At year end, many companies run into the same inventory challenge. Operations often continue right up through 12/31, with parts being shipped, received, or moved in the system until the very end of the year. Because of this, most teams wait until 1/1 or shortly after to perform their physical inventory count. When they do that count, they may discover discrepancies between what is physically on the shelf and what Cetec ERP shows, or they may decide to write off stale or obsolete inventory that is no longer usable or sellable. Even though these adjustments are identified in January, companies typically want the financial impact to reflect the prior year so that ending inventory, cost of goods sold, and overall financial statements for December are accurate.

In Cetec ERP, this is fully supported and does not require reopening the year or rolling back transactions. The key thing to understand is that the date the inventory adjustment is entered and the date the adjustment hits the ledger are two separate things. You can enter the adjustment after the year has closed and still have it affect December by updating the ledger transaction date.

To start, make the inventory adjustment directly on the part record, following the normal inventory adjustment process you would use any other time. This could be a quantity write-down, a write-off to zero, or any correction needed based on the physical count. When you save that adjustment (by updating the quantity and selecting your reason code), Cetec ERP automatically creates a ledger entry in the background to reflect the financial impact.

Once the adjustment is made, the next step is to locate the ledger entry that was created. You can do this by running the Inventory Activity Report and filtering it for the specific part and the date the adjustment was entered, which is typically today’s date. In the report, you will see the inventory adjustment line for that part, along with a blue Ledger link. Clicking that link takes you directly to the ledger entry tied to the adjustment you just made. This is where you control which accounting period the adjustment impacts.

Inside the ledger entry, focus on the Transaction Date shown in the top right corner.

By default, this date will be the day the adjustment was entered, such as a date in January. To have the adjustment impact December instead, simply edit the Transaction Date and change it to the appropriate year-end date, commonly 12/31. This tells Cetec ERP to post the financial impact of the inventory adjustment to the prior period, even though the adjustment itself was entered later. After updating the date, save the ledger entry and refresh the report or ledger view to confirm the date change took effect.

Note that inventory adjustment date can’t be changed so when reconciling as of dates there may be some discrepancies.

Using this approach allows companies to keep operations moving through year end, complete accurate physical counts after the fact, and still ensure their financials are correct for the prior year. It is especially useful for writing off stale inventory, correcting long-standing quantity issues, and aligning inventory value with reality without disrupting day-to-day workflows or requiring complex accounting changes.