Stocktaking is a six stage process. During this process there should ideally be no movements of any items into or out of stock. You should not delete any partnumbers from the stock file whilst stocktaking is in progress. Note that only one stocktaking list can be ‘live’ at any time. This list must be completely dealt with before another can be produced.

 

The six stages of stocktaking are:

 

1.      A list of items to be checked is produced using the stocktake list options. The all items list will include all items on the stock file. The due items list will only include those partnumbers that Herschel calculates as requiring stocktaking, based on each item's stocktake period and last stocktake date:



         The lists cover a range of families and can show what the system believes to be the current stock levels, if required. The number of items on the lists can be limited to keep them to a manageable length and if required items the system believes are not in stock can be omitted. The lists can be in partnumber or location order:



 

2.      The items are counted in the stores and the results recorded on the list.

 

3.      These results are entered into the stocktake module using the stocktaking tool. Note that at this stage the actual stock on shelf figures are not updated by Herschel:



4.      When all items on the list have been entered the variance report option is used to generate a list that compares the quantities found with what the system thinks is in stock.



The value of each variance is calculated by the system and shown on the report:



 

5.      The variance report is checked and any suspect quantities are recounted. Any revised counts are re-entered using the stocktaking tool option. The variance report can be regenerated as many times as required and checking and recounting continued until the accuracy of the stocktake is considered satisfactory.

 

6.      The stock file can now be updated using the update stock records option. This updates the stock on shelf figures and last stocktake dates. Once the stock file has been updated the old stocktaking list is deleted by Herschel: