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Doing cycle counts and physical inventory

Stocktaking is rightfully one of the most resource intensive tasks. However, this holds true for businesses without inventory barcode experience. HandiFox interweaves barcoding into your daily operations to automate the process of stock counting to the extent where there are no more hold-ups on warehouse operations during cycle counts, and with physical inventory they are driven down to the minimum.

HandiFox Online allows doing inventory counts both in its web version and mobile app – you get to choose based on the kind devices at your disposal which would be the most convenient.

Tip: Before actually approaching stocktaking, it is highly recommended to adopt a habit of checking products’ performance via sales reports. This way you will know your best-selling items as well as dead inventory and get a clearer picture of which items should be cycle-counted and kept a closer eye on.

In the web app, go to Inventory → Counting Sessions and click . Here is what an inventory count in HandiFox Online looks like:

• Add the items you want to count from the drop-down menu or by scanning in their barcodes. For item lists with over 5k products the app will suggest that you type in the first couple of letters/digits of the product's name to speed up the search
• Add items by categories by typing in an item category name in the item column
• Use the ‘Full inventory count’ feature, if you want to count all items – it resets all values to zero immediately
• Check “Show all items” to see all the inventory you have and start counting by barcode scanning only those items that need counting. As a result, these articles will be added to the counting session and their quantities - updated in the system

In the mobile app, go to Inventory-> Inventory Counting and you will see the full list of inventory right away.

• The “Complete inventory count” does the same trick as “Full inventory count” in the web app
• On mobile devices, you can have multiple people count simultaneously to further speed up the counting process.

Approving counting sessions

In both the web and mobile apps you can save the current progress and go to other tasks or apply the counting session right away. By clicking Apply, you send the current counting for manager approval and can no longer edit it.

For the counting session to take effect, review and approve pending counting sessions from the dashboard or under Inventory-> Counting sessions. Mark the checkbox against the required counting and view the results. Apply or discard rows or void the session completely. Until approved no counting session is finalized. Neither do quantities on hand get updated. 

However, the approval stage can be skipped for speed by tweaking the settings.

Key takeaways and action items:

1. You might want to set aside a certain type of products for planned or spontaneous cycle counting based on their sales stats or category and add those to counting sessions

2. Add items from the inventory list or scan in their barcodes. 

3. In the mobile app, count concurrently to save time

4. Save before taking a break or apply and send the counting for manager approval

5. Finalize the counting session by applying, discarding or voiding the results in the web app

Turn to the Inventory Counting page in HandiFox Online Wiki or watch this video for further guidance.