Cycle counts (also called "physical inventory counts") are easy to perform with BusinessMind. The basic steps include creating a smart set of the items that you want to verify counts for, counting using a barcode gun or RFID wand, and then comparing the count to the system stock quantity.

Step 1: Create a smart set of skus to work with

Create a smart set of SKUs for which you want to verify counts for. You can do this in a few different ways. For example you can use the All Skus prebuilt smart set and Verify your Count off of that list.

Or you may want to create a smart set for SKU's at a specific shelf which would look something like this...

If you regularly do inventory counts and your inventory is in good order you can create a smart set of SKU's with quantity of greater than 0 at a specific shelf. That might look something like this.

Or if you regularly do inventory counts and your inventory is in good order you can create a smart set of SKU's with quantity of greater than 0 across all shelfs. That might look something like this.

Step 2: Count with a Barcode Scan Gun, RFID, or manually.

Perform your count using a barcode scan gun, RFID wand, or manually. The simplest way to do this is with a plain text editor (Notepad on windows or TextEdit on Mac work fine. Just be sure to save the file as plain text, not RTF. Do not use rich text editors like MS Word). Just scan your items and let the barcode or RFID values fill into the file. The barcodes or RFIDs should appear one line at a time with no additional characters or spaces on each line. Note that you can combine RFIDs, barcodes, and even plain old SKUs in the same file. Be sure to save your file often. This might look something like this..

Did You Know: You can also create a count file directly from BusinessMind. From the smart set you created under the verify count option by clicking the Need to create a cycle count file link? From here click the choose file button to name and create your file. Once your file is created you can start populating the file which will save automatically as you populate it. Again the barcodes or RFIDs should appear one line at a time with no additional characters or spaces on each line. Note that you can combine RFIDs, barcodes, and even plain old SKUs in the same file.

Step 3: Obtain a list of discrepancies comparing scan counts to system quantities

Once you have finished scanning counts to the file, save the file and use the Cycle Count Verifier to compare the items in your count file to the set of items you created in step one above.

Click on the Smart Set you created in step one to bring up the list of items.
Click the Verify Count option to display the Cycle Count Verifier.
Click the choose file button and select the file containing the list of scanned items you created and saved in the previous steps.
Click the Start button to process the count.

When this completes a report will open with your default spreadsheet viewer like Numbers or Excel. This report will display each item, the quantity in BusinessMind, the quantity scanned, and a discrepancy quantity. You can easily sort by discrepancy column to view items with discrepancies and to eliminate items without. Be sure to save this file if you need to come back to it at a later date.

Step 4: Reconciling discrepancies using the counted quantity

If this is the first time you are performing a cycle count in BusinessMind, you may have a large number of discrepancies. To reconcile the counts as a batch, you can use the Advanced Inventory Admin Tools batch quantity adjustment function. The input format for the file this function uses is closely related to the format of the discrepancy file that the cycle count feature produces. This makes it easy to go from the cycle count discrepancy file to a file useable as input to the batch adjustment tool.