The Physical Inventory menu is where you perform and complete a physical inventory. Most users find that performing a physical inventory is not only an easy way to update inventory quantities, but it also a good way to check that the inventory, purchase orders, sales orders and manufacturing systems are being run properly.
You can control the order in which physical inventory is performed in FACTS through the Physical Inventory Order control in the IC Static Control F/M. FACTS allows you to perform physical inventory in item, alpha, vendor, item class, location (bin) or movement class order. Between physical inventories, you can select any physical inventory order. However, once you capture counts in the order selected, do not change it until after you run Update Inventory program.
A physical inventory may be performed for on hand quantities or available quantities (available = on hand minus committed). You determine which by setting the Physical Count Quantity flag in the IC Static Control F/M to either Available or On hand.
The programs included on the Physical Inventory menu appear in the order they should be used.
First, Print Count Sheets so staff members can record their counts for each item. Count sheets print the item number, description, package size, stocking unit of measure and a space to record the count for you so inventory takers only need to enter their counts on the sheets. Depending on how the Physical Inventory Order prompt is set in IC Static Control F/M, count sheets can be printed in item, alpha, vendor class, item class, (bin) location or movement class order. Count sheets print out item numbers and descriptions, locations and a blank line to enter the count followed by the stocking unit of measure. The current available or on hand quantity may be printed (if available or on hand quantities are counted). The program also prints a line where the inventory takers can sign their names. The count sheet also provides the total number of items listed. The Print Count Sheet program gives you the option of including current quantities on count sheets for comparison purposes. The program also gives you the option of capturing on hand quantities from here, rather than the Capture Quantities program. It’s a matter of preference.
The Capture Quantities program, enables you to print count sheets anytime before a physical inventory and wait to capture the quantities when you are ready to perform the physical inventory. Therefore, the counts may be captured when printing count sheets or separately, as long as it is at the time of the physical inventory. Use this program to capture and store the on-hand or available (available = on hand minus committed) quantities and costs of the items selected for physical inventory. The Physical Count Quantity prompt in the IC Static Control F/M determines whether the program captures on hand quantities or available. The data is written to the physical count file, ICPHYS. Run this program after the last activity that would affect the warehouse/item file prior to the physical count and before any activity that would affect the warehouse/item file after the physical count. For example, if you are conducting a physical inventory over a weekend, you could run this program anytime between close of business Friday and opening of business Monday. You can opt to run this program directly from the Print Count Sheets program or on the date selected after the count sheets are printed. After the on hand or available quantities are captured, the physical inventory is taken and the counts have been entered, normal activity can resume even if the counts have not been updated by the system. The order in which this program captures items depends on how the Physical Inventory Order prompt is set in the IC Static Control F/M. The available options are item, alpha, vendor, item class, bin (primary and alternate) location or movement class order. If a record for the selected item and warehouse is already on file, you have the option of: overwriting the existing physical inventory record; overwriting this and any other physical inventory records already on file for items to be updated, or aborting the update. The cutoff date function is removed from the Capture Quantities program for Radio Beacon controlled warehouses.
Use the Enter Counts (ICE510) program to enter the physical count of each item taken during physical inventory. Prior to entering counts, the count sheets must be printed and on hand or available quantities captured (which type, available or on hand, is determined in the IC Static Control F/M). The program allows you to enter counts in the same order in which the count sheets were printed based on the item type prompt. After you enter the counts, run the Discrepancy Report and update inventory. Items may be displayed and counts entered either individually or sequentially in the order they printed on the count sheet. If a count has already been entered for a particular item, you can either change it or display the next record. This allows you to page through the file, checking for missed or incorrect entries. A scrolling feature displays the most recent transactions recorded at the bottom portion of the screen. This provides additional safeguards against user error due to oversight or transaction duplication. Enter counts for all items before you print a Discrepancy Report or run the Update Inventory program. The Enter Counts (ICE510) program does not allow entry of counts to a Radio Beacon controlled warehouse.
Once the quantities are captured, you physically counted the items in your inventory, enter them into the system. When entering counts, the items display automatically in the order of the count sheets. Depending on how the Physical Exceptions Only flag is set in the IC Static Control F/M you may need to enter all counts (if the flag is set to N) or just exceptions where there is a discrepancy (if the flag is set to Y).
Once the counts have been entered, run the Discrepancy Report to show discrepancies between what the system shows for quantities and what was actually counted. If there are problems on the report, you can enter counts again (replacing the old values) for the necessary items. Items with discrepancies print in the same order (item, alpha, vendor, item class, or location) as they appeared on the count sheets. Report information includes: item number and description, primary and alternate bin locations, serial lot number (if applicable), physical count, captured count, discrepancy between physical and captured counts, stocking unit of measure, cost, costing unit of measure and cost discrepancy and physical extension. The total number of items listed is also included.
You may need to repeat the Enter Counts/Run Discrepancy Report process several times or until the physical inventory is balanced.
When all the numbers are satisfactory, run the Physical Inventory Update program. This updates quantities with the new counts and removes the old quantities.
Discrepancies are updated to the adjustments and transfers file so they can be posted to General Ledger through the next Adjustment Register (Inventory Control-->Adjustments-->Adjustments Register).
