What is phantom on-hand stock?
Phantom on-hand occurs when Luminous records a positive on-hand quantity at the warehouse level for a SKU, but that quantity is not accounted for in any bin location. Because nothing physically sits in a bin, the stock cannot be picked, shipped, or valued correctly.
Common causes include assembly operations that credited stock at the warehouse level instead of a specific bin, or system corrections that adjusted the warehouse header without updating the corresponding bin.
Finding phantom on-hand in the Action Center
- Open the Action Center from the main navigation.
- In the Your team section, look for the Phantom on-hand card.
- The count shows how many SKUs are affected (capped at 500+).
- If the card shows Couldn't check, click Retry — a failed check is never shown as zero.
- Click the card to open the drill-in list.
Note: You need Stocks read permission to see this queue. If it does not appear, contact your Luminous administrator.
Reading a phantom on-hand row
Each row shows:
| Element | What it means |
|---|---|
| Row label | The SKU and the number of units unaccounted (e.g., "WIDGET-A — 40 units unaccounted") |
| Per-row explanation | Warehouse name, warehouse-level quantity, what the bins hold, the ledger-derived cause, and what a reconciliation would change |
Understanding the per-row explanation
The explanation is built automatically from the inventory ledger. It reads in three parts:
Where the gap is — for example: "Main Warehouse — warehouse total 40; bins hold 0."
Cause — one of:
- "a warehouse-level ADJUSTMENT on 15 Jun 2026 moved the header without a bin" — a specific transaction was found in the ledger that fully accounts for the drift.
- "multiple warehouse-level corrections; latest on 15 Jun 2026" — more than one ledger event contributed.
- "a system correction on 15 Jun 2026 reset the warehouse total without resetting the bin" — an automated negative-reset moved the header.
- "cause not recorded" — no matching ledger entry was found. The discrepancy may predate the current log, or it may have been produced by a path that does not write a location-less log entry.
What reconciling would do — for example: "Reconciling sets on-hand 40 -> 0." If any bin holds a negative quantity, the note adds "Count the bin first" as a caution before using reconcile.
Going to the count-entry form
Each row links directly to the Adjustment Entries count-entry form with the affected SKU already selected. Click the row label (the external-link icon) to open it in a new tab.
The form loads correctly even for discontinued SKUs — accessing it through the Action Center link bypasses the filter that would otherwise hide inactive products.
From the count-entry form you can:
- Enter the physical count for each bin location to produce the correct adjustment.
- Use the Reconcile banner (if shown) to zero out warehouse-level phantom stock after confirming no physical stock is missing.
Important: Reconciling is irreversible. Confirm that the phantom quantity is genuinely unaccounted and not simply unlocated stock before posting the adjustment.
When the cause says "cause not recorded"
If the per-row explanation shows cause not recorded, the ledger does not contain a warehouse-level entry that fully explains the drift. Before correcting:
- Ask your warehouse team to do a physical count of all bin locations for that SKU.
- Compare the physical count against what Luminous shows for each bin.
- If the physical count matches the bin totals and the warehouse-level number is the outlier, post an adjustment to bring the warehouse total in line with the bins.
Counts and refresh rate
The Phantom on-hand queue refreshes every 15 minutes. Corrections you post do not disappear from the queue immediately — they will drop off on the next refresh cycle once the bin and warehouse totals agree.