Partial inventory counts are an inventory count on a small section of your inventory, usually a particular brand, type, or supplier's items.

Completing regular partial inventory counts helps you to keep on top of your inventory and ensures that your end-of-year inventory count is easier to conduct with fewer unexpected discrepancies.

When to do a partial count

Many retailers complete partial counts during regular open hours in order to help keep the store's inventory accurate during the year. You can even run multiple partial counts at the same time, just make sure you don't have the same product in more than one count.

You can regularly schedule your partial counts throughout the year. For example, because you can schedule in advance, you can stagger these to ensure full coverage of your inventory each quarter.

Preparing for the count

On the day before, or the day of, your inventory count, depending on how much you're counting, you'll need to prepare your inventory to be counted.

Each store will have a different process for this, but the general method includes:

• Checking your barcode scanners to make sure they are functioning.
• Tidying all areas you'll be counting, including any items on hold.
• Turning all labels barcode-side out for easy scanning.
• Printing new labels for any products missing labels.

If you're planning partial inventory counts, make sure you've set up your products with brands, types, suppliers, and tags to help you refine your searches.

When you're ready to start your count, you can either start a new count or start a scheduled count.

Starting a new count

1. Navigate to Inventory > Inventory counts.

   

2. Click Add inventory count.

   

3. Set the Start date and Start time for the inventory count (this will default to today's date, and can't be set in the past).

   

4. From the Outlet dropdown menu, select the outlet where you're starting the inventory count.

   

5. Optional: After you select the outlet, the Count name field will automatically populate with the outlet name, date, and time. You can change the count name if needed.

   

6. Select Partial count.

   

7. Use the search field to start adding filters to your inventory count. This will search for any items that match your search term. For example, searching for Jeans would show the type Jeans and the brand Guess Jeans. You can search for:

   • name
   • brand
   • type
   • tag
   • supplier
   • SKU: You can enter a single SKU, or bulk load all matching products by entering multiple SKUs separated by commas or copied directly from a spreadsheet column.

   Tags and categories cannot be currently combined for filtering.

   

   It's important to understand how the filters work. For example:

   • Search for the term Jeans and select the type Jeans. All products with the type Jeans will be added to the count.
   • Then, search for the term Levis and select the brand Levi's. This will remove any products from the count that don't have the brand Levi's, as well as the type Jeans.
   • Search for the term Lee and select the brand, Lee. This will add any products with the type Jeans and the brand Lee back into your count. In other words, any products with the type Jeans and either the brand Lee or Levi's will be included in your count.

   

   You can tell when a tag or type is part of the same group, as they will be grouped together under the search bar.

   You can also add individual products to your partial inventory count.

8. Once you've added all the items you want to count, click Start count.

   

Starting a scheduled count

1. Navigate to Inventory > Inventory counts.

   

2. In the Due tab, navigate to the count you want to start from the list.

   

3. Click the count name. The Edit inventory count page will display. If the date and time are incorrect, Retail POS will update them to today's date.

   

4. Click Start count. The inventory count will begin.

   

   A page will display with details for your inventory count, a list of all your items to be counted, and the expected count for those items. You don't need to count the items in the order they are displayed on the page.

Counting your items

Once you've started the Inventory count, there are multiple ways to record your items. Use one of the following methods:

Scanning barcodes with a barcode scanner

If the device you're using to perform the inventory count (Computer and iPad) has a barcode scanner set up, you can scan the items into the inventory count to record them.

With Quick-scan mode enabled, you can scan back-to-back barcodes to record one of each.

Quick-Scan mode

Quick-scan mode enables you to rapidly scan each item's barcode in your store to add it to your inventory count. Your scanned item will automatically be counted as soon as you scan the barcode.

If you'd prefer to use the barcode to look up the item's SKU and then enter the final count before submitting, uncheck the Quick-scan mode box.

If you have a red "unexpected" symbol next to products after adding them to the inventory count

When you are performing a partial count, you can sometimes get a red unexpected symbol next to your products. When this symbol displays, it means that a product has been added to the partial count that doesn't match any of the filters you specified when creating the count.

If you would like this symbol to disappear, you may need to create a new partial count and broaden your filters. If you have already started counting or are happy to continue with your current count, you can simply ignore the symbol and continue, as it will still accept the adjustment for this unexpected product regardless. If you are certain that this product should fall under the filters you've applied, head to the product screen and edit the product in question to ensure that it's been set up correctly.

Alternatively, you can scan the barcode once (with Quick-scan mode disabled) and then manually enter the count of each item.

