The hidden flaw in Inventory Run Rates (IRR): What our analysis among Sage Customers revealed about Traceability Gaps

The boardroom question every ERP customer faces: “Why isn’t our inventory run rate aligning with what our systems show?”

It’s a fair question. ERPs, or inventory tracking systems, or reporting tools give leaders visibility into operations.

However, there was a challenge between understanding the numbers and execution at the ground level. One key challenge is the traceability gap: subtle disconnects across Inventory management systems, warehouses, suppliers, and shop floors make IRR appear healthy until problems surface too late.

We’ve seen this play out across industries:

Food & Beverage CFO: Sage X3 shows 14 days of stock cover, yet the factory floor slows production because raw materials are below the safety stock.
Manufacturing Plant Manager: They face a recall, but tracing affected lots means digging through inconsistent batch records and distributor spreadsheets.
Supply Chain Head: Systems report stability, but run rates deteriorate in real time, leaving the business scrambling to respond.

These aren’t failures of Sage ERP or reporting. They are the moments when visibility alone isn’t enough, when leaders need foresight, context, and action.

Why Run Rate Traceability breaks down:

Fragmented Systems: Inventory moves through ERP, WMS, distributor portals, and spreadsheets. Systems capture their part, but the end-to-end chain remains disjointed.
Manual Adjustments: A handwritten log or delayed barcode scan feeds data that looks “clean” but distorts reality.
Batch Splitting & Mixing: When products merge or split, lineage gets cloudy, making it hard to connect cause and effect.
Lagging Visibility: Reports surface deviations after they’ve occurred. By then, working capital has already leaked, or compliance risks have escalated.

Sage ERP records transactions accurately, and reporting tools consolidate history. What’s missing is the connective layer that ties it all together into a forward-looking narrative.

The cost of ignoring Traceability Gaps:

The consequences of these hidden flaws are enormous for Sage customers:

Slow Root Cause Analysis – Every hour wasted tracing inventory across ERP and distributor systems adds cost and uncertainty.
Wider Recalls – Inconsistent traceability forces businesses to recall more than necessary, damaging their reputations and profit margins.
Compliance Risks – Regulators now demand end-to-end traceability. Gaps are no longer operational nuisances; they are legal liabilities.
Boardroom Mistrust – When dashboards lose credibility, leadership confidence erodes, making decision-making defensive instead of proactive.

Dashboards are not the North Star; they are only the sky map. And sometimes, the brightest star you’re following is just an illusion.

From visibility to Actionable Analytics:

Customers need foresight that transforms run rate analysis from static history into dynamic guidance. Actionable analytics delivers that by:

Surfacing signals in real time.
Linking upstream and downstream events to show why run rates deviate.
Filtering noise to uncover true causation.
Speaking in business language: “This lot is at risk because distributor documentation is missing,” instead of “Inventory dropped 8%.”

Decision Intelligence drives action by combining Sage ERP, WMS, distributor data, IoT signals, and business context into one decision layer.

For IRR traceability, that means:

Predicting run-rate risks before they disrupt production (real-time inventory management).
Optimizing replenishment decisions with live, multi-source data within inventory management analytics.
Giving different departments a unified view of the same truth.

ERP records. BI reports. Decision Intelligence acts.

How RubiCube complements Sage ERP:

At RubiCube, we designed Decision Intelligence specifically for Sage customers.

Unification: Combining Sage 300 and other systems into one decision view through ERP data integration.
Causation Analysis: Explains not just what changed but why it changed and what the next steps are.
Business Language: Delivers insights leaders can act on, not just metrics. Predictive sales analytics as an example.
Speed to Action: Shrinks weeks of investigation into real-time intervention.

The results speak for themselves:

Restored boardroom confidence through actionable context behind metrics.
Reduced compliance risk, turning oversight into assurance.

ERP remains the foundation of trust. The flaw is assuming visibility ensures control.