Counts

Counts (/inventory/counts) is cycle counting: counting a few bins at a time, continuously, instead of shutting the warehouse for an annual stocktake.

Why cycle counting

A full stocktake stops the operation for a day or more, and produces one accuracy figure a year. Cycle counting spreads the same work across the year, catches drift within days of it happening, and never closes the building.

Counts appear in the fulfillment queue as ordinary floor work, and are performed in Floor Mode → count.

Counts on a schedule

Turn on Count bins on a schedule in the warehouse’s Cycle counts card, and every day each stocked bin that is due gets a count.

How often depends on how fast the items in the bin sell. Fast movers (A) are counted every 7 days, steady items (B) every 30 and slow movers (C) every 90. You can change each number. A bin follows the fastest item in it.

A bin is due again once its last approved count is older than its number of days. A bin that is already in an open count is never counted twice. The schedule is off until you turn it on.

The first round is spread out, so the floor never gets every bin at once. Each bin that was never counted gets its first count on one day within its number of days. If the schedule did not run that day, the bin is counted on one of the next few days instead.

Count statuses

Status	Means
Open	Created, nobody counting yet
Being counted	In progress on the floor
Needs review	Counted, variance waiting for a decision
Approved	Variance accepted and posted
Cancelled	Withdrawn

A count can be blind: the counter never sees the expected quantity.

Blind counting is one of the expert terms kept on purpose, with a one-sentence ⓘ explanation the first time it appears on a page.

Variances and approval

Where counted and expected differ, the count goes to Needs review rather than posting itself. The approval queue is where someone with authority decides whether the count is right (adjust the system) or the count is wrong (recount).

Approving posts a reason-coded adjustment, which lands in the movement ledger like any other change — attributed, timestamped and traceable.

A bin being counted takes no stock

While a count is Being counted, no stock can be put into its bins: a putaway, a move or a receipt into such a bin is refused, with a message that the bin is being counted. Putaway suggestions skip these bins. Picks and stock taken out still work. Once the count is handed over for review, or cancelled, the bin takes stock again.