What does it mean when your opening stock is less than the closing stock?
submitted by beloved

thwimmy

If your opening stock is less than your closing stock, it means you had an increase in your inventory during the accounting period.

That may happen if the business purchased or produced more stock than it sold, leading to higher inventory. From an accounting perspective, that would affect the cost of goods sold (COGS), and also affect the gross profit. This kind of thing happens with seasonal fluctuations. You could run into this with supply chain disruptions or overstock situations.

pappadop

If your opening inventory is less than your closing inventory, it just means you ended up with more inventory at the end of the period than you started with.

Basically, you bought or made more stuff but didn't sell all of it, so your stockpile grew. It's not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. It could be either. Maybe you didn't sell as much as you'd projected, which is bad. Maybe you got a deal from your supplier so you just stocked up on supplies while the getting was good. As long as your supply doesn't spoil, that's great.

cymbalize

It means you either brought in more inventory than usual, or you sold less inventory than usual.