Tutorial: Stock Takes

Performing regular Stock Takes is an important part of monitoring the stock levels of items in a Site. In this tutorial we will discuss the way in which Stock Takes are handled by the Portal.

This tutorial explores the screens in the Stock Take section of the Procurement Menu. The Procurement Menu can be opened by selecting Menus, Inventory and Procurement from the Navigation Menu. Open the Stock Take section by selecting the Stock Take link in the Procurement Menu. There is a link provided in this section that opens the Site Options screen to the Stock Take options.

Stock Takes can be performed for the Site as a whole or, more commonly in larger Sites, as a series of smaller Stock Takes for each Department or Fixture in the Site. A Fixture can relate to an aisle in a supermarket, a cool room in the kitchen of a restaurant or a shelf in a hardware store, for example. The process of performing a Stock Take occurs in three steps: first a snapshot is taken of the Department, Fixture or Site being counted, then items are counted and finally the results are entered against the Stock Take. Reports can then be printed to display the discrepancies between the expected and actual counts.

A Stock Take is begun by taking a snap shot of the expected quantities of items in the area being counted. This is performed in the Control screen, accessed via the Control link in the Stock Take section of the Procurement Menu. Select New Stock Take from the Stock Take Number drop-down list to take a snap shot for a new Stock Take and select the Site for the Stock Take. To take a snap shot of a specific Fixture, select it in the Fixture drop-down list and press the Snap Fixture button. The Snap Department button will take a snap shot of the selected Department and the Snap Department In Fixture button will take a snap shot of the items in the selected Department in the selected Fixture. Use the Snap All Items button to take a snap shot of the expected quantities of items in the entire Site. After a snap shot is taken, a message appears to inform you of the number of items that have been snapped.

The Fixture Report displays details of the Fixtures in a selected Site. Each Fixture is listed with the following information: Fixture Description, Fixture Number, Site Name, Number of Sides, Number of Shelves, Shelf Height, Shelf Width, Shelf Dimensions, Shelf Maximum Weight, whether it contains stock, whether it is a Refrigerator or a Cool Room and if it can contain Dry Goods Only.

You can select the Create New Fixture link to open the Fixture Maintenance screen to create a new Fixture. You can also select a Fixture Number to open a popup menu, allowing you to perform the following functions:

• Edit Fixture Details, opens the Fixture Maintenance screen with the details of the Fixture loaded to allow you to edit it.

• Show Items In Fixture, opens the Fixture Detail Report which lists all items in the Fixture. Items are automatically added to a Fixture when a Stock Take of the Fixture is finalised. This report lists the Item Description, Site Name, Department Number, Department, Last Quantity Counted and the Date of the Count.

Click the Description of an item to open the Inventory Management screen for that item, allowing you to edit it.

• Show Batches In Fixture, opens the Fixture Batch Report that displays the details of counts that have been made from a PDT device. This report lists the Batch Number, Site Description, Stock Take Number, Status and Batch Date for each PDT Batch in the Fixture. You can select a Batch Number to open the PDT Batch Detail Report.

The Fixture Maintenance screen allows you to create and edit Fixtures in a Site. Enter a Fixture Id and select a Site for the Fixture. There are three tabs of data in the Fixture Maintenance screen:

• Name, allows you to modify the Fixture Description / Name, Number of Sides and Shelves, and to specify the shelf dimensions and maximum weight. Select whether the Fixture is able To Hold Stock. If the Fixture represents a Refrigerator or Cool Room check the appropriate box. If the Fixture can store Dry Goods Only ensure that the checkbox is ticked.

• Stock Takes, lists the Stock Takes that have been performed on the Fixture. The details of a Stock Take can be viewed by selecting the date of the Stock Take.

• PDT Batches, lists the batches that have been performed for the Fixture from a PDT device. Select the Active column to open the PDT Batch Detail Report for the batch.

Press the Save button to save the Fixture details to the Portal. Use the New button to create a new Fixture from the maintenance screen. The Delete button will remove the Fixture from the Portal and the Clear button can be used to clear the details from the Fixture without removing it from the Portal. Press the Snap button to take a snap shot of the expected quantities of items in the Fixture, which is the same process as the Snap Fixture button in the Control screen.

The Edit Stock Take screen allows you to enter the counted quantities of the items in the snapped area. You can also add items manually to the Stock Take by entering the Item Code, selecting a Fixture and pressing the Add button. Use the Find Item button to search for an item that you do not know the item code for. When an item is added to the Stock Take grid, the Description and Unit Price of the item is displayed for your reference. Enter the quantity counted in the Count column and press the Update button to save the count to the Portal. Select an item and press the Delete Items button to remove a line from the grid. Press the Finalise button to commit the final counts to the Portal for the Stock Take or the Delete button to remove the Stock Take from the Portal without recording the results of the Stock Take.

The Stock Take Reports screen reports on the Stock Takes at a specified Site during a selected period. The Type drop-down allows you to view the details of Open, Finalised, Deleted or All Stock Takes at the Site. Information displayed in this report includes the Stock Take Number, Site Name, Status, Dates of Creation, Finalisation and Snap Shot, Total Cost Value, Variance in the Cost Value, Total Retail Value, Variance in the Retail Value and Number of Lines in the Stock Take.

A link is provided to Create new Stock Take from this screen. For Finalised Stock Takes there is a View link and for Open Stock Takes there is an Edit/Control link that opens a popup that allows you to perform the following functions:

• View / Edit Stock Take, opens the Edit Stock Take screen to view or edit the Stock Take details.

• Finalise Stock Take, commits the details of the Stock Take to the Portal and sets the Stock Take status to Finalised. This option is only available to Open Stock Takes.

• Report Items In Stock Take, opens the Stock Take Detail Report which lists the Item Description, Item Code, Department, Fixture, Stock Item, Stock Count, Quantity Counted, Unit Cost Ex-Tax, Unit Cost Inc-Tax, Unit Retail Price, Line Cost Ex-Tax, Line Cost Inc-Tax, Line Retail Value, Counted State and Creation Date of the items in the Stock Take. Totals are displayed for the quantity counted, cost values and retail value. The report can be filtered by Department if desired. The By drop-down allows you to filter by Counted status and the Select drop-down filters the report according to the items in the Stock Take. Item Descriptions can be selected to open the Inventory Management screen for the item.

• Report Stock Items In Stock Take, opens the Stock Take Detail Report with the Select drop-down of Stock Items selected, meaning that only Stock Items are displayed in the report.

• Report PDT Items In Stock Take, opens the PDT Batch Detail Report for the Stock Take.

• Stock Take Control Options, opens the Control screen for the Stock Take, allowing you to take a snap shot for the Stock Take.

• PDT Errors In Stock Take, reports on any errors in the PDT batches for the Stock Take. Available for Open Stock Takes only.

• PDT Manual Counts In PDT Batches, reports on the Manual Counts in the PDT Batches of the Stock Take. This report lists item details included in each batch with the following information: Batch Number, Fixture Number, Side Number, Shelf Number, Item Description, Item Number, Barcode, Quantity Counted, Pack Size, Unit Cost, Unit Retail Price, Department, Error Details and the Key-in Order. This option is only available for Open Stock Takes.

The PDT Batches link in the Stock Take section of the Procurement Menu opens a report screen that outlines the batches received from PDT hand-held devices. This report sumarises the batch counts made by PDT's in the Stock Takes at the selected Site across the specified period. Details provided here include the Batch Number, Stock Take Number, Fixture Description, Fixture Number, Terminal Number, IP Address of the PDT, Login Name, User Name and the Date of the Batch. Select a Batch Number to open the PDT Batch Detail Report or a Fixture Number to Edit the Fixture Details, Show Items in the Fixture or Show Batches in the Fixture. More information on PDT Batches in Stock Takes can be found in the PDT Procurement tutorial.

In this tutorial we have discussed the way in which Stock Takes are entered into the Portal in order to maintain accuracy in stock control. Stock Takes are an important aspect of Procurement and we have described the reports available to the Portal user to assist in the administration of Stock Takes.