Performing a stock take / inventory is an essential part of retailing. You need to be able to make an accurate inventory valuation and ensure that the product availability you're displaying is correct.
The Related Articles provide information on the wider stock take / inventory process. In this article, we look at the specific steps required to carry out a stock take / inventory in the Cloud POS Back Office.
Step 1: Creating a new Stock Take / Inventory
1) From the main menu in the Cloud POS Back Office, navigate to Stock Management, then Stock Take / Inventory.
2) This will then take you to the stock take / inventory screen and show any previous stock take / inventories.
3) Click New to begin the creation of your stock take / inventory.
4) Enter a Description and select the Store at which you are completing the count from the drop-down menu.
At this point, you have two options for how you proceed:
a) If you would like to create a stock take / inventory for all items in your database, click the button marked Create A Stock Take / Inventory With All Items. You would select this option if you are carrying out a full store stock take / inventory.
b) If you only want to include selected items, choose the Create A Blank Stock Take / Inventory & Add Items button. Select this option if you only intend to update the stock levels of specific items in your database (e.g. a particular department).
a) Create a Stock Take / Inventory with All Items
If you've selected this option, you'll be taken to a page containing a grid that lists every Standard or Serialized item in your database:
Warning
The Counted field begins at zero for every item, so that if an item is not counted / found, its inventory will be set to zero.
If this doesn't sound like the outcome you are intending, consider whether you would be better using the option to Create A Blank Stock Take / Inventory and Add Items. With that option, you can specify the range of items you wish to count, and no other inventory values will be affected.
If you are ready to proceed with your counting, you can move on to Step 2.
b) Create a Blank Stock Take / Inventory and Add Items
Selecting this option allows you to dictate which items you intend to count. When you finalise the stock take / inventory, only the items you have selected will have their quantities updated — all other item quantities will be unaffected.
There are two main ways to prepare this type of stock take / inventory.
You can use the Add Items button to add items individually. This will display a database search so that you can select the items from a grid. This works best if you only intend to count a small range of items.
The Add Items In Bulk button is a better option if you intend to count a whole Department / Category / Brand / combination of these. You can use the column headers to filter the items you wish to add to your stock take / inventory, and then use the ‘Select All’ checkbox (top left) to select them in bulk. You can repeat this process to select multiple lists of items, if needed.
In the example below, the filters have been used to find all women's clothing. We then use the ‘Select All’ checkbox to select all matching items. Finally, we click Add Items to Stock Take to proceed.
An alternative approach
Another option is to start counting items straight away, using Quick Scan, without first loading a list of items into the grid. This affects the outcomes of the stock take / inventory.
If you pre-load a list of items for counting, using ‘Add Items’ or ‘Add Items in Bulk’, all items begin with a count of zero. This means that if any items are not counted / found, their inventory levels will be set to zero. This is beneficial in most cases.
However, if you begin counting straight away, without pre-loading the grid, only items that are counted / found will be affected. This approach would not address any items with a positive inventory level in Cloud POS that are not actually present in the store. If you proceed in this way, we recommend using Cloud Reports to identify these items afterwards. (For example, you could use the 'Item Price List - Store Level' to find items with a positive ‘On Hand’ inventory quantity but without a recent Last Counted date.)
Step 2: Counting your items
There are several options for counting your items.
a) You can use the option to Print a Stock Take Report / Print an Inventory Report, which you'll find towards the bottom of the page. With this option, you would walk the shop floor, writing the counts onto the sheet. You would then return to the Cloud POS screen to input the counts manually.
You can choose how you would like the items to be ordered on the print-out. You can also choose if you would like to show the expected quantities or not.
If you are using this option, ensure that you click Save Changes regularly to avoid losing your counted values. Unsaved changes are highlighted in green.
b) You can use the Quick Scan function to scan your items directly into the grid. This is reliant on each item either having a Cloud POS-generated barcode label attached, or the manufacturer's barcode being assigned as an Alias on the item, so that Cloud POS will recognise the item as you scan it.
Recommendation
If this is the first stock take / inventory you are conducting in Cloud POS, we would recommend the Quick Scan option. This will serve two purposes for you: you will be entering accurate inventory levels into the Back Office, and you will be checking that all your items are recognised by Cloud POS. Any item that is not recognised when it is scanned will show an error on the screen. We would recommend putting these items to one side to address later.
c) If you have a handheld scanning device that can store data for export (please note that these are not provided by Citrus-Lime), you can use this device to count your items and then Import the results into the stock take / inventory in Cloud POS. There is also an Export button to create a CSV file of the data in the grid, which could be imported into a compatible scanner.
The import file must be a CSV file, in the format Part Code (or Alias), Quantity, Counted Date/Time. The Counted Date/Time field is optional. Here's an example of the file format:
In most cases, leaving the default options on the 'Import File' screen will be sufficient. However, you should understand how the two Quantities options will affect your results if you are importing from more than one file:
- Add To Existing Counts: If an item appears in more than one file, the values for that item will be added together.
