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.
Add items
Quick add - scan a barcode or type a SKU and press Enter; each scan adds 1 to that line.
Add products - pick products in bulk from your catalog.
Import CSV - bring in a file, or rows pasted straight from a spreadsheet: a SKU or barcode column plus a quantity column (positive adds, negative removes). The dialog shows what matched before anything lands, and unmatched or ambiguous codes are listed row by row.
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.
Products that do not track inventory in Shopify cannot be adjusted - Stockroom will tell you when you try.
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. Drafts can be deleted.
Applied adjustments are permanent - they cannot be deleted or edited. To undo one, create a new adjustment in the other direction; that way the record always reflects what actually happened.
A cancelled adjustment stays in the list for the record but never touched your inventory.
The adjustments list under Inventory → Adjustments shows every document with its status, units, and value change - searchable by number and filterable by status, reason, location, and date range. 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.
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.
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.