Flex4: Scheduled Inventory Counts

• Overview
• Creating a New Scheduled Inventory Count
• Editing a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Scanning for a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Closing a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Reconciling a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Re-Opening a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Printing a Shrink Report for a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Deleting a Scheduled Inventory Count

Overview

You can perform a complete inventory count in Flex, including the scanning of all the items in your warehouse, and the reconciling of items that were not scanned. This is useful for end of year counts, but can be done at any time (quarterly, monthly, etc.).

Creating a New Scheduled Inventory Count

1. On the Inventory menu, click Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Click New Scheduled Inventory Count in the Workbench Menu.
3. Enter the new scheduled inventory count details.
   • Name: The name of the scheduled inventory count.
   • Opening Date: The date that you want to start scanning (scanning will not be available before this date).
   • Closing Date: The date that you want the count to close (scanning will not be available after this date).
   • Location: The warehouse location where the count will take place. If you have more than one warehouse location, you will have to set up a separate count for each one.
   • Expect Decommissioned: Determines whether or not Flex will expect you to scan items that are decommissioned. If Yes is chosen, you will have to reconcile any non-scanned decommissioned item.
   • Expect Out of Commission: Determines whether or not Flex will expect you to scan items that are out of commission. If Yes is chosen, you will have to reconcile any non-scanned out of commission item.
4. Click ADD.

After the opening date that you chose for the scheduled inventory count, you will see a new option on the Warehouse menu called Current Counts. The scheduled inventory count will appear there.

Clicking on the scheduled inventory count name will bring you to a scanning screen where you can begin scanning for the count. (See the Scanning for a Scheduled Inventory Count section below)

Editing a Scheduled Inventory Count

1. On the Inventory menu, click Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Double-click the scheduled inventory count that you want to edit.
3. Edit the scheduled inventory count details.
   • Name: The name of the scheduled inventory count.
   • Opening Date: The date that you want to start scanning (scanning will not be available before this date).
   • Closing Date: The date that you want the count to close (scanning will not be available after this date).
   • Location: The warehouse location where the count will take place. If you have more than one warehouse location, you will have to set up a separate count for each one.
   • Expect Decommissioned: Determines whether or not Flex will expect you to scan items that are decommissioned. If Yes is chosen, you will have to reconcile any non-scanned decommissioned item.
   • Expect Out of Commission: Determines whether or not Flex will expect you to scan items that are out of commission. If Yes is chosen, you will have to reconcile any non-scanned out of commission item.
4. Click UPDATE.

Scanning for a Scheduled Inventory Count

1. On the Warehouse menu, under the Current Counts sub-menu, click the name of the scheduled inventory count for which you want to start scanning.
2. Begin scanning all inventory that is currently in your warehouse.

Just like on any other scanning screen in Flex, you can scan the barcodes that are found on serialized items, and for non-serialized items you can scan or enter model barcodes then enter quantities.

It doesn't matter if you scan an item more than once. Only one scan will be counted toward the reconcile sheet.

Also keep in mind that the progress bar along the top of the scanning screen doesn't necessarily have to read 100%. In fact, you will most likely never reach 100% unless you scan every single item that you own.

Closing a Scheduled Inventory Count

When you are done scanning, you can close the inventory count.

1. On the Inventory menu, click Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Double-click the scheduled inventory count that you want to close.
3. Click Close.

This will initiate the close out process for the scheduled inventory count. The close out process creates a record of all items that were scanned and puts that information on the reconcile worksheet. From the reconcile worksheet, you can see what you scanned vs. what was expected.

You can now reconcile the scheduled inventory count.

Reconciling a Scheduled Inventory Count

After the scheduled inventory count is closed, you can go through the reconciliation process. This process allows you to view all the items that you scanned during the inventory count along with the expected quantities of those items.

1. On the Inventory menu, click Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Click Reconcile in the row of the scheduled inventory count that you want to reconcile.

The reconcile worksheet has several options along the top:

• Group Search: If you type in an inventory group name here, then the reconcile worksheet will only show items from that group.
• ALL Button: Clicking this will return all inventory item results to the reconcile worksheet.
• Include Return Date: Checking the box will load the return date (if any) for serial units. (If you are loading a large reconciliation worksheet, including the return date can potentially cause slower performance)
• Include Last Known Location: Checking the box will load the last known location (if any) of serial units. (If you are loading a large reconciliation worksheet, including the last known location can potentially cause slower performance)
• Filter Drop-Down: The options are to show only unreconciled items, only reconciled items, or all items.

On the reconcile worksheet, you will see line items representing each of your inventory models and serial units, organized by inventory group. For serialized items, you will see the inventory model with an arrow to the left of the model name. Click the arrow to see the serial units associated with that model.

The Qty Expected column will show how many of the item Flex expects (which will be the allocated / owned quantity), and the Qty Counted column will show the actual amount counted during the scheduled inventory count. If the numbers are the same, then the item is already considered reconciled. (Choose All from the filter drop-down and you will see that items considered reconciled have a green check mark in the row.)

When the quantity counted is less than the quantity expected, the item is considered unreconciled. Click the triangular "Reconcile" button to reconcile the item.

The choices when reconciling a serial unit include:

• Mark as Presumed Missing: Choosing this option will mark the serial unit as presumed missing and will no longer be considered available inventory.
• Delete: Choosing this option will delete the serial unit from your Flex system.
• Mark Accounted For: Choosing this option will keep the serial unit in your Flex system as is. For example, if you know the serial unit is out on a job and expect it to return, you can use the Mark Accounted For option and it will remain out on the job. The serial unit will not be returned until you scan it back in from the job.

The choices when reconciling a non-serialized item include:

• Adjust Quantities: Choosing this option will adjust the quantity for the item. The new allocated quantity (the second number) MUST equal the quantity counted.
• Mark Accounted For: Choosing this option will not change the quantities, but will mark the item as reconciled.

When you are done reconciling a scheduled inventory count, you can open the scheduled inventory count (from the Inventory menu, Scheduled Inventory Counts page), and click Mark Reconciled.

Re-Opening a Scheduled Inventory Count

You can always re-open a scheduled inventory count after closing it. This will not affect the close out count from the previous close. You can close and re-open a scheduled inventory count as many times as you need to (like if you accidentally closed the count and still need to scan a lot of items).

1. On the Inventory menu, click Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Double-click the scheduled inventory count that you want to re-open.
3. Click Re-Open.

After re-opening a scheduled inventory count, you will be able to open the scanning screen (on the Warehouse menu, under the Current Counts sub-menu) and continue scanning items.

Printing a Shrink Report for a Scheduled Inventory Count

The Inventory Count Shrink Report will show all items that had a lower quantity counted than the quantity expected. It also shows if the item was reconciled, who reconciled it, and when it was reconciled.

1. On the Reports menu, click Inventory Count Shrink Report.
2. Choose a scheduled inventory count from the Inventory Count (required) drop-down menu.
3. Click GENERATE REPORT.

Deleting a Scheduled Inventory Count

1. On the Inventory menu, click Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Click DELETE in the row of the scheduled inventory count that you want to delete.