20 Nov 2023 | Windward Software
Part 1 -Get Your Inventory Ready for Year End: Master the Art of Scan Batches
This Windward webinar discusses how to prepare inventory for the year-end using scanners with an accounting tool in Windward System 5. The first part of the series focuses on how to use scanners to count inventory, and why it is important to ensure accurate stock control. Additionally, the webinar sheds light on different options for creating count batches, understanding variance reports, and accounting effects of counting.
- Scott explained how the two-part series would cover the use of scanners with an accounting tool.
- He emphasized the importance of counting inventory to ensure accurate stock control and deliverables to clients.
- Scott asked the participants if they have used Windward in the past to count and found that more participants have used it than those who haven't.
- Scott explained the concept of Account Batch, which is a list of inventory items to be counted and grouped.
- He also explained the difference between a blank account and a periodic count and highlighted a common misunderstanding about the timing of creating the Count Batch.
- Scott demonstrated how to create a count batch in the system and explained the various options and filters available.
- He introduced two types of scanner use: Direct Scan Approach using a handheld scanner and the newer technology using a TC 21 Android phone.
- Scott explained the process of scanning using both types of scanners and how the scan batches feed into the main batch.
- He stressed the importance of having the barcodes in the system before using the scan app and having a good plan for who's going to count which stock.
- Towards the end, Scott answered several questions from the participants, including questions about oversold products and scanning items not listed because of being oversold.
0:06
Hello, everybody, and welcome Sarah Year End Webinar Series, hosted by Professional Services, and presented by Scott Roxanne's.
0:15
Today's webinar is Get Your Inventory Ready for Year End, and this is part 1 of 2. This one is about scan batches.
0:25
Scott?
0:26
OK, thanks, Gail.
0:29
Hello, everyone.
0:30
So as Kyle mentioned, this is a two part series, or these two back to back webinars kinda go together. This one's going to be about how you use scanners with our accounting tool.
0:42
And as there's a little bit of overlap between how you use scanners and how you use, say, just paper, it does kind of continue into the next webinar, but today we'll cover the things that are specific to using scanners, to count.
1:00
So of course, the reason it's important to count your inventory is to get your stock right for your end, to make sure you have great stock control, and you can deliver to your clients.
1:08
I want to start off just to gage the audience a little bit real quick.
1:13
I'd like to know if you have used Windward in the past two counts?
1:34
OK, I'm just gonna run that for just a few more seconds.
1:56
OK.
1:59
So, more of you have used it than have not, so some of this will probably be review, for those of you who've counted before, and some of it will be, like, new little tidbits.
2:10
And for those of you that have never counted before, there's a lot of different things to talk about when you're counting, So we'll cover a lot of them here, but it's probably not possible to cover everything.
2:26
So I'm going to start with.
2:32
Just a little bit about why we're talking about this, and what we're going to try and cover today.
2:36
So there are a few steps to counting using system 5.
2:40
1 step is to create the list of things you're going to count or account batch, that's the same, whether you're using scanning technology or paper and pen and pencil.
2:53
Then there's a scan batch, which is used with scanners, and we're going to talk about that. So we're gonna talk about both of those things today and the count batches also apply to the next presentation.
3:03
We're going to talk about developing in accuracy, KPI, for counting your inventory, rating of how closely and tightly you're controlling your stock, to give you something to shoot for each time you count, whether that's annually or monthly, quarterly, something like that.
3:21
And we will talk about understanding the variance reports and accounting effects of counting.
3:27
That is something we will talk about in more detail in the next webinar, Then we will today, because it affects whether you're counting width, paper, and pencil or with a scanner, you still need to check what's the accounting effect of my count and how accurate was same with the KPI, really?
3:48
So, the first concept we're going to talk about is the concept of Account Batch.
3:55
So this is how do I choose which inventory I'm going to count?
4:03
And how do I group it?
4:06
Now, there are two basic styles here. one is a blank account, where you just tell the system what you're going to count as you go.
4:13
And the other one is a periodic count, which is the system tells you what it believes you have.
4:17
And then you tell it what you find. So it sort of guides you as to what to count.
