Negative inventory is simple in one sense:
The reason can vary.
Common Categories to Check
- Timing between receipts and issues
- Transactions posted to the wrong warehouse
- Count or adjustment differences
- Sales, production, transfer, or return activity posted out of sequence
- Data-entry or integration issues
Negative Does Not Automatically Tell You the Cause
The useful response is to identify the item, warehouse, date range, and transactions that moved the quantity below zero.
Once that path is visible, the correction can be based on what actually happened rather than on a generic assumption about negative inventory.
Keep the diagnosis specific even when the symptom is common.