1

Inventory Count

From time to time, you need to do a physical count of your inventory items to ensure that you have the

quantities on hand that you think you have. Besides the accounting necessity, performing stock counts at

random times and for random parts of your inventory cuts down on theft, and is therefore good practice.

This function lets you control your inventory counts, or stock takes.

The inventory count function contains all the tools you need to accomplish inventory counts. You access this

function via the Transactions...Inventory...Inventory Count menu option, or via the system tree

Inventory...Transactions function. Note that this function does not display directly on the system tree.

The inventory count process

1. You must set aside time for the first part of this process. In this first part, you must ensure that the physical inventory you count conforms to the system's theoretical inventory quantities. For example:

• You should process all invoices and issue the inventory on those invoices, or at least separate

any un-issued inventory on invoices from the remaining, currently unused, inventory.

• You should process all goods received vouchers, and ensure that all inventory is in your

warehouse for counting.

• If you have multiple warehouses, you must be aware of any inventory that is in transit between

warehouses.

2. You create an inventory count. To do this, you select a range of inventory items you wish to count. The system saves the current theoretical quantities on hand for each inventory item. You can

create multiple inventory counts, working on different parts of your inventory at different times.

3. You can then print an inventory count report, which leaves space to fill in the actual quantities you count. This report can become an input document for the next step.

4. You now need to perform a physical count of the inventory items. This must happen after you carry out the procedures outlined in point 1 above, and before any further physical inventory

movements take place. If you do not perform the physical count at the correct time, you will create

errors in the theoretical quantity on hand balances in the system. The only way to correct these errors

will be to perform this same procedure again.

5. Once the physical count is complete, you can continue to work as normal. You can purchase and sell inventory, and you can move inventory in and out of your warehouse(s). The system will be

comparing the theoretical quantities as they were at the time of the physical count with the physical

quantities you counted, and will report and adjust theoretical quantities based on the discrepancies at

that point in time.

STOCK TAKE PROCESS (PASTEL | SPOED) by Endurance Ukhurebor

October 2018

2

6. The next step is to enter actual (physical) quantities into the system. You can do this in three ways:

7. You can use the Input screen to enter quantities on a screen that shows one inventory item at a time.

8. You can use the Edit Quantities screen to enter quantities on a screen that shows all inventory items in spreadsheet format.

9. If you use barcode reader / counter devices to scan items electronically, you can import the quantities via a text file the devices create.

There are advantages and disadvantages to the two entry methods:

▪ The Input option lets you work on one inventory item at a time. It lets you enter quantity

variances, which the Edit Quantities screen does not.

▪ The Edit Quantities option shows all items in a table. If you have many thousands of records,

and multiple agents enter the physical quantities, the Input screen will allow faster processing.

▪ To use the Input option, you need the quantities to be in sequence, for example, on the

inventory count report. If the quantities are in no special order, The Edit Quantities screen is better

because you can order the records in any sequence and scroll through them.

7. If you use the Multi-Warehouse and/ or Serial Number Tracking add-on modules, you need to capture quantities differently. If you have warehouses, you enter quantities per warehouse per item,

rather than per item. If you have serial number items, you enter serial numbers rather than quantities.

8. Once you enter your actual quantities, you print the count variance report. This report shows where there are discrepancies between the actual quantities and the system's theoretical quantities. If

necessary, you can check and edit the physical quantities to make sure they are correct.

9. The final step is to complete the inventory count. In this process, the system assumes that the actual quantities on hand you enter are correct, and adjusts the theoretical quantities to be in line with

these. If you use the perpetual integration method, the changes reflect in the general ledger

automatically.

Please Note:

And

Evolution Processes are indicated by Green blocks

While SPOED processes are indicated by Red Blocks.

3

Maintaining Inventory Counts

You can process multiple inventory counts simultaneously. You select a range of inventory items for each

count.

Note: You should not overlap inventory counts. If an item appears in more than one inventory count

simultaneously, and the physical and theoretical quantities are different, the system will adjust incorrectly.

System Tree | Inventory | Inventory Transactions | Inventory Count

4

a. Click Add

b. On the “Count” Tab | Give description and reference for your Stock Take

To create an inventory count

1. Ensure that all work is complete for the company, all customer and supplier documents are up to date, and so on.

2. Ensure that there are no other users working in the company.

Evolution - CREATING THE STOCK COUNT

5

3. Click the Add button, or right click the table and choose Add, or choose the Inventory Count...Add menu option, or press .

4. Fill in the fields for the count. We look at these fields in detail later in this section.

5. Click OK, and the system creates the count. This can take some time, depending on the size of the inventory master file.

6. Once you create the count, you need to do a physical count before you can allow work to continue. If necessary, print the inventory count report so that your staff can enter the quantities onto the printout.

Once you create an inventory count, you can edit it by adjusting its range. Note, however, that this would have

to happen before physical counting starts, and certainly not after work in the company resumes.

c. Untick “Don’t ignore Items” and “Ignore Items with Zero on Hand”

d. Press “Ok” and Close the Screen

6

1. System Tree | Inventory | Inventory Transactions | Remove Stale Stock

Remove Stale Stock assist in removing items that has quantities on zero and didn’t have transactions for a

certain period. It limits the likelihood of you finding an item that isn’t on your stock take is a lot smaller

Note: Always ensure "IGNORE ITEMS WITH ZERO ON HAND" in Pastel is NOT TICKED when creating

a stock count. When ticked, Pastel doesn’t add it to its snapshot when creating the stock count. More often or

not, we have had situations where items are on the Inventory Count List but the system says it isn’t there and

you have had to manually adjust the item.