4:23
In either case, one key thing to understand, And one of the most common misunderstandings with our counting tool, is that when you create the Count Batch, which we'll do in just one moment, That takes a snapshot of your inventory levels.
4:39
At the time, you hit build new Batch, and it backdates the numbers you type into the account batch, or scan, into the account batch, to that point in time.
4:50
The good news about that is that even though you might take you a day, say, to count everything, or a weekend, it will backdate to the time that you took the snapshot.
5:01
So the key to creating the count batch, is to do it immediately, before you start counting.
5:09
To enter the numbers into the account batch, you have some leeway, Although, it's still good to do it as quickly as possible, because it's backdated, it will backdates. So say, you start your account batch on a Friday, You count over the weekend.
5:22
You can enter in your information that you find Monday or Tuesday, but the count batch needed to be created on the Friday before you started counting.
5:32
And it's also most advantageous if you can avoid any sales going on or receiving going on while you count.
5:40
So we're gonna look at creating account batch and system five.
5:43
If this is new, if you've never used when work to count, then this is the first step.
5:51
Now, I will say this, the first step to any inventory count is probably, you want to backup your software.
5:59
This is one of those procedures that's going to change the stock levels throughout your system.
6:02
It's a good idea to have a backup of your software before you proceed.
6:10
To find the Inventory Counting Tool, go to inventory and purchases, and physical inventory count.
6:21
Now, here in the counting tool, the first thing you're going to do is create a count batch.
6:27
When you do that by hitting the new button, you can also find previous ones you've created by hitting the Find button.
6:33
So, I'll hit New here.
6:35
You can give the batch a name, if you want. The date usually works pretty well, though. If you do have multiple locations, you choose which one you're talking about here.
6:43
And this is maybe the larger choice, there's two selections here.
6:48
The periodic stokke count is going to create a list of product that you'll go count and bring back the number you find.
6:57
The un initialized stock count typically used when you're first starting the system. Creates a blank list that you fill in as you choose.
7:05
So most of the time you're getting periodic stock counts, and that's what we're going to do today.
7:10
You can assign it to someone too, but we'll leave that out for the moment.
7:17
Now, before I hit this build button, that's takes the snapshot.
7:21
I apologize for my dog.
7:23
She waits for the webinar to start before she starts barking. Sir Q.
7:29
You have several options. You can choose two Filters. You can choose to determine what's going to be on your list of things to count.
7:37
Some to go through all of these isn't feasible in our webinar here, but here's some, some culprits.
7:43
Are you going to count the stock that you have reserved for customers? Unaware a quarter or not?
7:47
If you're going to exclude it, you want to tick this, and then be sure not to count it, if you need to count that stuff, because it's still in your warehouse or staging area, included.
8:00
It's similar with special or stock, or RMA is, which is warranty product.
8:05
If you have a lot of overselling, this is going to sound counter-intuitive. You want that off.
8:12
If there is more time we'll discuss oversold in more detail.
8:17
Strangely, if you want to remove the oversold you have in your system you leave this off at this stage.
8:26
Now you also have these filters. Now, these are very helpful, especially if you want to do something, like cycle counting.
8:35
Specifically, category, you know, just counting one category might make sense.
8:41
If you have location codes, and you always put product away in the same spot, those location codes can be a great way to organize your accounting.
8:49
Or by vendor, if you organize your showroom or your warehouse by the vendor, all great ways to do a filter to only count some of your stock or cycle, count your stock.
8:59
In my example, I'm just going to build a master list of everything in my system by hitting build.
9:07
So, there's a lot of different ways you can do this first part.
9:10
You have to find the one that makes sense for you, and it's different for every business.
9:16
So, I'm gonna hit build, and now, this is built My count batch, though. In my case, this is a list of everything in my software.
9:24
And what the system believes I have, as of 1 10 0 PM Pacific time on the 30th of November, and it will backdate whatever.
9:32
I type in here to that date in time, no matter when I type it in, which is great.
9:37
Because that means, although I need to go count right now, once I'm done counting, I can enter in the numbers, kind of at my leisure, although I will note, the sooner the better for these things.
9:51
OK, so the next step is where we get into the scanners, Now, I'm going to show two types of scanner use today and I want to focus today on the scanner.
