Field Notes · 2026-03-18
What Happens During an Inventory Observation Day
A walkthrough of count attendance for warehouse and factory floors, from roll-forward procedures to cut-off tags.
By Keiko Moriyama
An inventory observation is not a surprise inspection. We attend the count your staff already plans, then test whether the counts are complete, accurately recorded, and properly cut off at year-end.
We usually arrive before counting starts, review instructions given to floor teams, and select locations for test counts. High-value SKUs and slow-moving bins get more attention than fast-turnover consumables.
Cut-off testing looks at the last receiving and shipping documents of the day. Goods received after the count should not sit in both inventory and accounts payable without clear tagging.
If your warehouse spans multiple buildings, tell us the site map early. Travel time between buildings in Ishikawa industrial parks can consume half a day if we only learn the layout on arrival.
After the count, we roll forward from observation date to year-end using shipping and receiving records. Companies that keep those logs current finish the roll-forward in hours rather than days.