First stocktake

Once every building has its own warehouse and the book stock describes what actually stands in it, it is time to verify. This is an ordinary stocktake, the same one that is later run in cycles, so this page doubles as an introduction to everyday counting.

When to count

Not immediately after the rollout, and not everything at once. A sensible order: finish the mapping and the opening count first, then count one rack to see the mechanism work, and only then get cycle counting going.

Starting a session

Stockly → Warehouses → warehouse → Operations → New stocktake.

The Set up the stock check dialog asks three things.

What the session is for

What is this session for? decides what the session establishes:

• Count quantities only — quantities are counted,
• Verify locations only — it is checked whether goods sit where they should,
• Count and verify locations — both.

The difference is practical: when counting quantities the module hides its own figure so as not to suggest the answer. When verifying locations it shows the figure, because otherwise a missing item cannot be spotted.

Scope

Scope picks the area: Whole warehouse, Floor, Rack or Specific bins. For a first session take Rack: one rack counts in a quarter of an hour and shows the whole flow.

Counting level decides the granularity: By bin + product (total) counts the total on a location, By bin + product + batch splits counting by batch and expiry date.

Guided session

The Guided session switch hands the choice of bins to the module: Propose bins suggests what most deserves counting — locations never checked, due by schedule, covered by an open integrity finding, or with a relocation suggested. Every proposal carries its reason, so it is clear why that one.

Counting

On the counting screen quantities are typed or codes scanned. A few things are worth understanding from the first session.

Blind counting

Count blind hides the expected quantity and removes the buttons that copy it. A visible expectation acts as an anchor: an operator who sees it counts differently. If a stocktake is to be evidence rather than a formality, this stays on.

Closing a bin is a declaration

Once a location has been worked through, it is closed with one of two buttons:

• Fully checked — “this location was gone through completely”. Anything not counted does not exist and drops to zero on posting.
• Spot check — “it was checked selectively”. Uncounted lines stay untouched.

That distinction, not a session setting, decides what an empty field means. Before the module closes a bin as fully checked, it states how many lines will drop to zero.

A closed bin is locked for editing. To change something in it, undo the closure with Undo in the bin header; withdrawing a declaration through a later entry, without a record, would be worse than an explicit lock.

Things that were not on the list

Add unexpected item adds a line the module did not expect at that location. A session is meant to record what was found, not only to confirm the list.

Tolerances and a second pair of eyes

Two fields in the session settings decide what happens to a large difference:

• Tolerance (%) and Tolerance (units) — a variance beyond the threshold is not booked straight away but waits for approval. Empty fields mean “book everything immediately”.
• Require a second count — a variance beyond tolerance is only booked once a second count agrees with the first.

Withheld variances are approved on the review screen (Approve 8 selected) or sent to a recount (Start a recount). If the recount is ordered by the same person who counted, the module points it out, because a second opinion is worth more from somebody else.

Root cause

Every variance can carry a Root cause: Receiving error, Picking error, Return not posted, Damage or Unknown. That single field turns a stocktake from paperwork into a diagnosis: after a few sessions it is clear whether goods are lost at receiving or at picking.

Finishing the session

A session with differences ends with Post adjustments; a clean one with Complete the check.

Tip

A session without differences should be closed too. Closing stamps the bins that were walked with a check date, and both the counting schedule and the accuracy figures are built on it. An abandoned clean session returns the bin to the list of locations that have never been checked.

A posted session can be reverted from the operations list (Revert stocktake); it reverses that session’s corrections and leaves later, unrelated changes alone.

What next

After the first session set a counting cadence and use guided sessions, in which the module suggests what to count each week. The checklist that closes the rollout: Checklist.