10:00
So I'm just going to use my camera for a moment So that I can show you specifically which devices or types of device that I'm using?
10:13
So, I'm going to use this scanner today. This is a very typical Scanner.
10:18
That has a little cradle like this This one's a day logic, I think yeah, although there's lots of these These are very straightforward devices and this is the most common thing. It's great for reading barcodes. This needs to be plugged into your terminal, though.
10:32
So, it doesn't have a lot of range, so it's not great for that.
10:36
This is what I'm going to do first. We call this direct scan, because it's ...
10:40
plugged right into a terminal.
10:43
But I do second is our newer technology, which is using a TC 21 Android phone, where TC 26 Android phone, and we've created a little app that you put on the phone.
10:56
And this phone is actually a barcode scanner.
10:59
If you've seen us advertising the scan App, that's it, on the phone, right there. So I'm gonna use that. This is different in that this operates on your Wi-Fi.
11:07
And so I can take this throughout my warehouse, or showroom and scan barcodes.
11:12
Then I bring back that list and upload it and you'll see me do that.
11:16
There is different parts that are good about each.
11:19
This has more mobility, of course, but when you scan a barcode, it does not know if your system recognizes the barcode until you upload your list.
11:28
So, you, you need to make sure to the system knows all your barcodes for this to work well. Well, both. But this one, especially this one here, will honk at you. If you scan something and it doesn't know the barcode, I'll demonstrate that.
11:41
And so, it's a good feedback loop when you're using this, but this needs to be plugged into a terminal. And if you're not on the cloud, then this little guy has no way to be plugged into the terminal.
11:53
Usually, in a warehouse situation, When do you lose one at a time?
12:05
So we're going to do scanning, we're going to do the direct scan first, that's the handheld scanner. Looks like a Ray Gun.
12:11
The most common one, you'll see.
12:14
Now that we have our count batch, you do something a little different. You keep your count Batch.
12:20
And now you're going to create a scan Batch.
12:22
So I'll click on the Scan batch tab, and I'm going to hit New.
12:28
When I hit New, pick a scan Source.
12:32
I'm going to do the direct scan first.
12:37
So I'm going to choose Direct Scan.
12:40
Scan batch, and hit build.
12:43
Scan batches are sub count list's, I'd say. So, for example, if I have a warehouse with four walls, my count batch includes everything in the warehouse, for example.
12:53
I might have one person with one scanner count the left wall and I'd make them a scan batch.
12:58
I might name it left wall.
13:00
Another person with another scanner counts the right wall.
13:03
And each of these scan batches are sub lists, sub counts.
13:06
Is it fed into list by being having it applied to the count batch.
13:13
So, first, I'll just scan some products here, and I'm using the direct scan approach, so, I'm plugged right into my terminal.
13:21
Scanning some product at, oh, it doesn't recognize that product. That means the system doesn't know that barcode.
13:29
Another common misunderstanding is that your system will just know barcodes. You need to load them in, or get them from your vendor, or manually add them to your product.
13:40
That's a big part of the prep for using barcode scanning. If you've never done it before, is either data loading and barcodes that's the most efficient way.
13:49
A lot of our integrations help you with this problem, as well and they load in barcodes or I've had some customers recently who just use their manual barcode scanners before the count to set up barcodes.
14:05
So, you can see, I can scan a product multiple times, and that adds to my list.
14:13
So, I go about doing that.
14:14
Scanning everything in the area that I've set aside and I save that.
14:22
There's little gotchas there.
14:24
You gotta make sure that people don't both scan the same product.
14:28
You gotta make sure that the product has barcodes, mostly that's it.
14:33
So, that's the first scanner type that's called Direct Scan Approach, using a more common barcode scanner.
14:39
And that barcode scanner that I showed you there is also very useful for receiving product and point of sale. So, it has multiple purposes. It's quite useful.
14:50
So I save that.
14:51
And now what I'm going to do is apply that back to the Count batch, and we'll see how that works.
14:56
So I'll hit the Apply button.
15:01
Then I'm looking for the Count batch. So this is the one I just created right there.
15:05
You can tell by the time.
15:07
And I hit OK, and the system goes through and applies all the product, the counts that I've found back to the main batch, or the count batch.
