Between the moment a load leaves one of your sites and the moment it is counted at the other, the stock is not in a place. It is in an account. Both warehouses have someone whose job is to count what is on their floor, and neither of them owns the interval in between — which is precisely where the difference appears. The awkward part is that the evidence which would settle it has to be captured before the vehicle leaves, by the people least motivated to capture it, for a problem that has not happened yet. See a transfer end to end and the shape of the gap becomes obvious: two counts, one unwatched window, and an argument that gets decided by seniority rather than by anything recorded.
Two Counts, One Blind Window, and a Shortage Nobody Can Prove Either Way.
For warehouse managers, inventory controllers and finance: what the in-transit period actually is in accounting terms, what has to be captured at each end, why a seal number is worthless recorded once, and how a difference becomes a document instead of a disagreement.
No credit card required. Transfers, deliveries and vehicle records in one place.
The Window Nobody Owns
Draw the journey as three zones and the problem stops being a mystery. Two of them have a person accountable for the count. The one in the middle has a clock, and whatever somebody thought to write down before the doors closed.
In accounting terms the middle zone is real, not notional — the stock sits in an in-transit balance and appears on neither site's floor count. That is entirely correct and it is also why the period is invisible operationally: a balance in a ledger does not raise its hand when it is short. The only thing that makes the window auditable is evidence captured at the two boundaries, and the boundary that matters most is the one at the sending end, because it is the only one that can still be got right.
Five Stages, and Only One of Them Is Reversible
Once the vehicle has gone, the sending end is closed. Everything after that is either matching or arguing. Note that the vehicle itself is part of the chain too — a transfer leaving on a unit that failed its pre-trip check is a second problem travelling with the first, which is why the inspection report belongs on the same record as the load.
Both sites, the lines, and whether a receipt is expected at the other end. The transfer now exists as a document with a number, which is what everything else will attach to.
What actually went on the vehicle: quantity per line, trailer, seal number, weighbridge weight and photographs. This is the only moment the sending end can be proved.
The transfer sits on a list with a clock on it, and turns red if it has been out more than a day. An overdue load is visible without anybody running a report.
The destination counts it in, and the difference appears as they type — before anything is submitted. An observation, not a reconciliation.
Matching closes it. A difference keeps it open, records a shortage with both sets of photographs, and puts an investigation in front of a named person.
A Seal Number Recorded Once Is Not Evidence
This is where most transfer processes quietly fail. The seal is fitted, the number is written on the paperwork at dispatch, and nobody ever compares it to anything.
Constructed of material that can easily be broken by hand or with a simple snipping tool or shear. It tells you somebody opened it; it does not slow them down.
Provides limited resistance to intrusion and requires lightweight tools for removal. A middle tier, and the one most often assumed to be what is fitted.
Made of metal or metal cable with the intent to delay intrusion. This is the class customs programmes generally expect on international freight.
ISO 17712 requires that seals be identified by unique marks and unique numbers that are readily legible, and that markings intended for unique identification be considered permanent. It defines tamper evidence as a tell-tale indication that an attempt has been made to open or remove and then replace or reconstruct the seal without detectable evidence — visible as colour changes, altered surface texture, cracks, indentations or abrasions under normal examination. So the device is designed to tell you something. It tells you nothing at all if the number is recorded at one end and never checked at the other, which is the single cheapest gap to close in the whole process.
Seal classifications, the tamper-evidence definition and the unique-marking requirement are per ISO 17712, which establishes uniform procedures for the classification, acceptance and withdrawal of mechanical freight container seals. Confirm which class your own operation and any customs programme you participate in actually requires — the difference between an indicative seal and a high-security one is the difference between knowing afterwards and delaying the attempt.
When Two Sites Disagree, What Settles It Today?
If the honest answer is a phone call and whoever is more senior, that is the gap. In thirty minutes we will run one of your own lanes end to end — raised, shipped with seal and weight, tracked in transit, counted in — and show you what the shortage record would have looked like with photographs from both ends attached to it.
How FleetRabbit Handles This
- Quantity recorded per line, not as a total
- Trailer and seal number captured
- Weighbridge weight where one is fitted
- Photographs taken at the door
- Filed to your ERP as a goods issue against the transfer document
On a list with a clock, turning red after a day out
- Counted in line by line
- The difference appears as the counter types
- Seal number checked against the one recorded
- Photographs taken before anything is moved
- Filed as a stock movement, not as a delivery
Why the Two Ends File to Different Documents
The shipment and the receipt do not land on the same record, and that is deliberate rather than an oversight. Stock is issued out of the sending site as a delivery, and received at the other as a stock movement. They are different transaction types with different effects on the ledger, and filing both against a single record is the tell that whoever built the process has never actually run one.
