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
- Go to FastBound → Reports → Serial Audits.
- Create a new audit record, then click Start Audit to load expected items from your compliance records. The audit moves from Draft to In Progress.
- Physically go to each firearm in your shop — display cases, safes, back room, anywhere you store inventory.
- 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. Matching happens in real time as you scan — each serial is immediately checked against the expected list.
- Continue until you have scanned every firearm in your physical possession.
- Click Submit for Review to move the audit to Pending Review status.
- Optionally, click Verify in FastBound to call FastBound's BulkVerify API and confirm the scanned serials against FastBound's records. This moves verified items to Verified in FB status.
- Click Complete Audit to finalize the audit and move it to Completed status.
Audit States
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft | Audit created but not yet started |
| In Progress | Expected items loaded; scanning is underway |
| Pending Review | Scanning complete; results ready for review |
| Verified | Results verified against FastBound via BulkVerify API |
| Completed | Audit finalized and closed |
Understanding Audit Results
Each audit line will show one of four statuses:
| Status | What It Means | Action Required |
|---|---|---|
| Found | Serial was scanned and matched against the expected list | None — everything is good |
| Verified in FB | Serial was confirmed via FastBound's BulkVerify API | None — verified at the highest level |
| Missing | Serial is in your records but was not scanned during the audit | Locate the firearm immediately. If you cannot find it, report as theft/loss |
| Extra | Serial was scanned but does not appear in the expected list | Investigate: 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.