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Serial Number Audits

Serial Number Audits

A serial number audit is a physical inventory count of your firearms. You go to each firearm in your shop, scan or read its serial number, and the system compares what you scanned against what your records say you should have. This is the most thorough way to verify your inventory and is essentially what an ATF inspector does during a compliance examination.

When to Perform a Serial Audit

  • Quarterly: Recommended minimum for any FFL dealer
  • Before ATF inspections: Absolutely essential — do this before any known inspection
  • After security incidents: Burglary, break-in, or any event that may have resulted in missing firearms
  • At year-end: As part of your annual inventory and financial reporting

Step-by-Step: Running a Serial Number Audit

  1. Go to FastBound → Reporting → Serial Audit.
  2. Click New Audit to start a new audit session.
  3. Physically go to each firearm in your shop — display cases, safes, back room, anywhere you store inventory.
  4. For each firearm, scan or type the serial number into the audit form. Use a barcode scanner if your serial number labels support it, or read the serial number directly off the firearm.
  5. Continue until you have scanned every firearm in your physical possession.
  6. Click Complete Audit (or a similar button to finalize).
  7. The system compares your scanned serials against the compliance serial number records.

Understanding Audit Results

Each audit line (fastbound.serial.audit.line) will show one of three statuses:

StatusWhat It MeansAction Required
MatchedSerial found in both your physical count and your recordsNone — everything is good
MissingSerial is in your records but was not scanned during the auditLocate the firearm immediately. If you cannot find it, report as theft/loss
ExtraSerial was scanned but does not appear in your recordsInvestigate: was the acquisition not recorded? Create the proper record

Resolving Discrepancies

  • Missing items: Search your entire premises thoroughly. Check if the firearm was recently sold or transferred and the records were not yet updated. If you truly cannot locate it, follow the Theft/Loss reporting procedure.
  • Extra items: Check if a recent acquisition was not committed to FastBound. Look for pending receipts or transfer-in records that were not confirmed. Create the acquisition record.
  • Mismatched serials: Sometimes the issue is a typo in the original record. Compare the physical serial carefully against the record and correct any data entry errors.

Tip: Assign one person to scan and another to check the results. This "two-person" approach catches mistakes faster and is more efficient than one person doing both. For shops with 100+ firearms, plan for the audit to take 1-2 hours.

ATF Readiness: If an ATF inspector asks you to account for specific serial numbers, you need to produce the physical firearm or explain where it went (sold, transferred, stolen/lost). Regular serial audits mean you already know the status of every item. Do not wait for an inspection to discover problems — by then it is too late to fix them without consequences.

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