Reconciliation & cycle counts

# Why variance happens

Variance is the gap between Shopify's on-hand quantity for a variant and the sum of what BinTech has placed into bins at that location. The gap appears whenever inventory changes outside the BinTech pick flow:

• A POS sale at a retail counter (Shopify decrements inventory directly).
• A return that adds units back to Shopify's on-hand without a bin destination.
• A new shipment received and counted into Shopify but not yet slotted to a bin.
• A manual stock adjustment in the Shopify admin.
• Damage write-off entered in Shopify.

# Positive vs negative variance

Positive (+) — unallocated

Shopify has more units than your bins do. Usually means new stock arrived. Resolution: Allocate the units into a bin.

Negative (−)

Shopify has fewer units than your bins do. Usually means a sale or write-off happened outside BinTech. Resolution: Deduct from the bin where the units actually left from.

# Allocate, dismiss, or auto-resolve

Each row on the Reconciliation page has three possible paths.

Allocate (positive) / Deduct (negative)

You know where the units came from or went. Choose the bin and the amount, save, and the variance clears. The change is recorded in the audit trail.

Dismiss

You looked at it and decided BinTech's bin map is correct as-is and Shopify is the one to update. Dismissing leaves your bins untouched and writes a "dismissed" entry to the audit trail. The variance will reappear if Shopify's numbers change again.

Auto-resolve

A variance that is created and then nullified by a subsequent Shopify event — e.g. a brief moment between order creation and fulfillment — clears itself the next time BinTech reconciles. You will not need to touch most short-lived variances.

# Cycle counts

A cycle count is a planned, location-scoped audit. You decide which bins to count (a single rack, a SKU class, the entire location), BinTech captures the expected quantity at the moment you start, your team counts, and the differences are surfaced for review.

1. 01
   Create a count

   On the Cycle counts page, click New cycle count. Pick a location and the selection criteria — all bins, a list of bins, or a set of variants. BinTech previews how many bins are in scope before you commit.

2. 02
   Count

   Walk the bins and enter the actual count for each. The page is built for tablet use — large tap targets, no scroll-jank, autosave on every entry.

3. 03
   Review variances

   Once counting is complete, BinTech shows you the deltas: which bins matched, which were over, which were under. You can adjust counts, add notes, and re-count specific bins before confirming.

4. 04
   Confirm and sync

   Confirming the count writes the new bin quantities, generates the matching variance entries against Shopify, and stores the entire count as a record you can return to.

# Audit history & movement log

Every variance resolution, every cycle count entry, and every mid-pick reassignment is recorded against the bin and the variant. The audit trail is visible on the bin detail page and on the variant detail page.

On the Unlimited plan, the full per-unit movement log is exposed: you can see when a unit entered a bin, every pick it was part of, and when it left. Use it for traceability when a customer claims they received the wrong item.