Inventory Truth Scorecard
Ten questions on how far your inventory records have drifted from physical reality. Answer all ten to see your score.
0 / 10 answered
1. How often do your inventory records get verified against physical reality?
Annually or less — we do one big count per year
Quarterly or monthly cycle counts
Weekly or daily — we have frequent manual checks
Continuously — automated system maintains real-time truth
2. How often does your system show stock that physically doesn't exist when you look for it?
Frequently — staff find this multiple times per week
Occasionally — a few times per month, not surprising
Rarely — it happens but we usually catch it quickly
Almost never — our physical records stay tightly aligned
3. How often does a customer or staff member find an inventory problem before your system does?
All the time — customers tell us about gaps regularly
Often — it's not unusual for the floor to surface problems first
Sometimes — we notice it but don't have a reliable way to prevent it
Rarely — our system flags most issues before customers hit them
4. When a staff member looks for an item, how confident are they it will be where the system says?
Not confident at all — searching is just part of the job
Somewhat — the record is a starting point, not a guarantee
Mostly — things are usually where they should be
Very confident — location is tracked and verified continuously
5. When you experience shrink, how accurately can you identify where and why it happened?
We can't — shrink is a number at the end of the period, cause unknown
Somewhat — we have guesses but no precise attribution
Partially — we can identify zones or products at risk
Precisely — we trace events, times, and locations of inventory loss
6. How confident are you that your reorder decisions are based on real physical stock levels?
Not confident — we over-order to compensate for uncertainty
Somewhat — we trust the POS but know it's not always accurate
Mostly — we supplement POS with periodic physical checks
Fully confident — reorders are triggered by verified physical truth
7. How much of your staff's time goes toward finding, counting, searching, or reconciling inventory?
A large portion — it's one of the biggest drains on their time
Significant — daily reconciliation is a real time cost
Moderate — we manage it but know it could be better
Minimal — staff focus on exceptions only, not routine counting
8. When a manager makes an operational decision, how much do they trust the current inventory record?
Very little — everyone knows the numbers are directional at best
Cautiously — they use it but always mentally discount the data
Mostly — trust is high for recent data but fades over time
Fully — decisions are made from verified, confidence-scored data
9. How do you currently find out that your inventory records have become inaccurate?
We don't — we find out after the fact when sales or audits reveal it
Periodic audits — we schedule counts and reconcile the gaps then
Exception alerts — our system flags anomalies for follow-up
Continuously — confidence scores drop and prompt correction in real time
10. How confident are you that your inventory inaccuracies are NOT actively reducing your margin right now?
Not confident at all — I suspect we're losing money we can't see
Somewhat concerned — I know there's a problem but not the scale
Reasonably confident — we manage it but there's room to improve
Very confident — we have visibility and control over inventory accuracy