COMPULINK 3300 Overland Avenue, Suite 201 § Los Angeles, California 90034 § 310 × 204 × 5121 

 

Taking Physical Inventory

 

  • Common Physical Inventory Method

    Print an inventory list and walk around the store checking off the items

  • 1) Print the report. From the Main Menu, choose Inventory Reports [choice 6-5]. Select the Print report, not Compressed, and start printing. Make sure to sort by Sku Number! This report will show the retail and current quantity. A column is provided for the store staff to write down a physical quantity count.

    If you choose the Compressed version of report (as opposed to the regular printed version), extra information such as the cost of the inventory is printed, but the column for you to write in the physical quantity column is not printed. (However, you could still write the qty in the margin next to each item.)

    The Inventory by Location report [choice 6-6-Print] can also be generated if you want to check off you physical inventory by location.

    2) Walk around the store and mark on the report the items that are in stock. Make sure to check the layaway inventory as these items will appear on the report. Memo merchandise will not appear unless you specifically chose to include memo merchandise (see step 1).

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    Alternate Physical Inventory Method

    Type in or barcode-read all the items and have Jewelry Shopkeeper compare what you type with what Jewelry Shopkeeper's inventory count and print a list of the differences (Physical Inventory Exception Report.)

    From the Main Menu, choose Physical Inventory Exception Report [choice 6-5-E] or by location [choice 6-6-A]. The first question is: Do you want to import and ASCII file of Sku Numbers. Answer No if you are going to type in the sku numbers at the computer.

    Select Barcode if you want to use a non-portable barcode reader to enter your inventory. In other words, you carry the inventory to the computer because the barcode reader is attached to a computer.

    Answer Yes only if you have a barcode portable data collector. (Please see the barcode portable data collector notes at the end of this document.)

    Next, the question: Do you want to type in weights? appears. Select No unless you want to compare quantity as well as weight for merchandise that is bought or sold by weight.

    From this point on, simply type or barcode-read each inventory sku number into Jewelry Shopkeeper. If your store has a network, you can type in sku numbers on all computers at the same time.

    To make corrections when typing in sku numbers, press the <PageDown> key, find the sku number with the error and change the quantity to 0, press <Esc> and re-type or re-read the item.

    Another way of making a correction is to type a quantity of —1 followed by the sku number. This will basically reverse the previous entry of the sku number. Note: If you are reading the sku numbers into the computer with a barcode reader, to change the quantity to —1, you need to press the up arrow from the sku number box to be able to change the Qty to —1.

    To view the last pieces that were entered, press <Page Up>.

    If you want to quit adding for a while, press <Esc>. The question Print the report now or Exit and save these entries for later?. Choose Exit to stop adding for now. Backup your work often. The next time you go begin the Physical Inventory Exception report feature, the question: There are XXX entries. Do you want to Delete them or Add to them? Choose Add and you can continue where you left off. To view the last pieces that were entered, press <Page Up>.

    Only choose Delete when you want to start fresh and re-type all the inventory.

    Begin the Report

    To begin the Physical Inventory Exception Report, choose Print when presented with the Print the report now or Exit and save these entries for later? question. (or it might call the option Continue with the Report.)

    If you need to run this report again, you can go back into the Physical Inventory Exception report feature, to the question: There are XXX entries. Do you want to Delete them or Add to them? answer with Add. Make You can make any appropriate adjustments - and the re-run the report.

    Entering Inventory Adjustments

  • 1) For each item that has a discrepancy, go to the Display an Item Status feature [choice 2-6-S] and type in the sku number. Check the quantity received, quantity in stock, number sold, returns to vendor, assembly and adjustments.

    If sku numbers from one certain major class code come up often, check the Major Class Code Maintenance feature [8-3-1] and make sure the item does not have a 1, 2 or 3 as the Repair Category.

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    Common Physical Inventory Method Adjustments

  • 1) To adjust the items in inventory to the physical quantity, choose Inventory Transfer and Adjust [choice 2-8-E] and change the Quantity in Stock total.

    To greatly speed up the task of using the above screen to change the quantities to zero (only for items that have to be adjusted to zero), you can set up a function key to do some of the typing for you. From the System Maintenance Menu, choose Function Key Defaults [choice 8-D], select a function key number between 2 and 10 and type:

  • ;;;;;;0;;0;;0;;0;;;;;;;0;;;;;;;;0;0;;;;;
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    For another function key number type:

  • YPhysical Inventory Adjustment 1/15/97;

    • Note that the precise number of semi-colons you type in is important.

    Using the Inventory Adjust screen, type the sku number of an item that has to be adjusted. When the inventory screen comes up, you can press the first function key you defined above. That will change the quantity to zero. Afterwards, when you see the question: ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO ADJUST THE TOTAL QUANTITY?, you can press the second function key. The second function key will answer Yes to the adjust question, then type in the explanation. Above, the example explanation is Physical Inventory Adjustment 1/15/97, but you should type your own explanation. Note that you need to leave the first Y before the explanation to automatically answer Yes to the adjust question.

    Use these function keys only for adjusting quantities to 0. If you do decide to use this function key option, check the results after using it on a couple of inventory items to make sure it’s working correctly.

    2) Run an Adjustment Report To get a total of all adjustments select the List Adjustment [choice 2-8-L] report.

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    Alternate Physical Inventory Method Adjustments

  • This will force the Jewelry Shopkeeper inventory list to match the Physical Inventory Exception Report. Note that you should only run this utility if you are sure that you have typed in your physical inventory and are sure that it was typed in completely. You should only run this utility if you have hundreds of adjustments to make — usually this would only occur the first time you do a physical inventory. Under normal circumstances you should only have a manageable number of adjustments that can be done individually as explained above.

    1) Make a Backup! This is very important because this utility affects the complete inventory list and is non-reversible except by restoring a backup. Also note that no record of the adjustments are made.

    2) At the Main Menu press the letter U as in Utilities. (for Shop-Pro, choose 9,M,U to access the utilities.) Highlight and run the utility program called EXCEPT (or EXCEP.)

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    After Making Inventory Adjustments

    After you have made above adjustments to make the inventory list match the physical inventory, you should run the Physical Inventory Exception Report again. This is to verify that all the adjustments have been made. If all the adjustments have been made, the new Exception Report should show no items because there should be no exceptions. If there are some items still showing up it means that some inventory quantities were not adjusted correctly. That is, unless you can account for the new adjustments due to new merchandise or new sales since the physical inventory was typed in.

    Notes on Barcode Portable Data Collectors

    If you use a portable data collector, you have to be able to easily download it’s memory into an ASCII file on the computer. This is something that you will have to be able to do yourself — not using the Jewelry Shopkeeper. The ASCII file should contain a single column of stock numbers with one stock number per row. Some data collectors can download their memory into an ASCII file by plugging into the keyboard port while you have a text editor open. Other data collectors have to be connected to a serial port and you have to run a special program to download the memory to an ASCII file. Either way, the Jewelry Shopkeeper doesn’t know and doesn’t need to know how the ASCII file is created. An ASCII file can also be called a text file.

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