It matters practically as well as technically. Because the two legs are separate, the in-transit balance is the difference between them — which means an unmatched transfer is visible as a balance rather than having to be hunted for. Collapse them into one record and that visibility disappears along with the ability to tell a late receipt from a short one.
Worth stating plainly: raising the transfer order inside your ERP from the outside is a different problem and generally not one a capture layer should claim to solve. Your ERP owns the order. What it cannot know is what physically left and what physically arrived, which is the part worth proving.
Who Owns the Stock While It Is Moving
For internal transfers between your own sites the legal answer is simple — you do, throughout — but the accounting treatment still puts it in its own balance. For anything crossing an ownership boundary the terms decide, and they decide who absorbs a loss in that blind window. Keep the evidence either way, free on two sites.
| Term | When title passes | Who records it in inventory while in transit | Who absorbs a loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| FOB shipping point | When the carrier takes possession of the goods | The buyer | The buyer |
| FOB destination | Not until the carrier delivers to the buyer | The seller | The seller |
| Internal site-to-site | No transfer of title — same legal entity | An in-transit account | You, either way |
Keeping transfers, inspections and the preventive maintenance schedule against the same unit is what lets you see that the lane with the most shortages is also the one running the oldest trailers. FOB treatment per AccountingTools: under FOB shipping point title passes when the carrier takes possession, and under FOB destination title does not pass until the carrier delivers to the buyer, with the party holding title recording the inventory and bearing the loss. The distinction originates in agency law, according to whether the carrier is acting as agent of the seller or the buyer. Confirm the terms on your own contracts rather than assuming — and note that for internal transfers the ownership question is moot while the evidence question is not.
Transfer Questions Warehouse Teams Ask
What does goods in transit mean?
Stock that has left one location and not yet been received at another. It is counted on neither floor and sits in an in-transit balance until the receipt is posted. Operationally it is the one period in the whole chain where nobody has a count to defend, which is why differences surface there. See the window mapped on your own lane.
Why do transfer counts disagree so often?
Because the two ends are counted by different people, at different times, with no shared evidence between them. Add a genuine mis-pick, a partial load or a late receipt and there is no way to tell which one you have. The fix is not better counting, it is capturing quantity, seal and weight at dispatch so the two counts have something to be checked against. Capture both ends free.
What is a seal number actually for?
To show whether the load was opened between the two ends. ISO 17712 requires seals to carry unique, permanently legible markings precisely so the number can be matched later. Recorded only at dispatch it proves nothing; recorded at dispatch and checked at receipt it converts "something is missing" into "the seal was intact and something is still missing", which is a different investigation entirely. See seal checks on both ends.
What is the difference between seal classes?
ISO 17712 defines indicative, security and high-security classes. An indicative seal can be broken by hand or with a simple snipping tool and only tells you afterwards. A high-security seal is metal or metal cable, built to delay intrusion. Many operations assume they are using the second and are actually using the first. Record the class you fit, free.
When should a difference be raised?
As the count is entered, before anything is submitted. A difference that appears during data entry is an observation the counter can act on immediately — recount the line, check the pallet, photograph it. The same difference discovered in a reconciliation a week later is an archaeology exercise. See the live difference in a demo.
Who owns stock that goes missing in transit?
Between separate parties, whoever holds title under the shipping terms — under FOB shipping point that is the buyer from the moment the carrier takes possession, and under FOB destination it remains the seller until delivery. Between your own sites the question does not arise, and the loss is yours regardless, which is a good reason to be able to tell where it happened. Keep the proof either way.
Should our ERP or the capture layer own the transfer order?
Your ERP. It holds the order, the master data and the balances, and it should keep them. What an ERP cannot know on its own is what physically left the first site and what physically arrived at the second — that is observation, not record-keeping, and it is the part worth adding. Discuss the split with our team.
Make the Difference a Document
FleetRabbit records quantity per line, trailer, seal and weight with photographs when the load leaves, holds the transfer on a clock while it is out, surfaces the difference as the destination counts it in, and files a shortage with evidence from both ends — against the same unit record as the vehicle's inspection history and open work orders.
No credit card required. Bring one lane and one disputed transfer.
