Scheduled Inventory Counts

• Overview
• Creating a New Scheduled Inventory Count
• Creating, Editing, and Deleting Inventory Count Groups
• Editing a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Cloning a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Scanning for a Scheduled Inventory Count or Group
• Closing a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Re-Opening a Scheduled Inventory Count
• Reconciling 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.).

New Users & System Administrators should click here to watch the available Learning Video on this topic.

Creating a New Scheduled Inventory Count

1. On the  Main Menu, go to the  Inventory menu and select Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Click the  Add New Count icon located in the footer.
3. Enter the new scheduled inventory count details.
   • Name: The name of the scheduled inventory count.
   • Inventory Count Group: The inventory count group that you want the count to be assigned to. Note: You can not select a count group that is already associated with the inventory group for this 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.
   • Inventory Group: The inventory group that you want to count. Note: Only one inventory group is allowed to be selected.
   • Inventory Resource Type: The resource type that you want to count. If you use more than one inventory resource type, you will need to set up a separate count for each one.
   • Expect Out of Commission: Determines whether or not Flex will expect you to scan items that are out of commission.
     • If Yes is chosen, any units that are OOC will be expected during the count and will need to reconciled. Scanning a OOC unit during a count will not resolve the record.
     • If No is chosen, any units that are OOC will not be expected during the count. Scanning a OOC unit during a count will add the unit to the count but will not resolve the record.
   • Expect Out Units: Determines whether or not Flex will expect you to scan items that are marked as "out"; for example, units that are located on Manifests.
     • If Yes is chosen, any units that are out will be expected during the count and will need to be reconciled. Scanning a unit that is out during a count will not be returned and will remain in its current location.
     • If No is chosen, any units that are out will not be expected during the count. Scanning a unit that is out during a count will return the unit and add it to the count.
4. Click Add.

After the opening date that you entered for the scheduled inventory count, you will see an option on the  Warehouse menu called Current Counts. The scheduled inventory count and/or group will appear there.

Clicking on the scheduled inventory count name or group 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)

Creating, Editing, and Deleting Inventory Count Groups

Inventory Count Groups can have multiple counts assigned to them. You can then go to the inventory count group's scanning page and scan gear from multiple counts, instead of opening each count individually to scan.

1. On the  Main Menu, go to the  Inventory menu and select Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Click the  Configure Count Groups icon located in the footer.
3. Click the  Add New Group icon and enter the name.

To edit the Count Group name, click the "name" of the count within the Inventory Count Groups Configuration popup. Clicking out of the field or selecting the Return/Enter key on the keyboard will save the changes.

To delete the Count Group, click the checkbox(s) of the groups within the Inventory Count Groups Configuration popup and then choose the  Delete Selected Groups icon

Editing a Scheduled Inventory Count

1. On the  Main Menu, go to the  Inventory menu and select Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Double-click the scheduled inventory count that you want to edit.
3. Edit the scheduled inventory count details.
4. Click Save.

NOTE:

• After the count has been created, you will not be able to edit the following fields:
  • Inventory Group
  • Inventory Resource Type
• Once the count is In Progress, you will not be able to edit the following fields:
  • Location
  • Expect Out of Commission
  • Expect Out Units

Cloning a Scheduled Inventory Count

After a count has been created, you can use the "Clone Count" feature to quickly create a count for each inventory group or resource type in your system.

• On the  Main Menu, go to the  Inventory menu and select Scheduled Inventory Counts.
• Select the "..." menu of the count you would like to clone and choose "Clone Count".

The "New Scheduled Inventory Count" popup will launch with all details inherited from the original count, excluding the "Inventory Group".

• Select an Inventory Group and adjust any of the details.
• Click Add.

Scanning for a Scheduled Inventory Count or Group

There are two ways you can access the count screen.

• On the  Warehouse menu, under the Current Counts sub-menu, click the name of the scheduled inventory count or group.
• On the  Inventory menu, select Scheduled Inventory Counts, click the "..." menu options of the count, and select "Go to count" or go to the count group.

Count scanning screen: This will look similar to other scanning screens in Flex, and you can execute a virtual scan or enter/scan the barcodes that are found on serialized items. For non-serialized items, you will receive a prompt to enter quantities after scanning.

