Run a stocktake
A stocktake reconciles what BMS believes a warehouse holds against what is actually on the shelf.
Before you start
Decide the as-at moment before you start counting. Everything reconciles against what the system believed at that instant, not against the moment you finish entering figures.
Decide the scope too: a stocktake is against one entity and one warehouse. Counting a warehouse that holds stock for two entities means two stocktakes.
Important
Finish any backdated receipting and dispatching for that warehouse first. Stock physically present that has not been receipted in BMS must have its receipt processed; stock that has left but not been dispatched must have its dispatch processed. Counting before that is done produces variances that are not variances, and correcting them corrupts the figures you were trying to fix.
You do not have to count everything at once. Counting by location — consumables one day, another section the next, processing adjustments between — is easier to manage and is how most warehouses do it.
Steps
- Go to Stock → Stocktakes and click New Stocktake.
- Set the entity, the warehouse and Count As At.
- Write a Description saying what this count is for. The stocktake's name is generated from the date alone, so without a description two counts on the same day are indistinguishable a year later.
- Save. The stocktake opens in Counting.
- Get the count sheet: on the warehouse's Stock on Hand tab, choose Reports → Update For Stocktake Report. It lists the serialized and non-serialized stock in that warehouse needing a count.
- Perform the count. Anything found that is not on the sheet can be added at the bottom — you will need to create new stock for those items.
- Enter counted quantities against the items.
- Complete the stocktake. Variances are applied and the state becomes Completed.
If you need to abandon it
Cancel rather than complete. A cancelled stocktake applies nothing and stays on the list as a record that a count was started — which is more honest than deleting it.
If you are fixing negative holdings
Negative stock is a real condition, not a display problem: stock was issued that BMS never recorded arriving. Reconcile it with a stocktake rather than an adjustment, and say so in the description. The count is evidence of what was actually there; an adjustment only records that someone changed a number.