What is Inventory Count?

Inventory count, also known as stocktaking or inventory audit, is the process of physically counting and recording the quantity of goods or materials that a business holds in its inventory at a specific point in time. This is a crucial aspect of inventory management and is typically conducted on a periodic basis, such as annually or quarterly.

Why do we need Inventory Count?

1. Financial Accuracy:

   • Balance Sheet Accuracy: The value of inventory is a significant component of a company's assets. Accurate inventory counts ensure that the financial statements, especially the balance sheet, reflect the true value of the company's assets.

2. Prevention of Shrinkage and Loss:

   • Identify Discrepancies: Regular inventory counts help identify any discrepancies between the recorded inventory levels and the actual physical inventory. This can uncover issues such as theft, damage, or other forms of shrinkage.

3. Order Fulfillment and Customer Satisfaction:

   • Avoid Stockouts and Overstock: Accurate inventory counts help businesses maintain optimal stock levels. This, in turn, prevents stockouts that can lead to lost sales and dissatisfied customers, as well as overstock situations that tie up capital and warehouse space.

4. Cost Control:

   • Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): Inventory counts directly impact the calculation of the cost of goods sold. Accurate COGS figures are essential for determining profitability and making informed pricing decisions.

In summary, inventory counts are a fundamental aspect of effective inventory management. They help businesses maintain financial accuracy, prevent losses, optimize operations, and ultimately contribute to the overall success and sustainability of the business.

How should we do it with Magestore Retail Management Software?

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1.1. How to manage the Inventory Counts?

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In this list, you can see all the Inventory Count belonging to the current source with Preparing, Counting, Verifying, Complete and Cancelled status.

In addition, to see the details of the Inventory Count, you can click on the View button to redirect to the Counting details.

1.2. How to create a new Inventory Count?

To create a new inventory count, you can click on the New Inventory Count button. After that, you will be redirected to the Counting details, and it will be empty like the below picture.

1.3. How to Prepare the product list for the Counting?

As you can see in the above picture, this inventory count has “Preparing” status. This is the first step of the Inventory Count process in RMS and also in reality.

1.3.1. How to add products to the Counting details?

There are 3 ways to add products to the Counting details:

• Click on the Add Product button to add selected products

• Scan the product barcode

• Import the CSV file

1.3.1.1. Add products by using the Add Product manually function

On this page, you can click on the Add Product button to redirect to the Add Product to Inventory Count page

On this page, you have to select the products that you want to stocktake, then you need to click on the Add Selected Product button to add selected products to the Counting list successfully.

1.3.1.2. Add products by scanning the product barcode

If you have the scanner, you can use it to scan the product barcode to add products to the Counting list.

1.3.1.3. Add products by importing the CSV file

If you already have a plan or you have multiple products to add, you can use the importing function to add products to the details faster. After clicking on the Import button, a popup like the below picture will show.

After the popup shows, you only need to upload the CSV file that has the structure column like the below picture to continue the importing.

1.3.2. How to print the PDF of the product list to prepare the inventory count for the current source?

If you do not have enough devices for the staff to take action on RMS, you can print the Counting details into the PDF for the staff to take the next action on the Counting.

1.4. How to do the Counting based on the product list that is prepared?

To move to the Counting step, you need to click on the Start Counting button to redirect to the Counting details with the Counting status.

1.4.1. How to do the counting for each product?

There are 2 ways:

• Scan the product barcode to increase the counted number

• Fill in the counted field

1.4.2. How to record the counting action for each product?

You need to click on the Complete Counting button to record the counted results and change the status of the Counting details to Verifying.

1.5. How to Verify the inventory count based on the counted results?

After finding out the reason why there was stocktaking for each product, you can fill in the Reason fields with the cause of the inventory count for each item.

After verifying, if you want to count the products again to stocktake more clearly, you can click on the Back To Counting to move back the Counting details into the Counting step.

1.6. How to Complete an Inventory Count?

After you complete the counting and verifying for each product, to mark the inventory count as completed, you can click on the Complete button to change the status of the Counting to Completed.

In addition, if you want to adjust the qty on hand of the products by the counted results, you can click on the Complete & Adjust.