Purpose
This function is used to create (initiate) a stock take ‘run’. Each ‘run’ is a list of inventory items that you want to perform a stock take on at the same time, so it is basically a ‘batch’ of items to count.
The main purpose of this function is the selection of the inventory items that you want to take stock of. In order to accomplish this, the full Inventory selection criteria is available. This allows you to cycle through your stock items, performing stock takes on sections of inventory based on the last stock take dates. Additionally you can select the inventory to count based on the normal warehouse, location and product selections like Category, Group etc.
On completion of this process a stock take ‘Run Number’ is allocated as the unique identifier for the stock take. Make sure to note the run number as it is used as the main input for many of the steps in the stock take process.
There can and may be several stock take ‘runs’ in progress at the one time, so you need to specify which run you are working on. Note that a given product at a given stock location (i.e. an Inventory item) can only be on one stock take run at a time. For example, you can count ‘Bolts’ in NSW on run 124 and ‘Bolts’ in VIC on run 126 at the same time, but you cannot count ‘Bolts’ in NSW on run 124 and ‘Bolts’ in NSW on run 128 simultaneously.
Once you have a stock take run created, you can print Tally Sheets/Tickets for the items that you have selected to be included in the new stock take run. Other Inventory items can be manually added to a stock take during the Stock Take Count Entry process, as long as they are not already on another stock take run.
Data Input
Step 1 – Options
Freeze Stock
At this prompt you can nominate whether you wish to ‘Freeze Stock’ now or defer that activity until later. Stock should be “frozen” for a run before or as you start counting items. There is a separate Freeze Stock Take function that can be used later if you don’t choose to freeze the stock when initiating the run.
Choosing not to freeze stock when creating a run allows the printing of tally sheets/tickets in advance of the ‘freeze’ point and the actual commencement of the stock take. Before “freezing” takes place, it is necessary for all outstanding transactions to be processed as part of the pre-stocktake steps.
Having a separate ‘freeze’ function allows you to pick the point in time where the physical inventory you count and the perpetual inventory on the system should be in sync. After setting the “freeze quantity” on the stock take run you can continue to process transactions as you want, including invoicing and other stock transactions. As long as you take account for any transactions that occur after the freeze when doing your physical count.
When a run is “frozen” the stock on hand for each item on the stock take is recorded in a separate ‘Freeze Quantity’ area to be used later for comparison to the ‘Count Quantity’ and variance calculation/reporting. Variances and stock take adjustments are obtained by comparing the stock counted with the freeze quantity figure. For example: Freeze Quantity (stock on hand at a point in time): 500 Count Quantity: 450 Stock Loss: 50. This allows you to continue with normal processing (Invoicing, Receipts etc) of “after stocktake” entries, once the stock has been counted even though all the stocktake figures may not have been entered and the stock take run finalised.
Note that any ‘In-Store’ quantity is excluded from the ‘Freeze Quantity’ so these should be dealt with prior to a stock take ‘freeze’ or handled separately.
Run Description
Enter a brief ‘Run Description’ for the stock take you’re creating to help identify the run during the stock take process and later when reviewing historical stock takes. This description is used on status reports and at the top of stock take print functions to assist you in differentiating one stock take run from another.
Run Type
There are two stock take types available with Online Advantage – ‘Tally Sheet’ or ‘Ticket’.
The first is the traditional ‘tally sheets’ which see stock take runs producing printed count sheets in bin and product sequence. The other approach is to use ‘tickets’ which tells this function to produce a small individual stock take ticket per inventory line, or multiple tickets depending on the bin tracking settings used for the product in question.
The idea of the tickets approach is that they are printed in duplicate, usually one next to the other but this could be with the use of carbonised paper. The second ticket for an individual product in a specific bin location is designed to be left after performing the initial count to allow a second count to be performed. Thus providing the ability to compare two physical counts via the entry and recoding of the count on both sets of tickets.
When choosing ‘Tickets’, you are asked to enter the Number of Tickets to print for each inventory item. Where Bin Tracking is ‘Specific Bin per Product’ or ‘Multiple Bin per Product’, the system knows the number of bin locations for each product and will produce a ticket for each of those bins in bin sequence. However for Bin Tracking ‘Optional Bin Tracking’, the system does not know how many bins are in use per inventory item because it does not track these bins. Therefore where a stock take run type of ‘Tickets’ is used for ‘Optional Bin Tracking’, you must specify how many tickets you require for each inventory item on the run.
Branch
Select the branch code that relates to the stock take being created. The branch entered here is not part of the stock take run selection criteria, but is simply used for branch security purposes. A user is only allowed to create a stock take run on locations that fall within the branch or branches they have access to, hence the need to prompt for branch up-front.
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Step 2 – Fixed Filters
When creating a stock take you have the choice of which Inventory items to include in a given stock take run. Stock takes are typically created for a given Stock Location. They can be created for everything in the location, or selections can be made so you create smaller runs using the filters available.
For instance, you might use filters to make selections for regular ‘Cyclic Counts’ or for targeted counts on ‘problem’ items. You might decide to create a count for all products for a particular Supplier, or any products that have not been included in a count in the last 6 months. You may even target a particular Size of product throughout your range, or a type of ‘material’. In addition to the regular Product filters available throughout the Inventory system the following have been included specifically to assist in the creation of stock take runs:
- ABC Class Code
- Last Stocktake Date
- Buyer Code
- Size Code
- Colour Code
- Stocking Method
- Supplier
NOTE: An individual product in a stock location can only be included in one stock take at a time so it is important to keep a check on stock take runs that are in progress.
For a detailed description on how to enter filters, see the help section on ‘User Filters’ in Launching Reports. If you are doing a regular stock take with the same filter criteria, it would be worth considering storing the filter for future use to save time next stock take.
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Step 3 – Selected Items
The inventory items selected based on your entered filters are displayed in a list for further refinement. Note that the items selected will always exclude those items that are already on another stock take run.
Select whether to ‘Include’ or ‘Omit’ any items from the list. You may also ‘Invert’ the selections on the list. Read here for a full description of how to use ‘View and Omit Selection Filtering‘.
When you have confirmed the items that will be included in your stock take run, use the ‘Submit’ icon to initiate the stock take for the selected items.
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Processing and Print Options
Processing
Once you have selected the items that you wish included on your stock take, a ‘Stock Take Run Number’ is allocated and recorded against each inventory item included on the run. The run number is displayed on-screen for your reference and the following ‘Print Options’ are provided:
Print Options
- Stock Take Runs in Progress Report
- This report lists all the Inventory items currently on a Stock Take Run. This report is also available on the Stock Take menu where you can launch it and see the details of which product is on what run.
- Stock In-Store report
- This is a listing of all inventory items included in your new stock take run that have a stock in-store quantity. It highlights the fact that the quantity in-store should be catered for when counting the stock
- If you have in-store quantities that you want to resolve before stock take and you have taken the ‘freeze’ option, then you should cancel the new stock take run immediately and re-create it once the in-store quantities have been removed by completing the purchase receipting processing on the related shipments
- This report is also available on the Stock Take menu where you can launch it as required to check what Inventory items have an in-store quantity on any stock take run.
- Print Tally Sheets/Stock Tickets
- These reports are used to assist with the recording of your stock count. The reports are in Bin sequence. A reprint option is available on the Stock Take menu if required. Any extra items counted that are not printed on the Tally Sheets/Tickets can be noted and added to the stock take run during Stock Take Count Entry.