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The Count Inventory tool is to be used when you need to enter a complete count of your entire inventory, either when you first begin to use LightSpeed, or when you do a regular inventory count. It allows you to compare the results of this physical count with the existing quantities in LightSpeed and make the necessary adjustments up or down to reconcile these totals. Before using Count Inventory, the Products you are counting must exist in LightSpeed already.
1. Create an Event.
First, choose Count Inventory from the Tools menu. Then, create an event by clicking the left New button. An event is the name you give to an entire count, such as “Year End”. Events can be deleted by clicking them once and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard; however, this is not recommended, as it can cause discrepancies in your inventory.
2. Create a Count within the Event.
To create a section (“Count”) within an event, make sure your event is selected and click the second New button in the Count Inventory window. A window asking you to name the new Count will appear; this typically represents the section of the store that you’re currently counting.
3. Enter/scan Products into the Receipt window.
Once you have saved a particular Count, the Inventory Count window displays where you will begin to enter the Products you count in your store.
In the Receipt section, you enter/scan the Products that you count, until you decide to click Add to add them to your tentative, pre-posted totals for the Count.
If you are selecting it from a list of results, you must double-click the item to add it to the count. Or, you will be able to use your barcode scanner to add Products to your count with their barcodes. To increase the quantity, continue to scan the barcode with the scanner, or enter the number manually in the quantity column. If the Product is serialized, you will be asked to scan or enter the serial number.
4. Click Add to add them to your Count.
Once you have completed counting the Products and entering their serial numbers in this area, click Add to register them as “counted”. You may continue to count and save to add the Products to the Counted section. It is recommend that you click Add periodically as you enter/scan your Products to display them in the Count area. You may delete a Product that you have added by selecting it and clicking the Delete key.
5. Click Post to post or “register” the results to your Event.
Once you are satisfied with all the Products you’ve counted in this section, click the Post button to save the reported quantities for that area or section, and you will be returned to the main Count Inventory window, which will list all the Counts you’ve completed for the current Event.
Note: You may continue to add Products to a Count even after you’ve posted it. Simply click Post again, and LightSpeed will add only those Products that have not yet been posted to your totals for the Count. It is not recommended to delete any Products from a Count once the Count has been posted.
6. In the main Count Inventory window, click the Summary tab to review a summary of all your Counts added together.
Go to the Summary tab to see all of that Event’s Counts summarized by Product, including the list of serial numbers you counted. To compare the quantities that you counted with the inventory totals currently listed in LightSpeed, click the Compare tab.
7. Click the Compare tab to review the totals you counted with the totals that you show in LightSpeed.
The Compare layout displays the quantity you counted, how many serial numbers were entered for the quantity you counted, how many LightSpeed currently shows in total, how many serial numbers are showing in LightSpeed, and the difference between the quantities. The detail arrow beside serialized Products will expand to display the serial number differences between what’s counted and what’s shown.
Serial numbers shown highlighted in purple indicate serial numbers shown in LightSpeed that were not counted. Serial numbers shown highlighted in grey indicate those which were counted which do not appear in LightSpeed. Serial numbers that match between what’s counted and what LightSpeed shows as being in stock do not appear here in the Compare layout.
8. Review the discrepancies, and click Adjust Inventory to adjust your quantities to what you counted.
After reviewing both the expected and the counted quantities, use the Adjust Inventory button to adjust the quantities and serial numbers in LightSpeed to the quantities and serial numbers of your count.
Checking the Zero Inventory for Uncounted Products box will adjust the inventory of any Products in your database that weren’t counted to zero. If left unchecked, Products in your database that were not counted will remain untouched. Adjustments made to your Products will be listed in the Product history with a note saying “Count Inventory”.
You can export the results of your Event to a tab-delimited file, named “Year-End - Stock Taking Export.txt”, that includes your counted quantities, the quantities that were in LightSpeed, and the status of the stock (available inventory vs. Warehouses).
You are able to delete a Count by clicking it once and pressing the Delete key – you will be asked to confirm the deletion. Deleting a Count does not undo the Count adjustments.
