Skip to content

Physical Inventory Overview

Introduction

ProfitSystem offers three inventory types that may be reconciled via a physical count of the items. Each one may be performed independently of the other and may be counted manually or via a barcode scanner when barcoded inventory/price tags have been printed from within ProfitSystem.

Each bar-code scanner utilizes differing technology to read bar-codes. A bar-code read by one scanner may not be able to be read by another scanner. For this reason price/inventory tags may have to be adjusted to accommodate the bar-code reader equipment installed.

Test the tag barcodes to insure they can be read by the scanner. The smallest tag readable by the Tricoder's scanner is a I2of5 medium regular font set to 15 point size as an example. It must be dark & clear enough for the read. If the scanner cannot read the barcode adjust ithe printer's heat setting & speed settings via the print driver (when using a thermal printer like a Zebra) and test until you are able to read the barcode. The standard tags shipped with the ProfitSystem program may not be readable. Please test before printing a large quantity of tags.

Inventory items that may be counted

  • Pick-UP Inventory: See the Pick Up Inventory Physical chapter for information on performing a physical for Pick-Up Inventory.
  • Rental Inventory: See the Rental Inventory Physical chapter for information on performing a physical for Rental Inventory (available with optional WinTPS Rental Production Management software).
  • Retail Inventory: Every retail operation needs to perform a physical count of their inventory periodically to maintain accurate inventory quantities.

Overview

Switchboard: Main->Inventory->Physical Inventory and Main->Housekeeping->Inventory Setup-> Physical Inventory Menu: n/a

Action: none

The process can be summarized into several steps that will be performed to accomplish a physical inventory.

  1. Print Price tags via ProfitSystem® and tag the entire inventory. Insure that the price tags contain a barcode of the barcode number from the Retail SCW form, NOT the Store Style number.
  2. Close the location and manually count or scan inventory. The count can include all items OR by category/class of merchandise within a store. If by all items, the entire store’s inventory must be counted. If by category, the entire category must be counted.
  3. Start a new physical within ProfitSystem.
  4. Enter the count into the ProfitSystem Physical count file. This could be done manually or by using a portable device like a Portable Scanner or PDA sold by BBL. See below.
  5. Run the Physical Inventory Exception Report to check the count. This report will indicate how the inventory will be permanently modified by the Update function in the following step. Use this report as a worksheet to fix any miscounts before applying. This report may be ran multiple times. Once satisfied with the report information, perform the update in the next step.
  6. Using the ProfitSystem Physical module, click the UPDATE Inventory button. The Physical count UPDATE process automatically cycles thru a series of inventory updating steps that permanently modifies the inventory with the new counts.

Input Counts

There exists several methods to input a physical count into the ProfitSystem system. The methods are:

  • Physical Entry
  • Validated Physical Inventory Entry
  • PDA Physical
  • Import Physical Count File
  • Upload Physical Count

ProfitSystem; offers tools for performing a physical inventory count, reconciling the physical count prior to posting and then permanently posting the count to the inventory along with storing a variance between the physical count and ProfitSystem reported quantity on hand.

Physicals counts may be performed store wide or by inventory category (categories are defined by the user within ProfitSystem). The department or store must be closed for business during the total physical count process.

The general process is the same for all count collection methods and involves three steps:

A. Manually entered (very slow to do)

This method has three steps.

  1. A shop's employee(s) manually counts each item, document the item's SKU/ID number and the count on paper Each like item does not have to be counted at the exact time. For example if you have widgets in two areas of the store. Count them in the first area by entering their inventory number and physical count. Then, later when area two is being counted you can list them the widget's inventory id number again and the count from that area. These two separate listings can be entered separately into ProfitSystem. ProfitSystem knows how to process multiple entries/counts of the same item.
  2. Manually enter the counts into the computer form the paper.
  3. Test/Permanently post counts to inventory

B. Scanned via handheld Portable Scanner

Batch (MOST POPULAR method, equipment is available thru BBL)

This method involves three steps, in addition the Portable scanner must be programmed to output the count in the correct format.

  1. A employee will walk around the business with a portable bar-code scanner. Each item's barcode is scanned (assumes items are price ticketed and bar-coded from within ProfitSystem) and a quantity entered.
  2. The Portable Reader is attached to the appropriate PC and the counts are automatically uploaded. This method is much faster and accurate than performing the count manually. However, this method does not validate the barcodes scanned, meaning erroneous items can be introduced when bar-codes do not scan properly. This bad data must be corrected when a test inventory posting is performed.
  3. Test/ Permanently post counts to inventory

C. Scanned via Notebook PC with wedge scanner while logged into the ProfitSystem.

We like to call this LIVE PHYSICAL.

There are two steps to this approach! This method requires an 802.11b wireless network to be installed within the business. (Very fast) ​ 1. The employee(s) perform the physical by moving about the store or by bringing the inventory by a computer workstation. Scan each item and enter the actual count. Each item's barcode is scanned (assumes items are price ticketed and bar-coded from within ProfitSystem) and a quantity entered.
The item number scanned is validated against the production inventory table and if correct, the item's description, vendor and price(s) are displayed to have the employee insure the price tag attached is current.
This validation saves additional time in the posting step.

  1. Test/ Permanently post counts to inventory

This method is the fastest of all physical inventory taking methods and allows for the most time savings.