15:18
Just so you see the effect, I'm gonna go back to the count that chair and I'll pull it up.
15:26
Actually, I think it's still here.
15:27
Still here undercount Entry.
15:30
And with Account Batch, one little tidbit here is you can sort it.
15:38
So, here's the products. I just counted.
15:42
And so, you can see how the scan batches feed into the main batch.
15:47
Now, we'll do another scan batch and we can use the other scanner, just because it's a slightly different approach.
15:55
So, I'm gonna leave my count batch, go back to scan batch.
16:01
Sometimes, you gotta.
16:08
Close out a one scan batch before you can get a new one.
16:12
It's a SEC here.
16:16
Often scan batches are done on different terminals, so I'm just going to close out of here.
16:21
Come back in the physical inventory count, and go to the scan batch.
16:27
Choose scan batch. Hit New.
16:30
This time, I'm going to use the data collector.
16:35
Now, data collectors are a technology that's been around a long time. That T C 21 scan app is just a way to use a phone as a data collector.
16:44
You can also use this approach by loading in a file, if you're using some other form of data collector.
16:51
When you think data collector, or you think the scan app, what you have to think is this is a great strategy because I can be mobile. I can be away from Winward while I count.
17:03
It's a bad strategy for the same reason.
17:05
the system doesn't know whether the barcode is good and Windward knows it or not because it's just a little scanner, so, I'll scan some product here.
17:14
And you won't see anything coming in.
17:18
Because, it's just happening on my phone.
17:22
Which is quite easy to use, once you get the hang of it.
17:26
And now, I bring the phone back within Wi-Fi range, and through the Wi-Fi on my app, I hit Upload.
17:38
And now you'll see at the bottom of my screen, it says, Data Collector three.
17:43
What that means is there was three bar codes received.
17:46
And up here, I'm going to hit Import from my data collector. You can see there's also the ability to import from a file.
17:57
And we'll see some products that I had sitting on my counter here.
18:02
Score Mini is also vital to any good inventory count.
18:06
Keep your staff, level energy levels, elevate it.
18:10
So, here you can see, I've got these in my scan batch.
18:15
Now, one problem that happens here is that a barcode will come in.
18:21
Let me scan a barcode. I don't have in the system, and I'll show you.
18:30
Let's see what I got here.
18:40
I'll upload another product, and I know this one.
18:46
So, I go and scan 200 things, and I have a file I bring in.
18:52
I hit import, data collector, hok, this was not found.
18:58
And I don't really have a good way of knowing what that is, especially, you know, if there's 200 of them, you need to have the barcodes in the system for the scan app, to be a good solution for you.
19:08
And getting the barcodes into your system, involves data loading integration or some manual process. And that's something you might want some help with.
19:18
So now, I have my scan batch.
19:21
I'm going to remove this one item because it's not the system doesn't know what it is.
19:27
Going to save that scan batch and then I'm going to hit Apply and again, I'll choose my count batch That's this one up here.
19:39
Hit OK, and the scan batch applies back to the Count batch.
19:46
I can go look at my count batch here. I'm going to pull it up so it will count batch and find.
19:55
And right here.
19:59
I can see the products that have counted.
20:04
So, that's those are really the steps to do a scanning. And the common gotchas with scanning are your system doesn't know the barcodes.
20:12
It needs to be taught the barcodes before this will work.
20:17
And the other gotchas are just to make sure that your employees don't double scan things.
20:25
So, it's really easy with scan batches to accidentally count the same thing twice, or to not count something at all.
20:35
So the things we're going to talk about, just here at the end of this webinar, and we'll follow up on them in the following webinar, is how do I deal with those problems. The counting or the scanning is now done. And I'm looking at my count batch.
20:50
And, again, the count batch is used, regardless of which approach scanning or counting manually.
20:58
So if I'm counting manually, and I'm typing in numbers like that, and, of course, there's a lot of numbers here, that, I might not have a couple little handled handy tools that we'll have time for today.
21:18
Once you've scanned the product, you can see, I've got some of it scanned in, and I've counted that, but I have all these blanks.
21:27
There's this area up here at the top, zero uncounted items, and usually end up using this.
21:35
So, I can click zero, only be out of stock.
21:39
So, what that'll do is, if I have a product, let me see if I can find one like that right there, where there is zero and stock, I can have the system assume that there is zero, and I can hit zero.
21:53
Now, it'll whip through the whole list.
21:56
And fill in zeros, where there was zeros on the left.
21:59
So, if the system thought I had zero, I'll report that, we found zero.
22:05
Now, that is you telling the system that there's in fact zeros so you shouldn't take it for granted, but if to fill in all the blanks quickly, that's how you can do it.
22:15
If you click zero All, then this will go through and put a zero on the right-hand side, regardless of what's over here, which you probably don't want to do, until you've been through the list.
22:27
So if, if someone's telling me that these products here are these 21, that I have zero, maybe that's true, but I'd be a little suspicious, and before I proceed, I'd want to double-check.
22:42
So in the interests of time today, I'm not going to go a lot further, because we're going to kind of pick this up where we left off next week, and there's probably some questions.
22:53
The key parts to using scanners, again, just to re-iterate, are you really need to have the barcodes in the system for this to be a viable option for you. So part of the procedure of preparing for it the first time is to have the barcodes.
23:13
And you need to have a good plan, for who's going to count which stock and set up separate, scan, bashes, and know which kind of technology you're going to use, data collectors or scanners like a regular scanners.
23:27
So, my next question for all of you, just so I get a feel for the situation, is, are you counting, by the end of this calendar year, this year?
24:05
So a good portion of you are counting this year, in the next month or so.
24:14
And a follow up question to that, because where, curious to know, how many of you have had help in learning how to do this from and from professional services?
24:30
So the team that helped you go live originally, that's the four of us, or five of us in professional services.
25:06
OK, so an equal portion of you have not had assistance before. If you're finding that you struggle with this process each year, there's a lot of parts to it.
25:17
I'm gonna highly recommend. This is a place where extra help goes a long ways.
25:22
Myself, and Allen, and Robert and Harry help people with this all the time.
25:27
It it really helps to have someone watching your back from beginning to end when you plan this out, and so we'll show you the kind of packages you can purchase to get extra help with it, and we're gonna give you more answers in the next webinar, but I can't stress it enough, this is such an important part of your business. You may really want to get some extra help with this.
25:50
And it's, everyone's situation is different, So it is not possible in a webinar or a group training session to help everyone with their specific problems.
26:00
At this stage, though, I did want to quickly address one question, which I know can haunt everybody. And so thank you, Joe, for bringing this up.
26:09
Joe is asking clear Oversoul then processed? Do I check this, do I not check this and why?
26:16
So when you're overselling product as a regular part of your workflow Um, you want to get rid of those at your end usually, because of course a is not valuable number to having your inventory.
26:33
To get rid of oversold, there are two tick boxes. So you're gonna want that one on Joe, that one that I have ticked right there.
26:41
And I'm just going to save my work here, go back to creating account batch.
26:47
So I'm gonna make another one just so you can see how I do it.
26:52
Go to the Options tab.
26:54
If you actually want that off, it's a little hard to explain if I'm oversold and I'm at then I go count and find that I have three if I tick this box to include oversold that will add five because I found three and the system thought I was oversold by two. So the adjustment is, from to plus three. Add five.
27:20
If that's what you want, then you tick this box right here.
27:25
Most of the time, that's not what you want.
27:27
You just want the oversold to go away And whatever you found in the account is what you want your system to say, which was say three in this example, then you leave it off there.
27:36
And when you are processing your batch, which we are going to do in the next webinar, you want that clear oversold ticked.
27:45
So that way the oversold go away and it replaces them with the actual amount you counted, which is, say, in my example, three, that help, Joe.
27:59
Basically, don't ticket here ticket on the other screen. Your oversold's go away.
28:10
Any other questions? Anyone wants to throw in there.
28:21
OK, oh, here's one.
28:24
Couple more. OK, so.
28:28
Marilla thank you for the question. Well, those items show up if you scan. And they are not listed because, if oversold.
28:39
Well, I think you mean if you don't include oversold here.
28:45
Yes.
28:45
So yeah, if you want to make sure you're counting, that's a good point you want to include now they do show up. They do show up.
