Physical Count

What is it and what is it for?

When you physically count the merchandise in a warehouse (for an audit, a period close, or a periodic control), Physical Count lets you capture exactly what you counted without having to calculate the surplus or shortage yourself. The document goes through two moments:

• Capture (draft): you record the warehouse, the count date, and one line per item with the quantity you counted. At this point the document doesn't yet affect your stock or your accounting.
• Authorization: when you authorize it, AdmCloud takes each item's actual stock (by Lot, Bin and Attributes, if applicable) as of the document's date, calculates the Adjusted Quantity as Counted Quantity − the system's stock, updates the stock and posts the matching accounting entry against an Adjustment Account.

Use it when your goal is to reconcile inventory against an actual count. If instead you already know exactly how much you want to add or subtract (a one-off shrinkage, damage, or a donation), use an Inventory Adjustment directly.

How to use it

1. Open the Physical Count list and click Create.
2. AdmCloud proposes your Subsidiary (if applicable), your Location and today's date by default; adjust them if the count is for another warehouse or another date.
3. Optionally pick an Adjustment Account other than your company's default one, and add a Reference or Notes to document the reason for the count.
4. Add one line per counted item: look up the Item (by code, description or by scanning its barcode) and enter the Counted Quantity with its Unit of Measure.
5. If the item requires a Bin, a Lot, Attributes (such as Color or Size) or a Customs Declaration, fill them in on the line; AdmCloud asks for them based on the item's setup.
6. Attach supporting files if needed (for example, the count sheet) and click Save. The document number is generated automatically and the count is kept as a draft, without affecting your stock yet.
7. Once the count is complete and reviewed, open it and click Authorize and Apply. The process runs in the background; you can follow its progress from the Processes screen. When it finishes, the document is Authorized, with the Adjusted Quantity calculated on each line, the stock updated and the accounting entry generated.

Main capabilities

• Look up items by code, description or barcode while entering lines.
• Filter the list by date range and Subsidiary, and customize which columns show and in what order, saving your own configuration.
• Duplicate an existing document to speed up recurring counts of the same warehouse.
• Print the count with the Counted Quantity and the Adjusted Quantity, the unit cost and the extended cost of each line.
• View the generated journal entry directly from the document once it's authorized.
• Two reports from the list: a Summary Report and a Detailed Report of physical counts.
• Import the count from Excel instead of entering it line by line on screen.
• Attach supporting files (count sheets, photos, authorizations).
• Add your own Custom Fields to the form, or build your own variant with Custom Forms (requires the Enterprise plan).

Key fields

Validations when saving

• The Inventory accounting period must be open for the document's date.
• The Location must belong to the Subsidiary specified on the document.
• At least one line with a valid item is required, and the document allows up to 5,000 lines.
• The item must be active; Kit type items are not supported.
• Unit of Measure is required and must belong to the unit-of-measure plan configured on the item.
• A Bin is required if the item requires Bins; a Bin is rejected if the item doesn't use them.
• A Lot is required if the item requires Lots; a Lot is rejected if the item doesn't use them.
• Customs Declaration and Attributes are required whenever the item requires them.
• The document number can't be changed once created.
• When authorizing, the Counted Quantity must be expressed in the item's reporting unit; if a line was captured in another unit, fix it before authorizing.

Voiding and deleting

A Physical Count can be voided (it stays marked as voided but is kept for audit purposes) or deleted, depending on your user group's permissions. Neither action is possible if the document has linked records or if the accounting period for the document's date is already closed. If you edit a Physical Count that was already Authorized, it automatically goes back to Pending status and you'll need to authorize it again so AdmCloud recalculates the Adjusted Quantity with the updated data.

Availability, permissions and conditions

• This feature is part of the Inventory module and is included from the Standard plan onward (not available on Billing, Start or Basic). On the Enterprise edition, the Inventory module must be active for your company; otherwise the screen shows a "not available on this edition" message.
• Access is controlled with the "Inventory Adjustments" permission of the user group (the same one used by Inventory Adjustments), with separate levels for browsing, adding, editing, deleting and voiding. Authorizing additionally requires that permission's authorization level.
• The Bin, Lot, Attributes and Customs Declaration fields only appear if your company has those Advanced Inventory features enabled, and are only required on items configured to use them.
• With Subsidiaries enabled, the list and the Location selector are limited to your current Subsidiary.
• If your company uses the WMS (Warehouse Management) module with capture devices, you can also collect the count from the WMS mobile counting screen before bringing it into this document.

Tips and common mistakes