Group scanning screen: This will look similar to the Free Scan scanning screens in Flex and entering/scanning the barcode is required. The Last Scan area will provide the "Count Group" that the item is assigned to.

Decommissioned, Sold, and Presumed Missing units are not expected to be counted. Proceeding forward with the scan will remove the decommissioned, sold, or presumed missing flag and will add the unit to the count.

Keep in mind, the progress bar along the top of the count 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 by clicking the  Close Count icon in the upper right-hand corner.

In addition, you can also close the count from the Scheduled Inventory Counts page by clicking the "..." menu options of the count and selecting "Close Count" or "Close All Counts" group option.

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/counted vs. what was expected. You can not access the reconcile worksheet until the count has been closed. In addition, you can no longer access the count's scanning screen after it has been closed.

Re-Opening a Scheduled Inventory Count

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). You can accomplish this two different ways:

1. On the  Warehouse menu under the Current Counts sub-menu, click the name of the scheduled inventory count.
2. Select the  Open Count icon to reopen and continue counting.

OR

1. Go to the  Inventory menu and select Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Click the "..." menu options of the count and select "Open Count".

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.

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 any items that you did not scan, and all the items that you did scan during the inventory count along with the expected quantities of those items.

1. On the  Main Menu, go to the  Inventory menu and select Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Click the "..." menu of the scheduled inventory count that you want to reconcile and select "Go to reconcile."

By default, the reconcile worksheet will only include the items that have not been reconciled. The reconcile worksheet is organized by the inventory group that was selected for the count and child groups, if applicable. If multiple child groups are present, you can collapse all groups by hitting the "Description" column and reconcile one at a time. You can uncollapse the inventory models to view the units or collapse them to hide the units. 

• For serialized inventory models, when "Include Reconciled" is not checked in the footer, the "Expected" number will display the amount of the item that did not get scanned (scanned or reconciled quantity subtracted by the total allocated/owned.) The "Counted" number will always display as 0. For example, if 2 of the 4 laptops are scanned during the count, the reconciliation page will display as 0/2. After one of the units is reconciled, it will display as 0/1.

• When "Include Reconciled" is checked in the footer, the "Expected" number will display the total allocated/owned. The "Counted" number will display the amount that was scanned during the count, and will include reconciled. Items that are not fully counted and reconciled will receive a yellow triangle. Items that are fully counted and reconciled will receive a green checkmark. In the example provided above, this item would display as 2/4. After one of the units is reconciled, it will display as 3/4.

You'll also notice a few helpful columns along the top that you can filter by: 

• Description/Barcode: If you type in an inventory model name or barcode, the reconcile worksheet will only show items associated with that name or barcode.
• Group: If you type in an inventory group name, the reconcile worksheet will only show items from that group (ideally used to filter by Child Groups.)
• Container: This column is great to use as a filter if you know that an item is located in a certain container. 
• Location: This column is great to use as a filter if you know that an item was previously located on a job or was free scanned out.

To reconcile an item, you will select the "..." menu of the line. The choices when reconciling a serial unit include:

• Mark Presumed Missing: Choosing this option will mark the serial unit as presumed missing and will no longer be considered available inventory.
• Mark Reconciled: 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 Reconciled 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.
• Delete: Choosing this option will delete the serial unit from your Flex system.

The choices when reconciling a non-serialized item include:

• Mark Reconciled: Choosing this option will not change the quantities, but will mark the item as reconciled.
• Adjust Quantities: Choosing this option will allow you to adjust the quantity for the item. Ideally, the on hand quantity should match the allocated quantity.

Additional options found in the footer:

• Reset All Filters
•  Bulk Reconcile Lines: Use this option to reconcile multiple lines at once.
• Export

When all items have been reconciled, you will receive a prompt asking if you want to mark the count as reconciled; click "Ok" to mark the count as reconciled. You can also access this option from within the Scheduled Inventory Counts page by clicking the "..." menu options of the count and selecting "Mark Reconciled".

Printing a Shrink Report for a Scheduled Inventory Count or Group

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. Within the  Main Menu, click the  Reports menu and select 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  Main Menu, go to the  Inventory menu and select Scheduled Inventory Counts.
2. Select the check boxes of the counts you want to delete, then click the  Delete Selected Counts icon in the footer.