Stocktaking is the process of physically counting the items you have in stock. The quantities found are compared with what Herschel believes to be in stock. Any discrepancies are investigated and items recounted if necessary. Finally the system’s stock holding figures are brought in line with the quantities found.
The stocktaking options can be used to check all items at once, or on a perpetual inventory basis. Perpetual inventory (PI), sometimes called ‘cycle counting’, replaces the traditional complete annual or biannual stocktake with a regular partial stocktake of items on a daily or weekly basis.
To allow perpetual inventory to take place each partnumber has a stocktake period. This is the target number of days between stocktakes. The last stocktake date for each item is also recorded, and using these two pieces of information Herschel can extract just those items due for stocktaking.
When the PI system is first implemented you may find that too many items appear due for stocktaking. To spread the number of stocktakes required over a more practical period of time the stocktake periods and last stocktake dates options should be used.
The stocktake periods option allows the stocktake periods for a range of families to be automatically set up, based either on the ABC codes or the standard costs of the items:
The last stocktake dates option allows the last stocktake dates for a range of families to be automatically spread about a given date. This avoids a large number of items requiring stockchecking at the start of the PI cycle:
