CONSIGNMENT · RETAIL DISTRIBUTION
The store counts forty-nine. The distributor expects sixty.
A distributor places goods in four hundred outlets. At month end the store reports forty units sold against a hundred delivered, which should leave sixty on the shelf.
The missing eleven are somewhere between an unsigned delivery, an uncredited return, and stock that walked.
Multiply by four hundred outlets and reconciliation becomes a full-time job for two people arguing eleven units at a time, with each side holding their own spreadsheet.
One outlet, one month, two ledgers
| Store | Distributor | Why they differ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening balance | 12 | 12 | Both agree. Last month closed clean, which is why nobody looked again. |
| Delivered this month | 88 | 100 | Two deliveries. The second was left at the back door on a Sunday and signed by nobody. |
| Sold and reported | 40 | 40 | The one number both sides trust, because the store reports it and the distributor is paid on it. |
| Returned as damaged | 9 | 0 | Collected by a driver who wrote it on a paper docket. It never reached the distributor's system. |
| Closing balance | 51 | 72 | Twenty-one apart. The store counts what is on the shelf; the distributor counts what should be. |
Neither column is wrong. They are two accurate records of different events, and there is no third record either party can point at.
If you consign stock, or hold it.
What is worth most is the shape of your month end: how long it takes and what you usually disagree about.
ratna.dewi@saldotitipan.online
Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan