How to audit inventory data before moving from NCR Retail Online

Moving from NCR Retail Online to another ecommerce platform is more than exporting a product file and importing it elsewhere. Inventory records connect products, variants, prices, images, supplier details, warehouse quantities, orders and customer expectations. If those relationships are incomplete, the new store may display stock that does not exist or hide products that are ready to sell.

A careful inventory audit gives you a reliable starting point for Magento, WooCommerce or another retail system. It also helps Australian retailers account for GST-inclusive pricing, Australian Consumer Law obligations, postcode-based delivery rules and the differences between stock held in a Sydney shop, a regional warehouse or a supplier location.

Establish the scope of the inventory audit

Start by defining every location and sales channel that currently contributes to your stock figures. Include physical stores, warehouses, back-room stock, online-only inventory, consignment goods, damaged items, customer returns and units reserved for open orders. A product that appears available in one report may already be committed elsewhere.

Record the date and time of each export because inventory changes continuously. For a busy retailer in Melbourne or Brisbane, a report taken before trading begins can differ substantially from one taken after a weekend promotion. Pause automatic stock adjustments where practical, or document the cut-off period so the migration team knows which transactions must be replayed after the final export.

Create a simple inventory dictionary before examining individual products. Define what each field means, which system is authoritative and how values should be formatted. Decide whether quantities include display stock, safety stock, goods in transit and items awaiting quality checks. This prevents a new platform from interpreting a value such as “5” differently from the old system.

Check product identities and catalogue structure

Every sellable item should have a stable SKU, a readable product name and a clear relationship to its variants. Look for duplicate SKUs, blank identifiers, accidental spaces, inconsistent capitalisation and products whose barcode is being used as a SKU in some records but not others. A duplicate identifier can merge two unrelated products during import, creating serious fulfilment and reporting problems.

Review parent products and variations for clothing sizes, colours, pack sizes, materials and other option values. Confirm that each variant has its own SKU, barcode, cost, selling price and stock quantity where required. Products such as replacement parts or kitchen tools may look similar in a spreadsheet, so examine the kitchen accessories catalogue as a useful example of why product attributes and category placement need to remain precise.

Inspect categories, tags and product status values as well. Separate active products from discontinued lines, seasonal products, drafts and items that should remain hidden until stock returns. If old categories contain spelling variations or overlapping labels, map them to a smaller, consistent structure before the migration rather than importing years of clutter.

Reconcile quantities, prices and stock movements

Compare the inventory export with a physical stocktake or cycle count. You do not need to count every item in one day: prioritise high-value products, fast sellers, products with frequent adjustments and items that have recently shown negative quantities. Investigate differences instead of simply overwriting one number with another. Common causes include unprocessed returns, goods received under a different SKU, manual point-of-sale adjustments and stock allocated to unpaid orders.

Reconcile at least three figures for important products: opening quantity, movements and closing quantity. Movements should include purchases, sales, transfers, write-offs, returns, damaged goods and corrections. A product with a plausible closing balance can still have a broken movement history, which may distort reorder points and profitability after the move.

Pricing needs a separate review. Australian retailers generally display consumer prices inclusive of GST, while supplier costs, freight charges and marketplace fees may be recorded differently. Check the relationship between retail price, sale price, tax class, cost price and any quantity-break rules. Confirm that rounding produces the expected result in Australian dollars, especially where prices are imported into a platform with different tax settings.

Evidence worth retaining

• A dated export from each stock location
• The latest purchase and goods-received records
• Reports for returns, write-offs and stock adjustments
• A list of products with negative or unusually high quantities

Validate operational fields and customer-facing information

Inventory data is also operational data. Check supplier names, supplier SKUs, reorder thresholds, lead times, preferred vendors, warehouse locations, bin references and units of measure. “Each”, “box” and “carton” must not be treated as interchangeable if an order for one carton represents twelve individual products.

Review weight and dimensions because they affect freight calculations and packaging decisions. Australian delivery costs can vary significantly between metropolitan Sydney and remote Western Australia, while some carriers apply different rules to bulky or oversize parcels. Confirm that product dimensions use one unit system and that shipping classes are mapped consistently.

Audit images, descriptions and downloadable documents alongside stock records. Remove obsolete images, identify missing media and ensure filenames do not contain confusing internal codes. Product data should also support Australian Consumer Law requirements: descriptions must not make misleading claims, and warranties or guarantees should not be presented in a way that suggests statutory consumer rights do not apply.

Privacy deserves attention where inventory exports include customer-linked information, such as personalised products, repair records or order notes. Limit the migration file to information the new platform actually needs, control who can access it and retain a record of where the data was sent. The Australian Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles make careless handling of personal information a business risk, even when the original purpose was routine stock administration.

Prepare clean files for Magento or WooCommerce

Once discrepancies are resolved, create a master inventory file rather than repeatedly editing the raw export. Keep the original files unchanged as evidence, then work from a cleaned copy with documented transformations. Typical columns include SKU, parent SKU, barcode, product name, variant attributes, category, quantity, location, cost, regular price, sale price, tax class, weight, dimensions, supplier and status.

Use consistent formatting throughout the file. Strip hidden spaces, standardise decimal separators, preserve leading zeroes in barcodes and remove spreadsheet formulas from final values. Do not use product names as identifiers because names change for merchandising reasons. Keep an exception log for records that cannot be automatically cleaned, including the reason, owner and required decision.

The target platform may represent extensions, bundles, backorders and multi-location stock differently from NCR Retail Online. Before selecting add-ons, review an extension marketplace comparison and record which inventory functions are native, which require extensions and which need a custom process. Pay particular attention to licence costs, compatibility, vendor support and how stock changes are synchronised with point-of-sale systems.

Run a test import into a staging store. Check product counts, variant relationships, stock status, tax display, category paths and search results. Place test orders for single products, multiple quantities, mixed variants, out-of-stock items and products sold from more than one location. Then compare the resulting stock changes with your audit file before approving the production import.

Sign off the migration baseline

Build a reconciliation report that compares the old and new systems by SKU. Include old quantity, imported quantity, quantity difference, price difference, status difference and notes. Set a tolerance for approved differences, such as stock sold during the cut-off window, but require a named person to approve every exception. A zero-difference target is useful, though an explained difference is safer than a forced match.

Document how post-migration orders, returns and stock adjustments will be handled. Decide when the old store stops accepting orders, who performs the final export and how transactions created during the transition are captured. Customers in Australia may order during evening trading or on public holidays, so the cut-over schedule should account for actual shopping patterns rather than relying only on office hours.

Keep the audit file, mappings, exception log and sign-off report in a controlled location. The migration is complete only when staff can find products, receive stock, fulfil orders, process returns and view accurate quantities without relying on undocumented workarounds. For platform-specific preparation, the WooCommerce migration guide can help connect the inventory review with the wider transition process.

Final checks before the cut-over

• Confirm the final stocktake date and transaction cut-off
• Approve all SKU, quantity and price exceptions
• Test orders, returns and stock deductions in staging
• Export and securely store the signed migration baseline

Take one final read-only export from NCR Retail Online, compare it with the approved master file, and have the inventory owner sign off the SKU-level exception report before loading production data.