What is a Materials Ledger Card?

A materials ledger card is a manual record of the units of raw materials flowing through a warehouse. The card typically contains information about the following transactions:

Purchases of raw materials from suppliers (recorded when received)
Transfers of raw materials from the warehouse to the production floor
Receipts back from the production floor for excess units not used
Adjustments to on-hand balances based on the outcome of periodic inventory counts

A sample materials ledger card appears in the following exhibit.

How is a Materials Ledger Card Used?

The materials ledger card contains a running balance of the on-hand units of each type of inventory. These cards are useful for keeping a record of the on-hand balance of each type of raw material, to ensure that there is enough to support planned production activities. The cards are also used to maintain a record of the usage volumes of each raw material, which can assist with the timing and amount of future purchases. Finally, the cards can be used as a baseline document of usage levels, in case there is an investigation into missing units.

Materials ledger cards are not used in computerized warehouse management systems, and so are not commonly found in organizations having more advanced systems. These organizations maintain online records in a warehouse management system, which tracks not only the on-hand unit totals for all inventory items, but also their locations.