If the physical count of the inventory revealed $158,000 of merchandise on hand and the inventory records reported $163,000, what would be the necessary adjusting entry to record inventory shrinkage?

The necessary adjusting entry to record inventory shortage would be:

"Cost of Merchandise Sold debit $5,000; Merchandise Inventory credit $5,000."

Cost of Merchandise Sold is the cost of goods and services that correspond to sales made to customers. In this case, we need to decrease ending inventory by the quantity of these goods ($5,000) that either were shipped to customers or assigned as being customer-owned under a certain agreement. Meanwhile, the merchandise inventory is the cost of goods on hand and is available for sale ($5,000).