Getting an Accurate Inventory Count
For many shops and warehouses, the end of the year means counting their inventory stock to insure accuracy for tax purposes. With AutoFluent®’s Inventory Count feature, you can recount your entire physical inventory in one convenient place. If you have assigned Bin Locations to your items (in the Bins tab of your Inventory window), it will make your job even easier, because you can count one Bin Location (aisle, box, etc.) at a time. Optionally, each item’s barcode can be scanned to count in your quantities quickly and efficiently. Let’s get started!
Starting Your Physical Inventory Count
If you will not be using a barcode scanner or a tablet PC, you will want to print a Physical Inventory Report to use for writing down your quantities. If you utilize Bins in AutoFluent®, we suggest printing the Bin Count Sheet Report instead. Access the Physical Inventory Count window by clicking the Inventory Count button on the main menu. To begin, click the Start New Session button at the bottom.
Changes you make during this session will set your Inventory quantities as of midnight on the morning of the date you select for the Session beginning. Therefore, unless you count items before the shop opens for the day, you will usually want to use tomorrow’s date as the Session Beginning Date. If you don’t, the inventory count will be thrown off by the sales made that day. It is also a good habit to have the starting date be a day later than the previously closed session, in case you accidentally include the same item in both sessions. After starting the session, you will need to select a Bin to count from the dropdown at the upper left. If you do not have any bins, select <blank> from this list to show all your inventory items.
Performing Your Physical Inventory Count
On the right hand side, use the Qty column to enter the correct quantity of the item. The Avail column tells you how many you currently have available to sell. The QOH is your current quantity on hand, ignoring any open Work Orders. If you are using a barcode scanner, you can click the Scan UPC button at the top to start scanning! Each barcode you scan will add a quantity of 1 for that item. This saves you time by not having to enter each item’s quantity manually in the Qty column.
At any time you can click Save Changes and exit out of the window, and then come back and continue the session later. No changes to your inventory will actually occur until you close the session. If you have a very large number of different items, you may need to check Show All at the top left in order to see the full list. Before closing the session, you should click Print Report at the bottom to verify the changes you want to make.
Closing and Posting the Inventory Adjustments
When you are finished updating your quantities, you can click Close Session, Updating Inventory. Then you have the option to change the date the adjustments will actually post to, select the type of cost that the items will update with, and enter any necessary notes. If Post to General Ledger is checked and you post to accounting, the change in Inventory value will post to your accounting program. When you are done changing settings, click Close Session to end the session. Whether you have a small shop or a large warehouse, counting your inventory will help you stay on top of issues like theft or sloppy mistakes in Work Orders. We recommend that you make a habit of doing it regularly.