Stock adjustments are for the corrections that do not need a full count: two units damaged in the back room, a box found behind the shelf, a theft write-off. Each adjustment is a numbered document (ADJ-1001, ADJ-1002, ...) with a reason and notes, so every inventory change has a paper trail you can search, export, and point to later.
Create an adjustment
Go to Inventory → Adjustments and click New adjustment. Each adjustment covers one location, and carries:
Reason - the same list Shopify uses in its own inventory history: Correction, Count, Received, Return restock, Damaged, Theft or loss, Promotion or donation, Other.
Notes - free text for the story behind the change.
There is also a faster path for a single product: open the product in Stockroom (Inventory → Products) and click Adjust stock. A dialog shows each variant's current availability at the location you pick - enter an Adjust by amount or a New available quantity, choose a reason, add an optional note, and click Apply. This applies immediately as a numbered adjustment, so it shows up in the Adjustments list, the product's history, and Shopify's inventory history like any other.
Add items
Quick add - scan a barcode or type a SKU and press Enter; each scan adds 1 to that line.
Each scan makes a sound - a short beep when the item lands on the adjustment, a low buzz when nothing matches. Sound on / Sound off appears next to the field after your first scan and is remembered on that device.
Add products - pick products in bulk from your catalog.
Import or paste - bring in a file, or rows pasted straight from a spreadsheet: a SKU or barcode column plus a quantity column (positive adds, negative removes). If every row matched, the lines go straight onto the adjustment. If any row did not - an unmatched or ambiguous code, or one Stockroom had to skip - the dialog lists those rows first and waits for you to confirm the rest.
Lines for lot-tracked products also get a Lot column, where you say which batch the units are joining or leaving. Choosing New lot lets you type a batch number that does not exist yet, which is how you record batches for stock you already hold. See Lot tracking: batch numbers and expiry dates.
Each line takes an Adjust by amount - positive to add stock, negative to remove it. Next to it you will see the current available quantity, what the new available will be, and the value of the change at cost, so you can sanity-check before anything happens.
Columns above the lines adds a Product type column, which is the type set on the product in Shopify. It is off until you turn it on, it is remembered for your whole store, and it rides both CSV exports - useful if your books code each document to a department.
Products that do not track inventory in Shopify cannot be adjusted - Stockroom will tell you when you try.
If an item is not stocked at the location you chose, the Available column reads Not stocked here instead of a quantity. That is Shopify's own state: the location holds no stock record for that item at all, which is not the same as holding zero. Applying the adjustment stocks the item at that location for you, the same thing Shopify does when you set a quantity at a location for the first time, and then applies your change to it.
Apply it
Click Apply adjustment and confirm - the dialog spells out the units, value, and reason one more time. Stockroom then pushes the changes to Shopify, and each product's inventory history shows the change attributed to Stockroom with the adjustment number, not an anonymous edit.
Lifecycle
An adjustment starts as a draft - edit it freely, nothing touches Shopify. Imported lines are saved to the draft as soon as they land, so they survive closing the tab; anything you type by hand shows an Unsaved changes bar until you save it. To remove one, open it and click Delete draft at the bottom of the page; cancelled documents can be deleted the same way.
Applied adjustments are permanent - they cannot be deleted or edited. To undo one, press Reverse and Stockroom drafts the opposite adjustment for you, so the record always reflects what actually happened. See Reverse an applied stock adjustment.
A cancelled adjustment stays in the list for the record but never touched your inventory. Cancel adjustment asks for an optional reason, shown afterwards; tags, comments and the History card are in Notes, comments, history and tags on stocktakes and adjustments.
The adjustments list under Inventory → Adjustments shows every document with its status, units, and value change - searchable by number or by any words in the note, and filterable by status, reason, location, and date range. A note icon beside the number shows that adjustment's note when you hover it, so you can tell what each one was for without opening it. Export CSV downloads every line behind the current filter - one row per product line with the document number, reason, location, note, cost values, and who created it - so a month of write-offs is one filtered export. To clear out several at once, tick them in the list and click Delete - the button only appears while everything ticked can be deleted, so an applied document in the selection is never at risk.
Adjustment or stocktake?
Use an adjustment when you already know what changed and why - damage, loss, found stock. Use a stocktake when the point is to count: it compares a full shelf, vendor, or location against expectations and corrects everything in one reviewed pass. See Count your inventory with stocktakes.
Your own reason names
Shopify gives you eight reasons, and they do not always match the words your team uses. You can add your own names on top of them in Settings > Inventory & COGS. See Name your own stock adjustment reasons.
Good to know
Every adjustment can be exported as a CSV, stamped with the document number and date.
The Adjustments report under Reports totals write-offs by reason and location at the costs your books use - the month-end shrinkage number. See Reports in Stockroom.
Adjustments change available stock as a plus or minus, so applying one while sales are coming in is safe - it never overwrites a quantity.
Applying a stocktake creates an adjustment too, with the reason Count and a link back to the counting session. Counts and corrections share one paper trail, one export, and one accounting sync. See Count your inventory with stocktakes.
The location picker pre-fills with your last adjustment's location, and locations hidden in Settings → Inventory & COGS are not offered.
Stock going back to a supplier is not an adjustment. Use a supplier return instead: it ships the stock out against a purchase order and tracks the credit you are owed. See Return stock to a supplier.