5 Warehouse Mistakes That Cost You Money (and How to Fix Them)

Do you know which hidden enemy can consume up to 15–20% of your warehouse margin in Uzbekistan? These are accounting and inventory errors. Every shortage or mis-sorting is not just a number in a report but real money lost due to supply disruptions, frozen working capital, and decreased customer trust.

In this article — five most costly reasons for warehouse losses and simple steps to eliminate chaos and regain control.

Mistake #1. Catalog issues: duplicate SKUs, different units, similar items Symptoms: mis-sorting among similar products, repackaging errors, manual corrections. Cause: no unified product data reference: duplicate articles, different units of measure, lack of strict naming rules. What to do:

• Approve SKU rules and unique codes.
• Ban “free input” in the system — only from reference guide.
• Deduplicate and match packaging.
• Implement barcode for all storage units.
• Assign a master data owner. 💡 In our experience, tidying up the catalog reduces picking errors by 20–30%.

Mistake #2. Weak receiving: 'trusting the invoice' Symptoms: discrepancies immediately after delivery, shortages of “hot” SKUs, disputes with suppliers. Cause: no incoming control standards and supplier error KPIs. What to do:

• Introduce two-stage receiving: quantitative + qualitative.
• Organize a quarantine zone.
• Use scanning and photo documentation.
• Maintain KPI “% of supplier errors”.
• Any doubtful items — quarantine until resolved. 💡 Companies that implemented photo documentation and a quarantine zone reduced disputes with suppliers by 40%.

Mistake #3. Unaddressed storage and mixed batches Symptoms: long search time, chaotic bins, FIFO/FEFO violations. Cause: no address storage system and labeling. What to do:

• Introduce address storage by “row/section/level/bin” principle.
• “One bin — one SKU/batch”.
• Strict FIFO/FEFO compliance.
• Move “piles” and returns to separate zones. 💡 Address storage reduces search time by 30–50% and decreases expiry-related shortages.

Mistake #4. Manual input instead of scanners Symptoms: picking errors, different numbers in Excel and system. Cause: manual input of codes and quantities allowed, no validations. What to do:

• Switch to barcode/QR scanning.
• Provide TSDs or smartphones with the app.
• Block manual input at critical stages.
• Enable automatic validations. 💡 Scanning reduces human error and speeds up operations by 25–40%.

Mistake #5. 'Inventory once a year' Symptoms: stress, downtime, unclosed discrepancies. Cause: inventory not embedded into operational cycle. What to do:

• Implement cyclical inventory:
  • A — weekly,
  • B — monthly,
  • C — quarterly.
• Use triggers for unscheduled counts.
• Conduct “blind” double counts for A-group.
• Immediately close discrepancy acts. 💡 Companies implementing cyclical approach reduced annual shortages by 15–25%.

Mini-guide: 'Inventory in 24 hours'

• T-24h: assign responsible persons, export balances, check TSDs.
• T0: stop movements, assign tasks, count by routes.
• T+24h: reconciliation, acts, adjustments, KPI updates.

📥 Download PDF Checklist "Inventory in 24 Hours"

Why it matters in Uzbekistan

• Tax accounting: proper inventory — requirement of Uzbekistan Tax Code.
• Local realities: many warehouses run in 1C and are still not automated.
• Financial losses: fines and shortages directly hit business profit.

Conclusion These five mistakes are the most common and the most costly. Correcting them, a warehouse in Uzbekistan can increase accounting accuracy, speed up operations, and save tens of thousands of dollars per year. Inventory.uz helps companies organize accounting and conduct turnkey inventory without unnecessary losses.