IC Static Control Physical Count Order Other Than Location:
When the count sheets are printed using Print Count Sheets (ICR510) and the Physical Inventory Order setting on the IC Static Control F/M is not location, the system prints the items in the selected sort order with the item’s primary location on the main line. If the item is not a serial or lot item and has alternate locations set up, the system prints additional lines immediately after for each, with the alternate location, a count line and the stocking unit of measure. The additional location lines maintain their ordinal value, so alternate location 1 will be on the 2nd print line and alternate location 2 on the 3rd print line and so forth. If the item is a serial or lot item and has alternate locations, the system prints one line showing all the alternate locations immediately after the main item line and no count lines print for the alternate locations. Then, the system prints the serial/lot lines.
When you capture quantities and the Physical Inventory Order setting on the IC Static Control F/M is not location, the Capture Quantities program captures the primary location only for serial or lot items and the primary location and all alternate locations set up for non-serial or lot items.
The system captures quantities for Serial or lot items that are not flagged available for the primary location only. The primary location record contains the captured quantity for the item. For alternate bin location records the system captures a blank quantity.
IC Static Control Physical Count Order Is Location:
When you select Location as the Physical Inventory Order and the Items Included is set to Primary, items are included in physical inventory processing based on the location range you enter in the Print Count Sheets program. This setting determines whether the location range searches for items in primary locations only (including alternate bin locations set up in the warehouse/item record) or all locations present for a warehouse/item record.
When an item is contained in any bin location in the range of the locations selected, the system includes all locations for the item (whether it is in the range or not) to ensure that the physical count sheet is accurate.
When the count sheets are printed and the Physical Inventory Order setting on the IC Static Control F/M is location, the items are selected based the Locations Included setting in the IC Static Control F/M. If "Primary Location in Range Chosen" is selected and the item’s primary location is within the range entered, the item is selected. If the flag is set to "Any Location in Range Chosen", the system compares all of an item’s locations to the range entered. If any location, primary or alternate, is within the range, the item is selected. The system prints a line for the selected item’s primary and alternate locations, each in the proper location sort order. Only the primary location prints the on hand or committed quantity if selected. If the item is a serial or lot item, all serial/lot numbers will print under the primary location and only "available" serial/lot numbers will print under the alternate locations.
IC Static Control Physical Count Order Is Location:
When you select Location as the Physical Inventory Order and the Items Included is set to Primary, items are included in physical inventory processing based on the location range you enter in the Capture Quantities program. This setting determines whether the location range searches for items in primary locations only (including alternate bin locations set up in the warehouse/item record) or all locations present for a warehouse/item record.
When an item is contained in any bin location in the range of the locations selected, the system includes all locations for the item (whether it is in the range or not) to ensure that the capture quantities are accurate.
When you capture quantities and the Physical Inventory Order setting on the IC Static Control F/M is location, the Capture Quantities program captures for the primary and all alternate locations for non-serial or lot items and for serial or lot items that are flagged as available.
The system prints a line on the count sheet for the selected item’s primary and alternate locations, each in the proper location sort order. Only the primary location prints the on hand or committed quantity if selected. If the item is a serial or lot item, all serial/lot numbers will print under the primary location and only "available" serial/lot numbers will print under the alternate locations.
For items with multiple bin locations, the following applies for the Discrepancy Report (ICR520):
• When the Physical Inventory Order is not location, the items print by their selected sort order with the primary location on the main print line.
• If the Physical Inventory Order is location, the items print by the primary location sort. Location information is included between the item description and physical count. If an item does not have alternate locations, no location information is included. If the item does have alternate locations and it is a serial or lot item, a second line prints immediately after showing all the alternate locations. When the serial/lot numbers print, they print in serial/lot number and location order.
• If Physical Inventory Order is location and a lot item has alternate locations, it can have multiple records for the same lot number. In this case, the lot number, location and count quantity print each on a separate line. When there are no more records for the lot number, a total line prints with the accumulation of each location physical count, the lot’s capture information and the discrepancy information.
• If the item is not a serial or lot item and it has alternate locations, only the item, description, primary location and physical count print on the main line. The alternate locations print on the next lines, maintaining their ordinal value, and will print the same information. When there are no more records for the item, a total line prints with the accumulation of each location physical count, the item’s capture information and the discrepancy information.
For items in multiple-bin warehouses, the Physical Inventory Update reads all location records and the physical count quantity is accumulated before any file updating occurs. The program creates only one adjustment record or ledger card record per item or item/serial lot number.
• Upon completion of the update, the available or on hand quantities in the warehouse/item file reflect the true quantities (the physical count) of the warehouse, allowing for adjustments made (sales, etc.) since the time that the quantities were captured.
• Items with discrepancies are updated in the same order (item, alpha sort, vendor class or location) as they appeared on the count sheets.
• Discrepancies post to the adjustment file so they can print on the next Adjustment Register and update the General Ledger.
If the IC Static Control F/M setting for Count Exceptions Only is set to No, then the any null count quantity for any location is considered zero. If the Count Exceptions Only flag is set to Yes, a null count quantity in the primary location record is considered equal to the capture quantity. A null quantity in any other location records is considered zero. This comes into effect when you select to print discrepancies only. Using the above rules, all location count quantities are summed and compared to the capture quantity. If they are equal, this is also not considered a discrepancy.