28:58
So what doesn't happen is it doesn't include the negative quantity in the adjustment.
29:04
So either way, oversold products show up on your list on your account batch and then what you do.
29:10
If you have of something it'll show . But when you count that, you have actually have two, if you tick, include oversold here.
29:19
It includes the negative in the adjustment.
29:21
So it goes up by five instead of up by two.
29:25
Most of the time, people just want the oversold's to go away, forget it ever happened, and add the correct number to stock.
29:39
And Joe, that, sometimes there are, I see your question here, and someone said, Hey, there's a bug with this. Well, I don't, I'm not aware of, that. Not to say that there isn't one just.
29:52
In these webinars, I don't have time to go down those rabbit holes, unfortunately, so, it is working in my version, though, I'm using version seven. So, I think, I think, we're probably OK.
30:04
I have one, what I would suggest to everyone is that, it's the end of the year.
30:08
if you're going through this, and you're uncertain, and you really want to get it right.
30:12
Get our help, and we're, eagan, happy to help everyone with their year end count, as part of a Professional Services package.
30:22
And with that, I'll hand it back to you, Kyle, and I can just talk about a little bit of some of the promotions are going on.
31:19
Don't hear you, Kow, You're there.
32:43
Yes.
33:38
Yeah.
34:29
I won't be able to loop here, folks. Can you guys hear Kyle?
34:37
Someone want to just shoot me a question?
34:41
OK, he might.
34:43
Kyle is here visiting us at our lovely head office, and you may be having some technical difficulties at the hotel.
34:48
So let me just grab the, There's a few good deals on. So let me show you just a moment.
35:10
I'll show you a couple of things that Scott Robbins talking head of his slides again.
35:15
So, first of all, there are some free roars resources that are actually quite good to do with physical inventory accounting, because this is one of those parts of our software that's been around a long time, although there is sometimes, updates to it or a little problems with it, It has worked for a very long time, for a lot of people, And once you get it down, it's a very handy tool, Use it more often than once a year, would be my advice.
35:38
There's a quick reference guide.
35:41
There's also good articles in our knowledge base about strategies on how to set yourself up.
35:50
And if you search in the Learning Academy, and use the Tag Inventory account, you're gonna find some good content there, as well. So there's lots of opportunity to train yourself up and practicing a training module.
36:02
When it comes to working with my team, we work with people to plan this out.
36:07
Prepare them for barcoding, and help them follow through on an inventory account usually just virtually. But it can be even possible in person with enough lead time.
36:17
Myself and Harry, Robert and Alan do this quite often, so we can help you understand the consequences if your account, understand the accounting consequences of your account as well, and kinda lead it through an end to end.
36:33
The, although really, it's just a matter of getting some of our time, and there's a number of packages you can buy.
36:39
We do have a good deal, of course, through all these webinars, getting 10% off by using the coupon code year end, 2023.
36:48
And what I'll do here.
36:52
Let's show you one other things, which has just started a little old website.
36:58
Which I'm sure you visit from time to time.
37:07
And you can find these services that we offer at our website, under Resources, under Professional Services.
37:15
And you can see that you've got some promotions and things going on here.
37:21
But if we look at the Professional Services catalog, I'd say inventory efficiencies here, it's probably a good one, or managing inventory quantities.
37:33
It's the topics that we're talking about.
37:37
And you're able to come here and learn a little bit more about them.
37:41
Brand new website.
37:44
So, take advantage of the promotions, if you think you need extra, help, take advantage of the free resources in the Learning Academy, and there's a really good just kind of manual.
37:54
And my advice would be to plan it out carefully and think about whether counting with scanners or counting with paper and pen is the right way for you to do things.
38:10
And we'll continue this conversation next time, next time.
38:15
We're gonna go over.
38:20
The process of finishing the count.
38:27
And the accounting effects of that little things that come up, like the pesky yellow lines, we'll talk about next time. So join us next time for the sort of completion of this webinar, and I thank you very much for coming today. All of you don't think it's too soon to say Merry Christmas and my pleasure to chat with you, so we'll look forward to seeing you next Thursday.
38:54
And I think the recording will be up in a day or two. We'll have this recording available for you.
39:03
Thanks, everyone.
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