➡️ What is Variance Reporting?
Variance reporting helps you spot inconsistencies in your catalog, like duplicated materials or items that haven't been assigned to a location. Keeping this report clean means your inventory data stays accurate across all your warehouses and trucks.
➡️ How to access it
Go to Reports in the left-hand menu.
Select Variance Reporting.
➡️ What it shows
Anomalies Analytics
A dashboard at the top gives you a quick health check of your catalog, split into three levels:
🔴 Critical Error: items with serious data issues that need attention right away.
🟠 High Priority: items flagged as anomalies that you should review and fix soon.
✅ All Good: items with no issues detected.
A gauge summarizes your overall anomaly level. Ideally, it shows "Looks Good."
Anomaly list
Below the dashboard, flagged items are listed with their name and error type. Use the tabs to narrow the list:
All: every flagged item, across all error types.
Duplicates: materials that appear more than once in your catalog and likely need to be merged.
Without Location: materials that exist in your catalog but aren't assigned to any warehouse or truck, so they don't show up in stock tracking.
➡️ Filters and export
Search by item name
Sort the list
Filter by Category, Brand, Manufacturer, or Tags
Export to Excel
➡️ How to fix what you find
Duplicates
Open the Duplicates tab.
Sort the list A-Z so duplicates of the same material appear next to each other.
Merge them into a single material. Follow the steps in How to Merge Materials in SureStock.
📌 If you have a lot of duplicates, export the list to Excel first so you can review them in a spreadsheet before merging.
Without Location
Open each material and add it to the warehouse or truck where it's actually stored. Once it has a location, it starts showing up in your stock counts and reports.
➡️ Best practices
✅ Run it regularly. Make variance reporting part of a monthly catalog check, especially after bulk uploads or a sync with your FSM.
✅ Start with Critical Errors. Use the severity levels to decide what to fix first.
✅ Fix duplicates before counting. Duplicates can split your stock across two records, which makes counts and reorder points harder to trust.
💡 Tip: aim to keep the gauge in the "Looks Good" zone. Even a few unresolved duplicates or unassigned materials can throw off your other inventory reports.
➡️ Common Issues
"I merged two materials but they still show up in Duplicates."
The report may take a moment to reflect the change. Refresh the page, and if the materials still appear, check that the merge is completed on the material itself.
"A material shows up under Without Location, but I know we have it."
It exists in your catalog but isn't tied to any warehouse or truck yet. Add it to the right location, and it will drop off the list.
➡️ FAQs
Does Variance Reporting show differences from my inventory counts?
No. Variance reporting looks at catalog issues like duplicates and materials without a location. To review count results and stock changes, use Movement Reporting or Inventory History under Reports.
Can I export the list?
Yes, use Export to download it as an Excel file.
Does fixing items here change anything in my FSM?
Fixes you make in SureStock follow your normal sync settings. If you're merging materials that came from your FSM, review the merge article first.
Still need help?