Note: We advise that when running this report, always ensure you select that the date it must look from

should be the last FULL STOCKTAKE DATE. It will give you a much better idea of what has moved or not

moved from the time of the stock take

a. Select Inventory Count ID created in 1. b

SPOED - REMOVING STOCK ITEMS THAT ARE IN THE SYSTEM WITH NO TRANSACTION MOVEMENT

7

b. Specify the period or date and press

Accept”

2. Check Inventory Count Maintenance for decrease in line items

NB: You would have noticed that the item has shrunk from 118 309.00 to 15 684.00

8

3.

Click System Tree | Inventory | Inventory Transactions |Stock Take

a. You could Export the file from the screen, edit your quantities and import back by clicking on the format button

then select “Excel”:

Excel button will be available, click on it to export:

Spoed will ask you if you are sure of it, press Yes to accept the export

SPOED - IMPORTING QUANTITIES OF THE COUNT

9

Below is a screenshot of how the exported file looks like:

Make your changes on the spreadsheet, save it and get ready to import back into Spoed:

10

Head to Spoed and click on the Import button as shown below:

11

Spoed will ask you to select the import file and press ok to open:

12

The following screen will pop up so adjust according to how you want to import your count then press ok to begin

import:

13

After the import is completed, it will give you a message notification as shown below and press ok;

14

Fields are now update in Spoed as you can see from the screenshot below;

15

b. Select Stocktake (include zero) and press accept

SPOED - EDITING QUANTITIES OF THE COUNT

16

Specify your Warehouse or Hold Shift to select all

c. Either press the down arrow button on your keyboard or click on the green tick at the bottom of the page

17

4. This you do after Removing Stock items that are in the system for more than (you specify the period) which

has no transactions or movement

5. Go back to Inventory Count Maintenance

a. Right click

b. Select Inventory Count Variance on pop-up

c. Print Inventory Count Report

Evolution - INVENTORY COUNT REPORTS

18

6. This you do after Importing and editing quantities on the count via Spoed.

7. Go back to Inventory Count Maintenance

a. Right click

b. Select Inventory Count Variance on pop-up

c. Print variance report

d. Close preview screen

19

Fix Negative Quantities

1. Fix negative quantities

Evolution creates a snapshot of the database(Company) during a stocktake, and most times when

we do a stock count, we don’t always stop processing. For example; You have an item with 10

quantities on hand during the stock count, you processed 3, now it is on a minus 7. Fix Negative

Quantities assist in correcting those quantities and ensuring it is in balance by adding a minus 3

plus the minus 7 to make it 10 quantities on hand and remove the negative.

Select Stocktake-fix negative qty and chose the count you want to fix and press accept

a) Hold CTRL and select the items that need to be fixed and it will adjust them to “zero”

SPOED - FIXING NEGATING QUANTITIES

20

b)

21

Completing the Inventory Count

The final phase of the inventory count is to update your theoretical inventory quantities with any adjustments

that arise. The system assumes that the physical quantities you enter are correct, and adjusts the theoretical

quantities by the difference between the physical and theoretical quantities.

You can see these differences by running the count variance report. It is essential that you print this report and

validate any changes. It is of course possible that the physical quantities are incorrect, whether through an

oversight or a data capture error. Since the update will adjust your inventory value, you must ensure you are

satisfied that any variances are true variances.

Note If there are no variances, you do not need to run this final phase. You can simply delete the inventory

count record.

To complete the inventory count

1. If you use the perpetual inventory integration method, you must set up the transaction type the system must use for the general ledger transactions it creates. You do this in the Inventory Defaults function, in

the Adjustments tab.

2. Make a backup of your system prior to completing the inventory count. If there is a power interruption or hardware failure while it is running, your inventory quantities could become corrupt.

3. Ensure that no other agents are working on the company.

4. In the table, select the inventory count to work on.

5. To open the Completion screen, click the Complete button, or choose the Inventory Count...Complete menu option, or press .

6. Click the Print Now button if you would like to print the count variance report.

7. The system will tell you how many, if any, items do not have a physical quantity. In other words, the items are uncounted. This may or may not be an issue. You can deal with these items in one of two

ways. Choose one of these options:

Option What it Does

Ignore Uncounted Items The system will not process any uncounted items. In other words, their

quantities remain as they are.

Adjust to Zero The system will set the quantities of uncounted items to zero.

8. You must choose a date to run the adjustment. You have three choices:

9. Today's date

10. The date on which you created the inventory count

11. You can enter any other date you require

Evolution - COMPLETING THE COUNT

22

e. Click the OK button to initiate the process. This could take some time to execute depending on the size of the

inventory file, the number of items in the inventory count, and the number of adjustments

f. You will be prompted with the complete count screen as shown below:

g. You also have the options to print the variance report just before you complete the count