Make Physical Inventory Counts Easier with Sage X3 ADC

Doing a regular physical count of your inventory is an absolute necessity for businesses.

Physical inventory count may stop or slow operations at a facility and the process is very laborious.

No matter how careful your employees are, there will be items that may be overlooked which can result in a poor count. When the physical inventory is incorrect, the accuracy of the inventory’s book and the company’s merchandising decisions will be seriously affected. Using handheld scanners can make a physical count easier and accurate. These handheld scanners allow you to perform a physical count by scanning barcodes and update the count sheet in the ERP system automatically. After completing the physical count you can review the count sheet in the ERP system and then update inventory accurately. To be able to run this process automatically, it might be required to install and setup and Automatic Data Collection (ADC) module on your ERP.

Stock Count Process in Sage X3 is pretty straight forward that requires the User to manually enter the Stock Value after physical counting followed by releasing the inventory to take effect. This process could be made even simpler with the use of Automatic Data Collection (ADC) system through a handheld device. Using ADC, we automate the entry of counted Stock into X3, provided there is a Barcode system for all the stock in the company.

The benefits of using ADC will reduce manual errors while entering the stock such as wrong entry, multiple entry and missing entry – which usually occurs when the data collection team and entry team are different, and also when the stock is huge. With integration to ADC, we cut down the paper entry completely which ensures correctness of data through the methodical step-by-step automated entry of data into X3.

The following are the steps performed in the Stock Count:

1. Inventory Session – To generate a count ‘Session’ and count ‘Lists’

2. Print count List(s) – Contains Barcoded information of the Session and Products in the Lists

3. Count Entry (ADC) – Enter count information in ADC that updates count sheets in X3

4. Review Count Variances and Release products

5. Count Validation

6. Closing the Session

Let us go through the step-by-step stock count process using ADC in X3:

INVENTORY SESSIONS

Create a new Inventory Session from Stock > Count > Inventory Sessions

1. Click the New Button and select the site.

2. Enter the session description at the Session field.

3. Select the Count mode as per the process (‘Manual Selection’, ‘Cycle Counting’ or ‘Annual Stock Counting’)

4. Click the Selections tab

1. Enter the selection range for the Products to be counted.

2. Click Create

6. Before generating the stock count lists, you must first generate the inventory sessions with the appropriate selection information defined.

7. Click ‘Simulation’ to see the simulated information of number of Lists, Products, Stock Lines and Stock Count Lines.

8. Click ‘Generation’ to finalize and generate the List(s)

9. Click ‘Lists’ tab to see the List(s) generated.

COUNTS

To print the inventory sessions for Counting, Open Counts from Stock > Counts > Counts

1. Counts are entered for a specific session/stock count list combination

Use the Counts option in the Left List to select the appropriate session and Count Worksheet you created previously.

2. Print the List to be handed over to Physical Count Team

A report can be built in a similar format that prints the Barcode of Sessions to proceed with the counting.

Print Example:

ADC Entry

1. Select the option ‘Counts’ on the hand-held device.

2. This window is now open to scan the ‘Session’ barcode

   

3. Now, with integration of ADC and X3, the products entered in the session in X3 are seen in the hand-held device. The first item in the session is seen here as the first item. The user needs to enter the count in this device. Once it is entered, the device shows the next item in the list. This process is continued until all the products in the session are entered.

4. Enter the counted stock quantity at the ‘Counted’ field

5. Press Enter on your hand-held device to input the same for the next line.

6. Repeat the same for all the lines in the list. When all the lines are input, the hand-held device shows the message “List End”

7. The products in the list are now updated with status ‘Counted’ or ‘To be Counted’ as per the scans done during the counting process.

8. For Products that are not seen on the list but found in the location, could be manually noted down. This information is then manually fed into X3 at the ‘Counts’ screen selecting the appropriate Session. Save the information once completed.

9. Review the Stock Variance and Variance %. This information can also be exported to Excel Sheet.

RELEASING INVENTORY

After entering the count information, you must unlock the inventory to allow for entry of any day-to-day inventory transactions.

• You can right-click on an individual row to unlock a specific product or click the Release button to release all counted products on the stock count list selected.

• The physical count must be completed in this task before you can unlock the products.

• Once the products are released, you can no longer make changes to the information entered (e.g. the counted quantity).

VALIDATION

After all entries are made, the last step is to validate the entries which will update the stock as well as post any necessary accounting entries. Counts are validated by clicking the Validation button.

• Once validated, the status for the stock count list and the individual product lines is changed to Validated.

• It is possible to validate only those products counted. The status of an individual row must be counted in order to validate it.

• Validated lines cannot be changed; however, you can still add new lines to the stock count list.

CLOSING

Click Close to close the stock count list. At the time of closing, the system reviews the lines in the stock count list.

• Once a session is closed, you cannot add a new line.

• If all the lines in a session are closed, the session status also changes to Closed.

This process will substantially simplify the process of physical stock count in Sage X3. For any queries on ADC integration and setup with X3 and to discuss on your unique business requirements, please contact Mantralogix to speak to certified consultants!