An inventory quantity problem tells you how many units Sage believes exist.
A costing problem tells you what Sage believes those units are worth.
Sage Supports Multiple Costing Methods
Sage documents standard, average, FIFO, LIFO, lot, and serial costing methods by warehouse.
Those methods do not value inventory in exactly the same way. The method assigned to the item therefore matters when investigating value.
Quantity and Cost Are Separate Questions
You can have the correct physical quantity and an unexpected valuation.
You can also have the wrong quantity carrying perfectly reasonable unit costs.
We separate those questions before troubleshooting because fixing one does not automatically fix the other.
Valuation Reaches Financial Reporting
Inventory is an asset. Cost movement can also affect cost of sales and other financial results depending on the transaction.
That is why inventory-costing discrepancies deserve more than “the total seems a little off.”
We want to know which items, warehouses, layers, transactions, or cost assumptions built the value.