Cycle Count — Operator Guide

1. What this is for

A cycle count is how we keep the computer's quantity honest without shutting the warehouse down for a full physical inventory. Someone walks to a bin, counts what is actually there, and types that number in. Nothing changes in QuickBooks at that moment — the count sits in a queue. A Level 1 or Admin looks at the queue on a PC, sees what each count would change and what it is worth, and posts the ones that are right.

Two people, two screens, on purpose: the person counting cannot move money, and the person posting can see the dollar effect before anything happens.

The handheld part of this guide will also appear in the combined Handheld Apps guide. There is deliberately no Help link on the scan screens themselves — Help lives on the handheld menu.

2. Who is allowed in

These are set on the Permissions screen, so they can change without new software. If your handheld shows the item but no Save button, your level is view-only for counting.

3. Part one — counting on the handheld

1. From the Logistics Main Menu, open the Handheld Menu tile on the scanner or phone, then tap Cycle Count. (There is no Cycle Count tile on the PC main menu — counting is a handheld job.)
2. Scan the item's barcode, or type the SKU and tap Go. The cursor is already in the box.
3. The item comes up: SKU, name, Primary bin and Secondary bin boxes, and Recent counts (the last five, with a note if one is still waiting to post). Check you are at the right bin before you count. If the bin on screen is not the bin you are standing at, the item may have moved — fix the bin field (if your level allows) or tell your supervisor.
4. Count what is physically there. Count everything for that SKU at that location, including anything in the secondary bin.
5. Type the number in Counted quantity and tap Save count. The box counts in whole numbers by default; a decimal is only for genuinely measured items.
6. The screen confirms the save and shows the difference against what the computer expected. The box clears for the next item.

Notes that matter on the floor:

• You will not see a running total of what the system thinks. That is intentional for some counts — count what is there, do not count to the number.
• Whole numbers unless the item is genuinely measured (wire by the foot, for example). The unit of measure on screen tells you what you are counting in — EA means each, FT means feet.
• Counting the same item twice replaces your first count. The queue never holds two counts for one SKU, so if you realise you miscounted, just count it again. Only your latest number is waiting to post, and the replacement is logged.
• Zero is a real count. If the bin is empty, enter 0. Skipping it tells us nothing.
• Nothing has changed yet. Saving a count does not change the quantity anyone else sees. That happens at posting.

4. Part two — Count Review & Posting (PC)

Posting can be switched off. When Settings → Allow Inventory Posting to QB is No, the Post to QuickBooks button is greyed out and a red bar says so. Counting and review work as normal; nothing reaches QuickBooks until that switch is Yes.

Open Count Review from the top bar of any PC screen. Only Admin and Level 1 see that link, and there is no Count Review tile on the Logistics Main Menu — go in through Item Master Display & Maintenance and use the top bar.

The top half is everything counted and not yet posted. Per line you get: SKU, item name, primary bin, count group, what QuickBooks currently holds, what was counted, the difference in quantity, the unit cost, and what that difference is worth in dollars. Above it, totals: how many lines, net quantity change, value up, value down, net dollars.

Read the totals first. They are your sanity check — a net change of a few hundred dollars across thirty lines is a normal week; one line worth thousands is worth a phone call before you post.

What you can do:

• Discard a line — throws away a bad count before it does any damage. It is logged, and the item simply needs recounting. You cannot discard a count that has already posted.
• Post — tick the lines you accept and post them. Each SKU goes to QuickBooks on its own, so one problem item does not stop the batch. When it finishes you get: how many posted, how many failed and why, and the batch code.

What posting actually does: it sets that item's quantity on hand in QuickBooks to the counted number, dated today, with the difference booked to Inventory Shrinkage. The item's quantity in IM2 is updated to match, and the change is written to the item's audit trail as a quantity change with the batch code on it. Posted counts cannot be edited or un-posted — a mistake is corrected by counting again and posting the correction, exactly like a paper correction gets a second entry rather than an eraser.

Batches. Below the queue is the last 25 posted batches, with the code, who posted, line count, how many succeeded or failed, and the net change. Open one to see its lines, or download it as a spreadsheet — that download is the document accounting wants when they ask what an adjustment was.

5. Sorting and reading the list

The pending queue is in the order the counts were taken, oldest first, so the floor's work stays in sequence. Inside a posted batch, lines are ordered by dollar impact, biggest first — the things worth a question are at the top.

6. Audit trail

Two places, both permanent:

• Per item: the history link on Item Maintenance shows the count that changed that item's quantity, with the batch code, who posted and when. Recounts and discarded counts are in there too.
• Per batch: the batch list on the Count Review screen, and the spreadsheet download from it.

7. When it looks wrong

• "SKU not found" — the barcode does not match an item. Do not invent one; write the label down and give it to the Logistics Manager. Items are created in QuickBooks, not from the handheld.
• A count posted with the wrong number — count it again and post the correction. Never adjust in QuickBooks by hand; that breaks the paper trail this screen exists to keep.
• A line failed to post — the message says why, usually the item is missing or inactive in QuickBooks. The count stays in the queue; fix the item, then post again.
• A variance you cannot explain — do not post it. Recount first. If it recounts the same, it is real and worth telling someone about; if it comes back different, the first count was the problem.
• The dollar total looks alarming — stop and check the biggest lines. Cost comes from QuickBooks, so an item with a wrong cost makes a small count look huge.

Questions go to the Logistics Manager, cc the Business Consultant during rollout. Names and numbers are on the Contacts & Definitions tile on the main menu.

Discarding several counts at once

Discard selected on Count Review is all-or-nothing: if one of the selected counts has already been posted to QuickBooks, nothing is discarded and the message tells you which SKU stopped it. Posting to QuickBooks is different on purpose — each SKU posts on its own, so one bad SKU never stops the rest and its reason is shown against that row.

The Menu link

Every handheld screen has a small Menu link at the top right. It takes you back to the handheld menu and forgets the job the scanner was last used on, so the next person starts clean. Use it when you finish a job rather than handing the scanner over on a live screen. Nothing you have already saved is lost.