Stock Loss Analyst
Finds where the number changed, before blaming anyone
$18K of stock (0.5% of sales) is unexplained, and Harbour accounts for most of it.
18 lines, $3.5M in sales: shrink $22.3K (0.6% of sales), of which $4,320 is recorded waste and damage.
Unexplained shrink is $18K, 0.5% of sales. Harbour loses $11.2K (1% of its sales).
Flagged: Harbour, Electronics, Health and beauty, each at least 1.5 times the overall unexplained rate. Bringing them to the overall rate would keep about $9,818.
Where in the chain the loss happened (receiving, transfers, theft) is not in the data; the report locates it by store and department only.
Shrink: recorded and unexplained
- Recorded19%
- Unexplained81%
Unexplained shrink by store
- Harbour$11.2K
- Central$3,480
- Riverside$3,290
Unexplained shrink by department
- Electronics$6,760
- Health and beauty$3,680
- Apparel$3,110
- Home$1,680
- Grocery$1,600
- Toys$1,150
Store and department lines, worst first
| Store · department | Sales | Shrink | Unexplained | % of sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harbour · Electronics | $240K | $4,800 | $4,700 | 2% |
| Harbour · Health and beauty | $140K | $2,600 | $2,490 | 1.8% |
| Harbour · Apparel | $190K | $2,000 | $1,840 | 1% |
| Central · Electronics | $260K | $1,200 | $1,050 | 0.4% |
| Riverside · Electronics | $220K | $1,100 | $1,010 | 0.5% |
| Harbour · Home | $120K | $900 | $830 | 0.7% |
| Harbour · Grocery | $380K | $1,900 | $800 | 0.2% |
| Riverside · Apparel | $180K | $900 | $770 | 0.4% |
What to do this week
- Audit Harbour first: $11.2K unexplained, 1% of its sales.
- Check the highest-value lines in Harbour, Electronics, Health and beauty: they are most exposed to theft and receiving errors.
- Book waste and damage promptly in Harbour, Central: unrecorded losses show up as unexplained shrink.
Do
- Recount the worst lines before acting, then trace them back through receiving and transfers.
Don't
- Don't accuse on a number: unexplained shrink also includes receiving and pricing errors.
How to improve
- Add receiving and transfer records so the next report can place losses in the chain.
- Add stock counts over several periods so the next report can separate one-off from recurring losses.
Demo
Overview
Shrinkage is treated as a security problem, and the response is cameras, guards and suspicion. That is expensive, it damages the people who work there, and it targets the smaller half of the problem. Process error — receiving mistakes, unrecorded waste, markdowns applied wrongly, transfers that left one site and never arrived, supplier shortfalls nobody checked — is a very large share of total loss.
It gets blamed on theft because process error is invisible. Nobody files a report saying "we received 48 and recorded 50". It appears only as a difference at a stock count months later, by which time the cause is unrecoverable and theft is the only explanation anyone can name.
So the useful analysis is not about people. It is about finding where in the chain the number changed: at receiving, at transfer, at markdown, at waste, or genuinely unexplained. Each has a different fix, and only the last is a security question.
This agent traces loss to its point of origin, sizes each cause, and reports location and process patterns. It never names or profiles an individual — a tool that points at an employee on statistical evidence causes real harm and is usually wrong.
Benefits
Loss reduced by fixing process
Which is cheaper than security and works on the larger share.
Staff not treated as suspects
For losses that turn out to be paperwork.
An honest unexplained figure
Which is the only number worth a security response.
What it does
Finds where the number changed
Receiving, transfer, markdown, waste or genuinely unexplained. Only the last one is a security question.
Checks receiving against what was ordered
Nobody files a report saying they received 48 and recorded 50. It only ever shows up at a count.
Traces transfers that never arrived
Left one site, never landed at another. Invisible to both, because each site's own numbers reconcile.
Separates unrecorded waste
Damage and expiry that happened and was never written down. Not theft, and fixed completely differently.
Sizes what is genuinely unexplained
The honest residual, after everything traceable has been traced. Usually far smaller than assumed.
Names nobody
It reports process and location patterns only. A tool that accuses an employee on statistics causes real harm and is usually wrong.
What this changes
What this changes about your week
- It takes over
- Tracing stock loss to the point in the chain where the number changed.
- Done today by
- Assumed to be theft, and answered with cameras.
- How often
- After each stock count, when the cause is already unrecoverable.
- Typical manual effort
- Receiving, transfers, waste and markdowns all have to be reconciled separately.
Why Retail in particular. Most loss is process error, which is invisible — nobody files a report saying they received 48 and recorded 50. The security response targets the smaller half at greater cost, and damages the people who work there.
Runs unattended
Started by you or by an event, and it finishes on its own. Nothing waits for someone to be at a desk.
The same standard every time
The two-hundredth item is held to the bar the first one was. Consistency is the part people cannot sustain.
It cannot act on its own
Stock Loss Analyst has no path to sending, spending or committing. That limit is why its output is safe to act on.
How it runs
This agent runs server-side through the PROMIVO runtime. Each run is logged step by step and every tool call is permission-checked before it executes.
- 1InputValidated against the agent input schema
- 2Modelclaude-sonnet-5 with automatic fallback
- 3Toolsextract_structured_data
- 4PermissionsRuns READ actions automatically; anything higher waits for approval
- 5OutputStructured result matching the output schema
- 6LoggingTokens, duration and every step recorded
Requirements
Integrations
No integrations required.
Before you start
- Stock count results against book stock
- Receiving records against purchase orders
- Transfers in and out, both ends where possible
- Waste and markdown records
- Requires the All-Access plan or higher
Use cases
After a stock count
Where the difference came from, while records still exist.
A store with persistent loss
Whether its pattern differs from the estate.
Supplier disputes
Where receiving consistently falls short of what was ordered.
Before investing in security
How much of the loss it could actually address.
Pricing
All-Access
Billed monthly through your PROMIVO subscription. Cancel at any time.
Runs consume your plan allowance for agent executions and tokens. See plan limits
FAQ
Does it identify who is responsible?
No, and it refuses to. It reports process and location patterns. Statistical evidence about a named employee is both harmful and usually wrong, and no output of this agent will ever contain one.
Is it a security tool?
The opposite. It exists because most loss is process error and the security response targets the smaller half at greater cost.
What if most of the loss really is unexplained?
Then it says so, with the figure. An honest unexplained residual is the only number that justifies a security response, and it is usually much smaller than the total everyone assumed.
Reviews
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