Select an Inventory Counting Method

The most important step in the inventory counting and verification process is selecting a method. Counting your inventory throughout the year provides greater financial control and allows problems to be addressed much sooner than year-end counts. The method selected may vary by item category, the time of year and if the store will remain open during the count. For example, a period-end count is easiest to count when the store is not open for business.

When selecting a method, consider the following questions.

  1. Are you going to perform a cycle count periodically through the year, or a period-end count for audit purposes, or a combination of both?
  2. Do items have scan codes associated with them? Scan codes provide additional methods of inventory counting.
  3. How is inventory stored at the location? Are there items stored in multiple bins within the same inventory site?
  4. Will the counts be done when the store is closed or will transactions be occurring while the counts are taking place?
  5. How will the inventory count be verified? Errors are easier to correct prior to counts being posted.

There are three different methods available in Inventory Counting. Click the link in any of the steps for additional instructions.

1. Cycle Counts – Select this method when counting item categories with a limited number of items. This method requires the count of all items in the category be entered from count sheets at one time. This is impractical for categories with either a large numbers of items or in multiple locations within the Inventory site. Inventory transactions that occur between the physical count and posting the count are not taken into consideration. The steps required to complete a Cycle Count are below.

  1. Print Cycle Count Sheets
  2. Perform Inventory Count
  3. Enter Cycle Counts
  4. Run the Inventory Audit Report

2. Live Counts – Select this method when counting item categories while the store remains open. Inventory transactions that occur between the time the count is entered and finalized are taken into consideration. Perform a Live Count using a wireless network and a RDP session to prevent losing counts if network issues occur. Live counts can also be entered using a WASP device. The steps required to complete a Live Count are below.

  1. Run Clear Counts
  2. Perform Inventory Count
  3. Enter Live Count
  4. Adjust to Live Count – Proof
  5. Correct Live Count Values
  6. Adjust to Live Count – Live
  7. Run Items Not Counted Report
  8. Set Uncounted to Zero

3. Multi-Bin Counts – Select this method when counting item categories with a large number of items or are in several locations within the Inventory site. This method allows the count of an item to be entered from count sheets at multiple times. Inventory transactions are considered if the Snapshot feature is used. The steps required to complete a Multi-bin Count are below.

  1. Run Clear Counts
  2. Print Multi-bin Count Sheets

  3. Create a Snapshot of On Hand Quantity before a Multi-Bin Count occurs and item counts will be entered while the Store is open.

  4. Perform Inventory Count
  5. Enter Multi-bin Counts
  6. Adjust Multi-bin Counts – Proof
  7. Correct Multi-bin Counts
  8. Adjust Multi-Bin Counts – Live
  9. Run Items Not Counted Report
  10. Set Uncounted to Zero

Before the Count

After selecting an inventory counting method, complete the following steps before the count.

1. Check Items Run the following reports to check and correct the units of measure, weighted average cost and current On Hand Quantities on all items to be counted.

  1. Negative Inventory from the Exceptions menu to identify On Hand Quantity and Unit of measure issues.
  2. Incomplete Items from the Exceptions menu to verify Scan codes.
  3. Inventory Valuation from the Accounting menu to identify weighted average cost issues.

2. Complete all inventory transactions.

  1. Receive any items that are physically received by start of inventory process.
  2. Site Transfers
  3. Expense Transfers
  4. Non-sale Withdrawals
  5. Assembly Orders and Product Conversions
  6. Orders and Returns
  7. Fertilizer batches

3. Verify Scan codes If using scan guns, make sure as many items as possible have the correct scan code.

4. Schedule Create the schedule for counting, verifying, and recording the counts.

5. Clear Counts If using the Live Count or Multi-bin Count method, run the Clear Count function. See Clear Counts for instructions.