Sorry for the sensational subject line, but I am utterly frustrated by how the inventory reports don't give me what I am looking for. Nothing fancy, just the truth.
Inventory is an important aspect of measuring the health of a business. I report my inventory value to my accountant, and this is a key element to my bookkeeping. For a service like Shopify, which is at the foundation of my business, I count on it to provide me with reliable data. I would like to assume Shopify feels the same way.
I'm not sure anymore. Are there any accountants reviewing Shopify's reports for their accuracy???
Six months ago, my accountant told me my inventory value looked highly inflated. I looked at my inventory value report, and realized a customization "service" we charged for, was registered with the "Track Quantity" property checked and inventory numbers entered to make it sellable. Ooops. Our mistake. I unchecked the "Track Quanitity" box and told my accountant it will never show up again.
Six months later, she still tells us our inventory value looked way too high. I looked at my inventory value report, and that problem causing service was still showing up in the report. Taking a closer look, I also saw products with negative inventory values, which were also messing up my total inventory value $$. These were "services" which I had the "Track Quantity" box unchecked from the get-go!
After spending days analyzing my product configurations and pouring over the product export reports, I tried the simple experiment of re-checking the "Track Quantity" box for these products.
Boom!
To my dismay, each of these products suddenly showed specific inventory quantities. For products that were registered without the "Track Quantity" checked, I saw negative inventory quantities that reflected the number of product/services sold since product creation. For products that I had originally created with the "Track Quantity" box checked, I saw the same quantity of products/services registered and being tracked even after I had unchecked the "Track Quantity" box.
No wonder these products/services were showing up in my Month-end Inventory reports!
This sure seems like a bug to me, and a glaring one. Am I missing something?
Can somebody explain to me how this reporting logic makes business sense? Reporting inventory, both positive and negative, of what you tell it not to track? It feels like a lot of smart coders building a product for a market they don't understand.
I am emberrassed to report my findings to my accountant. I want to stay on Shopify, but I know my accountant is going to advise my against using such a "hobby" platform.
Dear Shopify, please give us reports we can proudly present to our accountants/investors/regulators!
