Periodically a physical inventory check needs to be done to audit the inventory items in AMSHub against what is actually on your shelves. This is known as a cycle count. On a regular basis staff members should be tasked with completing a cycle count to reconcile inventory between AMSHub and your physical inventory to ensure accurate data.
There are three options for completing Cycle Counts in AMSHub:
- Full Inventory – Every Inventory item in your facility done at one time
- Single Vendor (optional with Item(s)) – This option allows you to scan a subset of your inventory filtered by Vendor and with the option to further filter to a collection of that vendor’s items, to just reconcile the selected items
- Single Item – When reviewing a specific Inventory item you can choose to initiate a cycle count of just that item’s inventory
The process is largely the same for all of these options: Name the Cycle Count, choose what type of Cycle Count you want to complete, scan the items (based on the type selected). It is critical to scan every item in whichever type you choose. After you have scanned all items and proceed, AMSHub will remind you to be sure you’ve scanned all items. Once confirmed, the reconciliation process will begin. The Cycle Count engine will attempt to match every item you’ve scanned with what is in your facility’s database in AMSHub. It will then prepare two lists: Scanned and Not Scanned. You will be presented with options on how to proceed with the items on both lists that don’t match what’s in AMSHub. Items on the scanned list that are not in AMSHub will provide you with an option to Add them to your virtual Inventory in AMSHub. For items on the Not Scanned list AMSHub assumes you no longer have them since they weren’t scanned, and thus should be removed from your Virtual Inventory in AMSHub and presents you with the option to delete them from AMSHub. Once you take these actions, you will be making immediate changes to your inventory in AMSHub. These changes cannot be undone. Items that you add or delete from AMSHub in Cycle Count, are permanently added or deleted. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to ensure you’ve accurately scanned the items in Cycle Count before taking actions via the reconciliation process.
Full Inventory Cycle Count (Recommended)
To use the cycle count feature, head to the Tools area and select Run Cycle Count. You’ll be prompted to first input a name for this count. We recommend using a date-oriented name or something you can use to help identify when this count was completed, for future reference. Next, select the All Inventory option. Move to the next screen and you can begin scanning all of your Inventory items. It’s easiest to use a laptop or tablet with your scanner connected, or a wireless scanner, to be able to move around to your inventory to scan each item. This prevents you from having to move inventory and potentially lose track of what’s been scanned.
It’s critical to accurately scan all items. This means no duplicate scanning and no missed items. Use great care when scanning items stacked closely together on shelves, as your barcode scanner can accidentally scan the barcode of an adjacent item. If that happens you will not know it happened, but you will have scanned too many of one item and not enough of the item next to it. We recommend creating a scanning “shield” using a piece of paper with a small square or rectangle cut in it. You can use this to shield all but the item you are scanning to ensure only the correct item’s data goes into the cycle count process. As you scan items you will hear the telltale positive beep, or negative buzz, to help you easily confirm the barcode scanned. AMSHub does an initial verification of the data scanned to ensure that it looks like a good barcode and adds it to a list on your screen.
As noted above, AMSHub will keep a list of any items you scanned that ARE NOT currently in the system, as well as any items that ARE in the system but that you did not scan. You will then have options on how to deal with these items. It is critical that you provide AMSHub good data from your scanning process in order for these lists to be correct. Once all of your barcodes have been scanned click the Next button to begin the analysis of scanned barcodes to your AMSHub inventory.
When the analysis completes, AMSHub will move to the Reconcile tab where you’ll see your entire list of scanned barcodes on the Scanned tab, and potentially a Not Scanned tab. The Scanned tab will show every barcode you scanned and a green checkmark for all items that matched an item in AMSHub. At the top of the list will be any items you scanned that did not match an item in AMSHub. For each of these items you have the option to add the item to AMSHub inventory (assuming it was correctly scanned), or to delete the item from your Scanned list if it was added incorrectly. If you see a Not Scanned tab, it will show the items that are in AMSHub that were not scanned. The only option for these items is to delete them from AMSHub. You must action all non-reconciled items in your Scanned and Not Scanned lists before being able to proceed.
Before taking any action on flagged items, you should double and triple check your inventory. Take a look at the items listed on the Scanned tab that need actioning and ensure they are not accidental duplicate scans. Review the items in Not Scanned and check your facility to ensure they were not missed during the scanning process. Once you are certain the data in Scanned and Not Scanned is correct, you can action them.
Items in Scanned that need action are items you scanned but that AMSHub doesn’t know about. You can deal with them by adding them to inventory in bulk, by checking the checkboxes for the desired items and clicking the Action button and the Add Items option. This will create a new Inventory Reconciliation Order and deliver all items into your AMSHub inventory. You can also click the plus icon next to a single Not Found item to have AMSHub check for any pending orders this item is a part of. You may be able to close out an old order in this case. Alternatively, you can walk through the steps to add it into AMSHub.
Not Scanned is a list of items that AMSHub believes you have but that you did not scan. Once you’ve verified that these items do not exist at your facility your primary course of action is to delete them from AMSHub. This is an extreme action that we caution users about taking without being 100% certain these items do not exist at your facility. If you do need to delete them, you can do so via bulk action by checking checkboxes and using the Delete Selected button, or by using the delete icon for each item. Items deleted using these features will have a unique delete reason attached to them which can be reviewed in your Deleted Items report.
Once you’ve completely cleaned up items in the Scanned and Not Scanned tabs, you can use the Complete button to close this cycle count. If you don’t see the Complete button it means you still have items on the Scanned or Not Scanned tab that require action. Once Complete is selected, the Cycle Count will be saved so you can review the historical data in the future.
If you have an unfinished cycle count in AMSHub, it will expire after 2 weeks. This should rarely happen as we strongly encourage everyone to complete their cycle count immediately, but should one remain open it will be tagged as expired after 2 weeks and will no longer be editable or able to be completed.
Single Vendor Cycle Count
This option lets you complete the scanning process for a subset of the total items in your facility, filtered by Vendor. You can also filter further to an even smaller set of that Vendor’s Items to generate an even smaller collection of items to be scanned. To use this option go to Tools > Run Cycle Count, enter a name for this Cycle Count and select the Filtered Set of Items by Vendor option. You’ll be prompted to select a Vendor and then given the further option to filter down to a specific set of items from this vendor to include in your Cycle Count. Click the Select Products button to choose a particular group of that Vendor’s items, or select Start Cycle Count to complete the process of reconciling all items for that Vendor.
If you choose to Select Items, you can either filter by item type or by GTIN, Ref Number or Name to get down to the specific set of items you want to include in your Cycle Count. To include an item in your Cycle Count, select the red check button for that item. You can include as many items as you wish in your Cycle Count, but it is critical to keep track of which items you’ve included so you can be certain to scan all of those items in your Cycle Count. Once you have your desired group of items, click Done and Start Cycle Count to begin scanning barcodes. From this point, the final steps of the process are identical to the Full Inventory option. Please review those details above to understand exactly what happens in completing a Cycle Count.
Individual Item Cycle Count
You can do an individual item reconciliation at any time if you want to check on-hand levels for a single item. With our single-item cycle count, you can reconcile the on-hand and AMSHub quantities for a single item. When viewing an item’s details, you’ll see a Cycle Count button. Click this to create and complete a cycle count for just this item by scanning in everything on hand and having AMSHub run its reconciliation process.
Once you click on the Cycle Count button, you will see the +New button to begin the individual item cycle count. When naming this cycle count, you will want to use a name that refers directly to the item you are reconciling, like the item reference number, GTIN, specific name, etc. along with the date. That way you can easily refer back to it in the future if necessary.
** When viewing the cycle count report, it aggregates all of your completed cycle counts into one location. You will be able to view individual item, single vendor and full inventory cycle counts all in one place and you can review this information here quickly and easily at any time.