Creating an Full Store Physical Inventory Plan

Each physical inventory begins with a plan. The planning process allows the user to specify various important pieces of information related to the count, the user can plan  with the end goal of reaching a full inventory (stock) count over the series of counts.  The planning step is the first step required for all counts. 

 To create a new plan, click or tap the New Plan button located in the upper left corner of the physical inventory plan   list.  

Here you will enter all of the information related to the physical inventory plan. (Full Store Physical Inventory)

 Enter a Plan Name that describes the event, like November 2023 Physical Inventory, etc. 

Then select from the list of approvers, executive approvers, (future feature), and assigned to options. The approver is the person who has the authority to approve the final count, and commit it to the inventory. An executive approver, (future feature), is required if the count is off by a margin outside of the set limits (discussed later in this section). The assigned to users are those who can access the plan and perform counts. Include all the potential users in the assigned to list. 

NOTE: If not setting these “Max” parameters, the user should ignore the gauges on the count screens, as they will not be used to show a variance. 

Enter a start date and end date for the count. These are used mostly for reporting purposes, but should be made as accurate as possible. 
Select (check) the "Leave uncounted quantities at the current value" ONLY if the desire is for all UNCOUNTED items to retain whatever on hand they have.  The other option is to select "Quantity for uncounted items will be set to zero",  and the UNCOUNTED items will be set to 0 (meaning that there were none in stock).

Once saved, you will see a list of all items in the Snapshot Preview.  You will find the Item Selection Options.  Ensure the Count all items box is checked.

 From the physical inventory plan list, select the desired plan by clicking the View Item Counts button (Eye ball button) to the left of the plan. 

Once a snapshot has been done, no changes can be made to the Physical Inventory Plan details.

The physical inventory management screen will be displayed.  The top section, which includes a set of three graphical panels displaying the quantity, cost and price variances for the current counts, is used to monitor the overall progress of the count.  Because no counts have been entered yet, my variance is at 100%.  As I start entering inventory counts, these numbers will                                                                                                                                         start to increase. 

Counting Inventory

At the bottom of the Physical Inventory page there are a number of options.

Export:  This allows the items included to be downloaded as a .CSV or .TXT file

Count Sheet:  All items included in the Physical Inventory are placed in a table that is better suited for manually or hand entered.  This file can be downloaded in multiple formats.

Variance Report:  This report will show all items that have a variance of what the snapshot quantity and the current count quantity.

Add Count:  You can choose between scanning or manually entering counts for each item, entering on a count sheet or import a .CSV file with the skus and item counts.  Scan and manual entry will be discussed further.

Approve:  If assigned as the Approver for the Physical Inventory, this button allows you to complete the physical inventory counts.  Once committed, the counts cannot be edited or removed.  This closes the Physical Inventory, and it is no longer active.

Recount All:  This will clear all previously entered item counts.    

Add Count

Adding the item quantities to a Physical Inventory can be done a few ways.  The first is by scanning each item.

Scan or Manual Entry

Scanning or manually entering the skus are virtually the same.  The sku is entered in the top field, and if manually entering the total quantity, it is entered in the bottom field.  Auto-Increment can be turned on to scan the barcodes of every item instead of counting all of one (1) item and entering the total, then moving on to another item and doing the same.  Auto-Increment allows you to scan items in no particular order on the Physical Inventory.  Each time the barcode is scanned, the quantity increases by 1.  Once the total quantity has been entered, or you are done scanning, hit Save.  You can always come back to the Add Count screen to add additional quantities or items. 

NOTE: The Physical Inventory module does not required that the device being used to scan always be online (connected to the internet), but it DOES require that it be connected to a good internet connection when the process is initiated, and in order to complete the process of sending counts to OpSuite. It is always best to have a constant internet connection when performing a physical inventory or cycle count, but if there is a temporary loss of network during the process, the system will save the counts. The exception, of course, is if the device also loses power or completely crashes out of the application.      

Count Sheet

Here, manually enter items in the grid. The user can change the number of lines shown by clicking the drop down box in the top left corner. Clicking into the Quantity column allows the user to type in the counted 29 quantities. The enter key on the keyboard advances to the next line. Clicking submit saves the changes. Pages will advance automatically as the user reaches the bottom of the page. 

CSV Import

Here the user can select a CSV file to import to the physical inventory. Click the Browse button to select the file to import. Clicking Submit saves the changes. 
CSV File Notes:

• The CSV file must only contain 2 columns; 1 for the SKU, 1 for the quantity counted. If using the OpSuite 5 Count Sheet as a CSV, all columns except SKU and quantity counted must be removed before importing.
• Each line must have a SKU and a quantity. If the quantity on hand is zero, then a zero must be entered.
  

After you have counted all items and before you Approve your physical inventory, run the Variance Report.   The Variance Report button is located at the bottom of the Physical Inventory Count page next to the Add Count button.  

If edits need to be made to your counts before you approve your Physical Inventory.  Edits can be done through the search box that is directly under the dashboard.  Change the All in the first search box to sku and enter the sku in the third box and hit Search. 

Once the item appears, click on the blue Pencil    button to edit your count.  That will pull up the item in the Manual Entry screen.  You see the current count and item description under Item Detail.   Enter the correct total count in the Quantity box and click SAVE.  For the example below the current count was 40, but we found 5 more to make the new count total 45, which was entered into the Quantity box.

Once all of your item counts have been entered, it's time to Approve the Physical Inventory.