Importing
In cases where you have previously counted inventory quantities into a spreadsheet, you may wish to import directly into the Count Inventory tool.
1. Click the Import button in the “counting” window, once you have created a Count within an Event.
2. In the Import Count Inventory window, click the Open File button and select the file that contains the data you wish to import.
This file must be comma- or tab-separated, and include the fields Product Code/Product ID/UPC, Inventory Quantity, and (if applicable) Serial Number. Note: Your source file must only contain the Product Code, the Product ID, or the UPC, and this must be the same field for the entire file.
If you are importing counts for serialized Products, each line must include the Code/ID/UPC, a quantity of 1, and the serial number. The Product being imported must also, of course, be classified as a “serialized” Product. For non-serialized Product, you need only put in the total quantity you wish to import.
Add and post your totals as you would as if you’d counted the Products manually.
Each time you use the Import feature of Count Inventory but experience a failure of any of your records to successfully import, LightSpeed saves a file to your desktop called Inventory Count Import Log. In the event of any record(s) failing to import, LightSpeed will still finish the import and any records that imported successfully will appear in the Receipt window. Consult your Import Log for a breakdown of line items that were not imported, and why.
LightSpeed allows you the option to count into your virtual Warehouses, breaking down the “total” quantity normally seen in a Count into each Warehouse’s quantities. To count into Warehouses, you must check the Count in Warehouses checkbox after you create your Event, but before you create any Counts. When you check Count in Warehouses, Zero Inventory for Uncounted Products is automatically checked, and cannot be unchecked when you adjust your inventory.
For example, if you had 12 iTrips, 10 of them in your available inventory, and 2 in Warehouse #3, a standard inventory count would show you as having an inventory quantity of 12 in the Compare layout.
However, if you had enabled the Count in Warehouses checkbox when you created the Event, you would see a breakdown of each Warehouse’s quantities, labelled in the Warehouse column of the Compare layout.
To count into a Warehouse, simply select the appropriate Warehouse after you’ve created the Count and the Inventory Count window displays, but before you start adding Products to the Receipt window. This option is used only if you need a detailed breakdown of your counting into Warehouses. Otherwise, a standard, “non-warehouse” count will display the same quantities, but as totals.
The basic steps of using Count in Warehouses:
1. Create an Event. Select the Event and check the Count in Warehouses checkbox. (see image)
2. Create a Count. In the Inventory Count window that appears, select the Warehouse you're counting with the pop-up menu. If you are counting inventory reflected in your available inventory, leave the menu with Inventory selected. (see image)
3. All Products you count and post will be compared only to the Warehouse you'd selected in the pop-up menu. Create a new Count for every Warehouse that stores Product, as well as your available inventory.
For example, you have a total of 3 bicycles: you have 1 in your available inventory, and 2 in a Warehouse named "Warehouse 1".
If you do NOT enable Count in Warehouses, you will show a total of 3 bicycles, and whatever you count will be measured against that. You will not be able to choose a Warehouse to count against.
If you DO enable Count in Warehouses, you would first create one Count and leave Inventory selected in the pop-up menu. You count 1 bicycle, and compared against the 1 bicycle you show in Inventory, you are even. Then, you would create a second Count and choose the Warehouse that holds the other 2 bicycles (Warehouse 1). If you then count 2 bicycles, that total will be compared to the 2 you show in that Warehouse, and you will be even for that Count. Therefore, you have counted 1 bicycle for your available inventory, 2 bicycles for Warehouse 1, and you are even. If, for example, you had counted 3 in that Warehouse, you would show an additional item for the Warehouse.
In the event that you count into the wrong Warehouse, your inventory count will be incorrect, and any inventory adjustments you make will affect the quantities of the Warehouse, and, ultimately, the total inventory for the Product.
If you mistakenly adjust your inventory after counting your Products, you can modify your Counts prior to clicking Adjust Inventory. Double-click the Count you need to modify, remove the Product(s) you wish to recount, and recount as your normally would. Clicking Post will change the quantities that will be compared to the quantities you show in LightSpeed.