- Replace Existing Counts: If an item appears in more than one file, the counted figure for that item in the first file would be overwritten by the counted figure for that item in the second file, and so on. This option is designed for correcting errors in a previous import.
Once you have selected your options, click Browse… to select your file for import. Then click Upload File to upload the file to the grid.
If there are any items that could not be imported (e.g. because that Item Lookup Code or Alias could not be found in your Cloud POS database), you will see an error message. Click View Report to view the items that could not be imported:
The ‘Message’ column will explain why the item could not be imported. In the example below, the items have not been found in the Cloud POS database. You can use the Export to Excel button if you wish to return to this list later, as you will not be able to refer back to the error log if you close the window.
You will see your imported counts appear in the grid:
Step 3: Calculating the stock take / inventory
Once you have entered all counted quantities and made sure that you have saved any changes, you can click Calculate & Commit ('Calculate & Submit' in the US localization of Cloud POS).
This will take you to a final screen where you can preview the results of your stock take / inventory before it is finalized. There is a detailed grid of information to support you with this.
Counted: Displays the counted value that you have input into the stock take / inventory.
Expected: Displays the current On Hand quantity for the item at this store.
Difference: Displays the difference between the Counted and Expected values. Any discrepancies are highlighted to show if they are over (green) or under (red) the expected amount.
% Difference: Calculates the Difference a percentage value.
Value of Difference: Calculates the value of Difference according to the Average Weighted Cost of the item.
Counted Time: Displays the time of the most recent change to the counted value for this item.
Projected Adjustment: Displays the actual change in quantity that would be actioned when the stock take / inventory is finalised. This adjustment takes into account any item movements that have taken place since the Counted Time. For example, if an item had an Expected value of 3, and your counted value was 3, but you have sold 1 of this item since the Counted Time, the Projected Adjustment would be -1. Cloud POS would automatically adjust the final value to reflect the sale.
Projected Stock Level: Displays the On Hand quantity that will be set for this item when the stock take / inventory is finalised, after any Adjustments have been taken into account.
Reason Code: This can be set per-item or in bulk using the drop-down above the grid. Please refer to Step 4 for further information.
You can now investigate any discrepancies in the count.
If you find you have lots of discrepancies, you can check the box to Hide Items with No Discrepancies (above the grid):
You can also choose to Print Discrepancies (below the grid) if you'd like to return to the shop floor for investigations:
You can make changes to the Counted values on this screen, or click Return & Recount (below the grid) to return to the previous step:
Step 4: Finalising the stock take / inventory
When you have queried any discrepancies and made any corrections, you must apply a Reason Code to all item lines. This Reason Code will be shown on the Item Movement Report for any items that are changed as a result of the stock take / inventory.
You can apply a Reason Code to each line individually or use the Apply Reason Code to All Items option:
When you are ready to finalise your stock take / inventory, click the green Commit Stock Take (Submit Inventory) button below the grid.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens when you finalise a stock take / inventory?
- The On Hand inventory levels of your items will be amended to match your counted values.
- Any movement of inventory, along with the cost value, will be recorded, so you can view this in the Item Movement Report in Cloud Reports.
- We'll also adjust your inventory quantities to take account for movements in the time between your counts being entered into the grid and the stock take / inventory being submitted. You can view these adjustments in the Projected Adjustment column. Please refer to Step 3 for further guidance.
How do I import inventory levels from a different POS system?
Please Note: we recommend that you complete a stock take / inventory of your store in preparation for beginning trading in Cloud POS. Importing the quantities from a previous platform risks carrying over inaccuracies into Cloud POS.
That said, if you have discussed this with your Citrus-Lime Onboarding Manager and you wish to proceed with importing quantities into Cloud POS, you can use the Import function to do this.
- Use the option to ‘Create a Stock Take / Inventory with All Items’.
- Export your current inventory values from your previous platform.
- Ensure that these values are in a csv file with the correct format.
- Use the ‘Import’ option to import the csv file into the stock take / inventory.
- Proceed to the ‘Calculate & Commit’ ('Calculate & Submit') step.
- You can expect to see discrepancies for all items, if this is your first import of quantities into Cloud POS. You can therefore proceed to Step 4.
Can I delete a stock take / inventory?
An open stock take / inventory can be deleted. Please note this process is not reversible.
If your stock take / inventory is at the counting stage, you can click ‘Delete’ from the stock take / inventory list:
If you have already reached the calculating stage and wish to delete your stock take / inventory, you can click ‘Return & Recount’ to return to the previous stage. This will mark your stock take / inventory as ‘Open’ and allow it to be deleted.
Submitted counts cannot be deleted / undone.
Can I count items based on Bin Location?
Yes. To do this, use the option to ‘Create a Blank Stock Take / Inventory and Add Items’. On the next screen, use the ‘Add Items in Bulk’ button. On this screen, you will see an area below the grid to filter items based on Bin Location:
