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Keeping an accurate inventory, even with a perpetual inventory such as the one in MainBoss, is notoriously difficult. For this reason, most organizations periodically take a physical count of their stock.
There are several common approaches to taking a physical count of your stock:
- Periodic inventory: Closing down all your maintenance operations for a time and doing a complete count in all your storerooms
- Perpetual inventory: Every time you issue or receive a particular item, you take a count of the quantity of that item in the same location
- Cycle audit: Periodically selecting a type of inventory item and counting your complete stock of that item
- Cyclical inventory: Progressively counting parts of your stock until you have counted everything; for example, you might take inventory in one storeroom a month until you have covered all your storerooms. Once you have finished, you start the cycle again at the beginning.
After taking inventory (by any of the above methods), you should compare the numbers from the physical count to the numbers in MainBoss's records. If there is a disagreement, you should update MainBoss's records to reflect the actual numbers.
Before doing a physical count, you can use the Inventory Status Report to print out a physical count sheet: a list of all your inventory sorted according to building and storeroom, with boxes where you can enter the actual item count found. For more information, see Inventory Status.
If you know the reason for discrepancies between MainBoss's records and a physical count, you should make a specific adjustment. For example, if the process of taking inventory reveals that some units have been broken, you should record the breakage using an adjustment. For more about miscellaneous adjustments, see General Inventory Adjustments. In general, you only use "physical count" adjustments when you discover a discrepancy and do not know how the discrepancy arose.
To specify a physical count adjustment, select Inventory —> Adjustments —> Physical Count from the menu. MainBoss opens a window that contains the following:
- Inv. Cat.: Lets you specify a category of inventory items. If you select a category, the drop-down list for the "Selected Items" field (below) will only show items belonging to that category. For more on inventory categories, see Inventory Categories.
- Inventoried Items: Specifies that you want the "Selected Items" drop-down list to show inventory items. This is the default.
- Non-inventoried Items: Specifies that you want the "Selected Items" drop-down list to show non-inventory items.
- Selected Items: A drop-down list showing inventory items. The contents of this list are controlled by "Inv. Cat.", Inventoried Items, and Non-inventoried Items.
- Pick This Item: Clicking this copies the current selection from "Selected Items" into "Inv. Item".
- Pick New Item: Clicking this button lets you enter a description of a new inventory item. This is useful if you are recording physical count on an item that isn't currently tracked as part of your inventory; you can add the item to your inventory and then continue recording the physical count.
Clicking Pick New Item opens the Inventory Item editor window. For more information on using this window, see Describing Items.
- Inv. Item: The item chosen from "Selected Items" or specified when you clicked Pick New Item.
- Date: The date/time when the physical count was taken. If you leave this blank, MainBoss will fill in the current date and time.
- Stock Available: The total quantity of the selected item that is freely available for use. This is the total amount of stock on hand, minus the amount that is on reserve for work orders (see below).
- On Order: The quantity of the selected item that is currently on order. (Items are put on order when an appropriate purchase order is issued; for more information, see Purchase Orders.)
- On Reserve: The quantity of the selected item that is currently on reserve for use in various work orders. (Items are put on reserve when an appropriate work order is created containing that item in its materials list; for more information, see Creating and Editing Work Orders.)
- Building: The building containing the storeroom where a physical count was taken. If you leave this field blank, the drop-down list for "Storeroom" (below) will show all the storerooms in your organization.
- Storeroom: The storeroom where a physical count was taken.
- Before: This row gives figures from MainBoss's current records. This lets you see what MainBoss thinks the current count is.
- After: This row should give actual figures from the physical count. In other words, this is where you type in the actual count (if it is different from MainBoss's current records). The Preserve Unit Cost and Preserve Total Cost options (described below) affect what happens when you type new values into the fields of this row.
- Strm OnHnd: The quantity of this item currently on hand in the given storeroom.
- Total Cost: The total cost of the items currently on hand in all your storerooms. In the "Before" line, this is the total cost that is currently in MainBoss's records.
- Total On Hand: The total quantity of the item currently on hand in all your storerooms. If you type a new number into the count for a single storeroom ("Strm OnHnd"), MainBoss adjusts "Total On Hand" in the "After" row accordingly.
- Unit Cost: The per-unit cost of this type of item. In the "Before" line, this is the unit cost that is currently in MainBoss's records.
- Location: The location of the selected item within the specified storeroom.
- Reference: Any additional reference information that might be useful in this context.
- Preserve Unit Cost: If this option is selected, MainBoss preserves the per-unit cost of the item when you enter a new value in the "After" line's "Strm OnHnd".
For example, suppose that the "Before" line has a "Strm OnHnd" of 3, a "Unit Cost" of $10, and therefore a "Total Cost" of $30. If you use the "After" line to specify a new "Strm OnHnd" value of 2, MainBoss keeps the unit cost at $10 and sets the new total cost to $20. In other words, MainBoss changes the total cost to be the new item quantity times the old unit cost.
- Preserve Total Cost: If this option is selected, MainBoss preserves the total cost of your full stock of the item when you enter a new value in the "After" line's "Strm OnHnd".
For example, suppose that the "Before" line has a "Strm OnHnd" of 3, a "Unit Cost" of $10, and therefore a "Total Cost" of $30. If you use the "After" line to specify a new "Strm OnHnd" value of 2, MainBoss keeps the total cost at $30 and sets the new per-unit cost to $15. In other words, MainBoss changes the unit cost to be the old total cost divided by the new item quantity.
| Note: Preserve Unit Cost and Preserve Total Cost control automatic adjustments by MainBoss. You can also type in a "Unit Cost" or a "Total Cost" explicitly in the "After" line. If you type in a new unit cost, MainBoss automatically adjusts the total cost, and vice versa. |
- Save & New: Saves the current record and clears fields in the window so you can enter a new record.
- Clone: Creates another physical count window using the same information you have just recorded. For example, suppose you want to adjust the physical count for several items in the same storeroom. You can fill out a physical count record for the first item, then clone the record; this gives you a new record that specifies the same storeroom. Keep this storeroom information and specify the next item in the "Inv. Item" field. Cloning one record after another eliminates the need to keep setting the "Building" and "Storeroom" fields.
- Delete: Deletes this adjustment record.
- Save: Saves the current record, but leaves all data as is. You can then continue to edit the same record.
- Done: Closes the window. MainBoss discards any information that hasn't already been saved.
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