Scanning barcodes using Retail POS's Scanner app

The Scanner app allows you to create or begin inventory counts and use the device's built-in camera to scan barcodes to record items.

For more information on using the Scanner app to perform inventory counts, refer to Performing inventory counts in Lightspeed scanner.

Manually recording and searching for items

You can perform the count manually, such as marking down the count for each item with a pen and paper, searching for the item in Retail POS, and then entering the amount.

Manually counting your items increases the risk of error. Ensure that the correct items are listed and, preferably, the SKU is recorded for each so that when entered, the amount is recorded against the correct items.

Once an item is counted

When an item is counted, it displays at the top of your counted list. It will have a check mark next to it if you've reached the expected quantity. It will then display in Your last counted items on the right-hand side of your screen. The number of items in your uncounted tab will also be reduced.

Your count will automatically be saved. You can access the latest save time at the top of the screen above the Pause button.

Review and submit a partial inventory count

Once all your counts are submitted, you'll need to review your counted items.

When you open the review page, there are five tabs you can view:

• Uncounted: This lists all items where the total counted is 0. This includes items with an expected count of 0.
• Unmatched: This lists all items that had a count greater or less than the expected amount. This includes items where you expected a negative amount and counted 0.
• Matched: This lists all items you've counted where the total counted equals the expected amount.
• Excluded: Any items you manually exclude from your count.
• All: All items from each tab combined into one.

Review the items in your count, especially the unmatched and uncounted items. If you have discrepancies, you can:

• Check the box next to an item, and select Exclude items from the count.

• Check the box next to an item, and select Recount items. This will set the count for these items to zero, so you can count the items again.

• Click Continue, and count the items again.

If you continue counting, the item will still show the quantity scanned so far. Use the Recount items option on the Review page to reset to zero. Alternatively, on the count page, you can enter a negative quantity for that item in the quantity field to remove items or to zero the inventory level for an item to start from scratch.

Trading while counting

• If you were trading while counting: You'll need to make any final adjustments based on sales or returns made during your count period.
• If you sell or return an item after you've counted it: The item that was counted will need to be adjusted. For a sale, you'll need to decrease the count quantity by one in your inventory count. For a return, you'll need to increase the quantity by one.
• If you sell or return an item before you've counted it: These items will have the correct inventory value, but a discrepancy may display on the review page (as the expected count would not have changed).

• If sales were made when conducting an inventory count: The sales will still be correctly recorded in your sales history.

Submitting the count

Once you've checked and confirmed your count and are satisfied that all items are accounted for, click Complete.

Next, you will need to confirm that you are definitely finished with the inventory count. Remember, don't do this until all of your staff have completed and saved the counts on their devices. If you have any uncounted items, we'll alert you, as the inventory count for these items will be set to 0.

When you're sure you are done, click Submit.

Once you've clicked complete, we'll start processing your count. This can take several minutes to complete, especially if there are multiple items.

Once it's complete, the results will be displayed on the page.

You'll have three tabs:

• Unmatched
• Matched
• All

These will list your items, the expected amounts, the final counts, the change in units after your count, and any associated cost for that change (for example, if you're one unit short, it will tell you what that costs you).

Scrolling down to the bottom of the list will display your total changes in units and total changes in costs.

You'll see two figures for each of these - the total increases (for items where your count was higher than expected) and total decreases (for items where your count was lower than expected).

Export the data

Click the export buttons to get a copy of your results.

There are two options:

• Generate CSV report: This gives you a CSV file with a line for each product counted. You'll also have columns for expected and final count, change in cost, and the total value of each product's inventory after the count. This is typically used for importing into another system or for creating your own reports.
• Generate PDF report: This gives you a formatted PDF report, including the expected and final count, change in cost, and total value of each product's inventory after count for each product. You'll also have a summary with total changes for your whole count.

Discard a partial inventory count

Sometimes, you may need to stop doing an inventory count that you've started. This may be because you've run out of time to complete it, for example, as an inventory count should always be completed in a short time period.

This is called discarding a count. To discard an in-progress count:

• Open the count and click Review.
• Click Discard.

Discarded counts will display on the Canceled tab of the inventory count home page.

Review historical inventory counts

You can view historical counts and export the results at any time.

To view historical counts:

• Click the Completed tab on the inventory count home page
• Click the count you want to open.

Refer to the Getting started FAQ for more information about inventory counts in Retail POS.

If you want to count all stock, you can instead perform a Full inventory count. It's best to complete stock counts when the store is closed to avoid inventory discrepancies.

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