One location is simple: a restock either happened or it did not. Add a second, a warehouse and a shop, or two warehouses, and a third possibility appears. The restock happened, at the wrong place.
What the wrong place looks like
A return arrives at the warehouse. Whoever processes the refund restocks it at the default location, which is the shop. The shop's count rises for a unit sitting two hundred miles away. The warehouse's count stays down for a unit sitting on its receiving bench.
Both counts are now wrong, in opposite directions, and the total across locations looks fine. That is what makes it hard to catch from a summary.
Where the location decision is made
For a refund, the Restock checkbox has a location picker beside it. For a return received through the return flow, the disposition is recorded against a location. In both cases the default is easy to accept without reading.
Returns apps have their own default location setting, and it is often set once at install and never revisited.
Keeping it right
- Make the receiving location the restock location. If returns physically arrive at the warehouse, restock at the warehouse.
- Check the default in your returns app against where parcels actually arrive.
- When auditing, carry the location on every exception. A refund with no restock is one thing; a restock confirmed at the wrong location is another.
- Scope the audit by location if some locations should not be counted, such as a showroom that never receives returns.
Reading a multi-location audit
Each exception should say where the unit was expected: the order's fulfillment location for refunds and open returns, the disposition location for losses, the claimed location for restock checks. An exception with no location is usually an order that shipped from more than one place, and it needs a person to decide.
StockReclaim's Growth plan carries a location on all four rules, lets you choose which locations are in scope, and filters the exception list by location. See plans.