Model Adhoc stocktake procedure, when you are not stocktaking the whole business
Overview
The model adhoc stocktake procedure should be used if you intend to stocktake only part of your stock without getting around to every product progressively over a period of time:
- If you are going to close the business and stocktake everything over a few days, for example over a weekend, use the model full stocktake procedure
- If you are going to stocktake some products, but you are not going to stocktake the whole business, use the model adhoc stocktake procedure
- If you are going to stocktake the whole business progressively during working hours without closing down for stocktake, use this rolling stocktake procedure
Video
Preparation before the stocktake
Before conducting the stocktake:
- Determine how many stocktake teams will be on site during the stocktake. You need:
- At lest one counter teams. Normally composed of one person to count the stock and the other person to enter the product and count into the laptop or mobile app
- One person to run stocktake variance reports and to chase up any large differences. This may be the same person/s that are doing product maintenance
- A supervisor that is in charge of everyone doing the stocktake. They will normally run stocktake variance reports and to chase up any large differences and do product maintenance
- Plan how you are going to manage product locations:
- If your stock is not already recorded against locations, you may need to do a location only stocktake first to setup your stocktake
- You need to check your location labels and be ready to print new ones where required before the stocktake
- Decide how many location are going to be included in each stocktake. You want to keep your stocktakes fairy small. Covering a max of two meters of floor space as a single location in most cases
- If your locations are too large, someone may remove stock from the location before you finish counting it.
- Ensure you have enough electronic devices to do the counting. Each counting team needs:
- one mobile device with blue tooth scanner
- or one laptop with blue tooth scanner and trolley to rest the laptop on
- Check your wifi network is working with all your devices. Your device should be able to connect and work with your wifi in the whole area being counted
- Decide on a stocktaking schedule:
- For example, stocktaking might happen for two hours every morning or alternatively in the hour before close of business
- Make sure your team know who will be stocktaking on which times and days of the week
- Conduct sufficient staff training:
- access the test system and perform all the steps in the procedure below on test
- get each stocktake team to enter a few stocktakes in the weeks before the stocktake date. Check their results and ensure they don't have any major questions
- repeat starting stocktake, entering counts, finding products that don't scan, running variance reports, final stocktake and ending stocktake a number of times until you are confident in the procedure
- Stocktakes are easy to stuff up. The process is simple but it requires a lot of control. Dealers do sometimes stuff up stocktakes. It requires that everyone knows the steps they need to take and nobody double counts or makes any other of the obvious errors.
- If you are not confident in your ability to control the stocktake, consider having Readysell run some training sessions with you
Procedure
Start stocktaking once on the first day of the stocktake only
- In the navigation panel, go to Inventory then Stocktakes.
Click Start Stocktaking which is located on the top panel on the left.
The Start Stocktaking window will display
- Select Stocktake Mode
SElect "Ad-Hoc (Windows)", when you intend to do rolling stocktake, for any products and locations or update a product at a specific location without impacting any other locations where that product is found.
A final stocktake is not required for this stocktake mode i.e., just End Stocktaking when the last transaction is posted
Click on OK to start stocktaking
See Starting and Ending a stocktake for more information
Enter and post your stocktakes using electronic devices only, do not do a manual stocktake!
Using a laptop to enter stocktakes
- Always use a laptop the first time you stocktake your business if your barcodes are not complete
- From the navigation panel, select inventory, then stocktakes before you enter the first stocktake
- Click on New to create a stocktake transaction
Select a Site from the drop-down list, it should default to your logged in site, make sure you know you are entering stocktakes for the correct site!
The Clear Stock Mode must be "Adhoc"
(See Stocktake Mode and Clear Stock Mode for more details on various combinations and suitability for the purpose)
- Leave the Description for the stocktake blank unless you want to note something special about this particular stocktake
Scan in product and key in Unit Quantity Counted, repeat this step as many times as required
- if you find the product, click down and up arrow to enable the related button above the lines, then click on the related button, select product, then scan the bar code, select add barcode when asked if you want to add the barcode to the product
- if you can't find the product at all remove the product from the fixture and put it in a box or basket below the location. A follow up team will do the product maitenance and stocktake to enter this product
- Click on Finalise to post the transaction
- Repeat the above steps (6-12) until you have counted all the products for the business or all the products assigned to your team
Using the mobile to enter a stocktake
- You can use the mobile app to perform the stocktake if your product and barcode data is complete and accurate
Start your device, check it's battery is full and that you have the barcode scanner
- Start the Readysell mobile app
Creating a new Stocktake transaction
From the Main Menu , click Stocktakes.
Click the
icon to create a new stocktake transaction.- Click the
icon to save Once you have saved it you will be taken back to the main stocktake screen, from here click on on the icon with three dots (overflow menu) and select Stocktake Lines.
To create a new stocktake click on the + icon from the top right hand side, enter a description of the stocktake and click on the save icon (top right)
Once you have saved it you will be taken back to the main stocktake screen, from here click on on the icon with three dots (overflow menu) and select Stocktake Lines.
When in stocktake lines you commence scanning products using bluetooth scanner or usb scanner, when you scan lines are automatically saved. Products will be displayed in the lines section of the stocktake window.
See also mobile Stocktakes
Using batch scanners to enter a stocktake
Stocktakes can be entered with basic batch scanner units. We do not recommend this approach if you have sufficent mobile units to do the work. Batch scanners are still a lot better than manual stocktaking. So if you don't have sufficient mobile units, batch scanners may be the solution for you.. Those units can be hired from Readysell. Should you be interested in batch scanners, see Conducting a stocktake using batch scanners
Assign a supervisor to checking stocktake variance, this might be a member of the counting team/s
- Assign one team member to check stocktake variances as each stocktake is finalised
- To check the stocktake variance. In the navigation panel, go to Inventory then Stocktakes.
- Every day,check to see if any new stocktakes have been added which have a status of 'posted'. You will need to check those stocktakes to see if there are any large or unusual variances
- For each stocktake that gets posted:
- In the navigation panel, go to Inventory then Stocktakes. The list of active stocktakes is displayed.
- Select the stocktake for which you want to run a report. Each stocktake is time-stamped, so you can sort by date to quickly find the last stocktake you entered.
- Click Show in Report.
- Stocktake report
- Stocktake report (Variances Only)- Run during stocktake
Readysell will display a report showing all the items you have counted and how many the system still thinks you have. The description and transaction number are also displayed, so you can go back and check later.
When running the stocktake report variance, please note the value of the stocktake is the value of stock counted. The variance is the difference between what you counted and what is on hand.
Investigate any large variances you find, such as where a barcode might have been scanned into the quantity or the wrong unit used
- See also: Running individual stocktake reports
Assign a team to product maintenance for products that can't be found by the stocktake teams
- The stocktake teams can't afford the time to chase up products where the bar codes don't scan. They will have a quick try to find the product. Then put it in a box or basket at the bottom of the fixture if they can't find the product
- The stock maintenance team needs to walk around the fixtures periodically, find any products that could not be scanned. Then use Readysell to find the product, correct the barcode and then enter a stocktake for that product or add it to an existing stocktake
Ending a stocktake
- In the navigation panel, go to Inventory then Stocktakes.
Click End Stocktaking which is located on the top panel on the left.
The End Stocktaking window displays.
- Select the site where you have been performing the stocktake, then click OK.
- See also Starting and Ending a stocktake