Stock Take Software
Stock Take Warehouse Management Software
Finale Inventory offers many features to manage stock in your warehouse inventory. Our real-time tracking can significantly reduce the amount of time you spend counting by hand.
Still, it's important to take physical inventory counts to ensure accurate results. Whether you experience shrinkage or someone forgets to scan a barcode, the number in your software might be different from the real count. For those instances, you might do a physical stock take to “reset” your inventory counts. Finale Inventory makes this process simple.
Examples From Finale Inventory
Here is a stock take example, with a video using Finale Inventory for a cycle count.
Finale Inventory makes stocktaking easier. When you pull up the stocktaking function, you’ll be able to select your warehouse sublocation. This feature is useful for any facility that takes stock section by section rather than all at once. Once you’ve chosen your sublocation, you’ll find a list of merchandise and the quantity on hand.
Finale Inventory’s automated stock count tells you precisely what the number should be. It adds inventory based on your purchases and subtracts them based on your sales. As you’re doing your physical count, you have a quick reference for what the number should be.
You’ll input your actual count right next to the expected count. Any variance from the expected quantity will calculate automatically. This variance helps you quantify and correct inventory discrepancies. When something doesn’t add up, you can find the root cause. After you reset your numbers during a physical count, you’re back on track to collecting accurate inventory data.
The Difference Between Stocktaking and Stock Checking
It’s also important to note the difference between stocktaking and stock checking. With stocktaking, the goal is to count the physical stock available. During this process, you’ll discount and discard damaged or expired inventory. Stock checking makes sure you can meet customer demands and happens continuously, through real-time tracking of your inbound deliveries, sales and outbound shipments.
Stock take software lets you move your stock counts from a spreadsheet to a convenient inventory tracking platform. Finale Inventory offers a basic method for inputting stock takes and even barcode integration.
Stocktaking is a useful feature in your physical inventory management system. It lets you account for shrinkage and inventory discrepancies. The software updates your stock count in real time based on the items you receive and sell from your location. The number is continuously updating based on the operations going on in your warehouse. This feature reduces the amount of physical stock takes you need to run.
While this solution gives you high visibility, the counts can become less accurate over time. The stock take features let you run a manual count, organize your data in a central location, and update your quantity on hand.
By comparing your physical stock take to a continuous count, you can gain a wealth of operational data. At any time, you can do a stock take audit and view a history of all the changes made to the quantity. This information allows you to see who conducted the physical take and when. Then, you can follow up with the right person about any discrepancy from the expected inventory.
Why Is Stock Take Important?
Routinely conducting physical stock counts is critical for optimizing operations, including inventory purchasing, production processes and sales strategies. Stock takes empower organizations to:
Combining manual counts with inventory counting software is an excellent way to gain visibility into your inventory and improve your processes.
The Benefits of Stocktaking
Any organization that relies on product sales should implement a stocktaking system. Here are a few of the ways stocktaking can benefit your organization:
Reduce disruption:
Counting portions of your stock on a regular basis can reduce the time you spend on full stock takes, allowing you to stay open for more time and lessening the pressure on your employees.
Improve sales strategies:
Real-time visibility into your stock levels reveals the connection between sales figures and inventory processes, allowing you to adjust your sales and marketing efforts to better suit the speed with which specific products move through your warehouses.
Reduce carrying costs:
Repurchasing too often or holding too much stock on hand at once can result in excessive storage and handling costs. When you have an accurate idea of your numbers, you can significantly reduce those costs and increase profitability.
How to Maximize ROI With Stock Take Software
When you have software to ensure stock take accuracy, you can take advantage of many features to enhance your inventory tracking. These three best practices give you the most use out of your stock take software:
Using Finale Inventory for a Cycle Count with a Barcode Scanner
A cycle count is one way of organizing your physical inventory counts. Instead of conducting a full stock take all at once, you can maximize your time by doing periodic cycle counts. There are many ways to divide up and schedule cycle counts, and you can manage them all in Finale Inventory.
One way is to divide cycle counts by type of item. For example, if you have items with a fixed expiration date, such as food, you might schedule cycle counts in line with their window of sellability. In other cases, it may make more sense to cycle count by ABC. Count your A category items most often since their count accuracy has the most significant impact on revenue.
Finale Inventory offers many features for different types of stock takes, including stock auditing and simple stock takes. Our process for cycle counts makes it easier to do a physical count of your warehouse without pausing all operations. Here’s how it works:
Alternatively, you can conduct a stock via a spreadsheet and then import the spreadsheet into Finale to get the cycle counts into Finale.
How to Stock Take Your Inventory
In a warehouse, stocktaking happens more irregularly than it does for retail locations. It can happen even less frequently thanks to real-time inventory tracking. As with a retail stock take, it’s best to focus on cycle counts for the majority of your physical counts.
For those times when a full stock take is necessary, follow these steps:
In a large warehouse, a total warehouse stock take will require you to suspend operations. The whole stock take could take several days. If you have an off-season, schedule your stock take then. Notify your team of a planned stock take, and train counters beforehand.
Convenient Functionality With Finale Inventory
Manual stock takes are just one of the many features available in Finale Inventory. We offer many features for warehouses and e-commerce fulfillment and easy integrations with various business tools. Some of the features you might find useful include:
Barcode-based inventory management has a considerable advantage when it comes to physical stock counting. It can also improve inventory accuracy throughout your warehouse. Our barcode scanners and software can receive shipments, pick and pack orders, log sales shipments, transfer stock and handle other inventory tasks.
Contact Us for a Real-Time Demo
Finale Inventory is a full-featured inventory management solution that helps you track inventory in real-time while validating your data with manual stock takes. We offer the ability to perform stock takes with or without barcode scanning, depending on your business needs.
If you want to learn more schedule a real-time demo for a convenient time.