses, with a camera for photos. We do not supply devices.
Who gets called when the count is wrong?
Tell us how a variance gets found and who ends up chasing it. Someone from our team replies within one business day.