Managing Inventory Through Cycle Counting

Tracking your inventoried line items can be handled in two ways: 

• Wall-to-wall count — Auditing all inventoried items at one time
• Cycle count — Dividing inventoried items into sets (e.g. cycle A, cycle B, etc.) which are each counted periodically. Cycle counting is typically more manageable, with any given product being counted every few months.

Cycle Counting in aACE

Fields for managing a cycle count schedule are on the Line Item Codes module. At an inventoried item's detail view, click the Inventory Management tab. The Cycle field lets you organize various inventoried items into scheduled sets. (See below for batch update tools.)

After organizing your inventory cycles, you can use the Advanced Search tool to quickly find all line items in a specific inventory set. 

Batch Updates for Cycle Counting

You can update the cycle counting fields for multiple inventoried items at one time. To leverage these batch updates, use the Quick Search bar or the Advanced Search tool to display the items you want to update. Then click Actions > Update Inventory Count Cycle for LICs in List. At the dialog, enter an abbreviation for this group and click Update. (Note: The field width easily fits up to seven characters.)

Inventory Printouts and Adjustments

To assist in the actual count, you can generate a printout of current inventory. Navigate from Main Menu > Order Setup > Line Item Codes > Print > Open Report Selector > Actual Inventory Count by Type.

This printout lists inventoried LICs by category, providing item name, item code, current system balance, and blank lines for the counted quantity and the required adjustment. With this report, the hands-on count will not have the rigor of a blind count, since the system balance is shown.

After a count, you can make an inventory adjustment to update your system. Some organizations find it easier to conduct inventory counting right on the Inventory Adjustment module.