How to Perform an Inventory Audit using a Scanner Connected to Your Device
Inventory audits are the key to maintaining accurate inventory counts at your venue. Therefore, POSaBIT suggests that inventory is audited at a minimum of once every quarter. An inventory audit using an external scanner is the most flexible method for auditing within the POSaBIT system. When performing this audit, the auditor is able to walk around with an external scanner (such as a socket scanner or other inventory scanner) and scan a group of products within a room. This scanner will then populate a text file with a list of all barcodes that were scanned. Once the auditor is done scanning products, they will just upload the document to the POSaBIT portal and we will automatically generate an audit by counting how many times each barcode was scanned.
Note: Within the article "Device" refers to any computer or tablet that can connect to the scanner and support a text file (such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Notepad, Notes...)
Below, we'll walk through the steps to perform an inventory audit using an external scanner connected to your device:
- First, you will need to connect your scanner to your device using Bluetooth, Wifi, OR a Cable Connection.
- Once connected, open up a new document (such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Notepad, Notes, etc...)
- After opening up your text file, you can start scanning every product that you would like to audit. However, keep a few things in mind when doing this:
- POSaBIT will count how many times each barcode is present within the document in order to generate the counted quantity amount. In order for us to properly count the barcodes, each barcode must be on its own line. While some scanners such as socket scanners automatically move to the next line after each scan, if your scanner does not have this functionality you will have to manually press "Enter" on your keyboard to move to the next line.
- When you import the list of barcodes you will need to select what room the scanned product are from. Therefore, if you wish to audit multiple rooms, you should create a different document for each room.
- Once you have finished scanning products into your document, save the document as a "txt" file type.
- Next, log into the POSaBIT web portal
- Navigate to the "Audits" page found within the "Inventory" drop-down at the top of the page
- Press the blue "New Audit" button in the top right-hand corner of the table
- On the "Select Audit Type" pop-up press the orange button labeled "New Scanner Based Audit"
- POSaBIT will now generate a new "Pending Audit" form. Within this form fill out the following settings:
- Name: Give the audit a name
- Auditor: Select who actually performed the audit counts
- Audit Started At: By default, we will set the start time to 1 hour before the audit was created. However, it is important to adjust this date/time to when you began the audit so we can identify if any sales occurred during the audit.
- Audit Ended At: By default, we will set the end time to when the audit was created. However, it is important to adjust this date/time to when you finished scanning products so we can identify if any sales occurred during the audit.
- Require Approval: When enabled this audit can't be completed (inventory adjusted) until somebody who has "manage" access to the "Audits" page approves it.
- After you have filled out the pending audit creation form, press the green "Start Audit" button to begin the audit and upload your barcode document.
- When uploading files you have several options on how the list of barcodes should be imported, these include:
- "Replace Counted Qty" VS "Add to Counted Qty": This field is used to determine how duplicate barcodes should be added when uploading more than one barcode list to the audit. For the first document upload, you can ignore this field.
- State: This flag is used to determine what "state" the products you scanned are in (for example, active, closed, unsellable)
- Room: The room drop-down is an essential aspect of the upload as it helps us associate duplicate barcodes to the correct lot that was audited.
- Once you have filled out how your list of barcodes should be imported, press the white "Scanner Text File" button to browse your local storage and select the saved txt file you want to import. Then press the blue "Import" button to initiate the barcode count and automatically generate the list of audited products.
- When you import the list of barcodes we will automatically populate two tables on this page. These tables include:
- Audit Issues: Here you can find any barcodes that were scanned that are not in the selected file criteria, not in your venue at all, or are a duplicate barcode within the selected room.
- Products that are found within the venue but not the selected criteria can be added to the audit manually, using the blue "Add to Audit" button in the corresponding row within the "Audit Issues" table
- Audited Items Ready to Submit: Within this table, you will see a list of all products that were properly found and imported into the audit.
- On this list, if the "Counted Qty" matches the "Current Qty", then there are no actions required and you will see a green checkmark
- If the "Counted Qty" does not match the "Current Qty", then you will need to confirm the count and select a reason for the adjustment. To do so, click on the orange notification button and select a reason. Upon selecting a reason the icon will change to a green checkmark to let you know it has been verified.
- Audit Issues: Here you can find any barcodes that were scanned that are not in the selected file criteria, not in your venue at all, or are a duplicate barcode within the selected room.
- Finally, once you have verified all products under the "Audited Items Ready to Submit" table, press the green "Complete" button to finalize the audit and adjust any inventory that didn't match.
- Note: If this audit was marked as "Require Approval", then the "Complete" button will be titled "Submit for Approval" instead and require a user with "Manage" access to the "Audits" page to approve prior to the inventory being adjusted.
