Inventory Count vs Inventory By Bin
When doing physical parts inventory the dealer has 2 choices - INVENTORY BY BIN or INVENTORY COUNT. To know which option is best for the customer you should know the differences between these 2 options
INVENTORY BY BIN (Report Only)
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO OPTIONS
INVENTORY BY BIN (Report Only)
The theory behind this option is that the customer can select a range of parts sorted by bin location and the system will produce a report showing bin location, part#, net on hand and part description. Space is provided on the report to record the physical inventory count, and the adjustments that will have to be made to each parts on hand. The report is printed by part# within bin location within branch within division within company. All deleted or OFC code 5 parts having an on hand quantity are included on this report. The on hand printed is the current on hand (including any allocated parts). If the part has a quantity reserved , ****1 RESERVED will print instead of the part description where 1 is the # of the parts reserved.
Once you have physically finished your count and have entered the difference in quantity you should key a parts invoice using a customer coded with a terms code 'T' for the difference in each part# that had a discrepancy. Once this invoice is processed by a parts counter billing run the on hands and G/L will be updated.
INVENTORY COUNT
The theory behind this option is that the customer can select a range of parts sorted by bin location and the system will produce a report showing bin location, part#, description, sale account and a space for quantity counted. You have the choice to select all parts or active parts
ALL PARTS - This will include all status A parts regardless if they have an on hand and all status D parts that have an on hand or an allocated
ACTIVE PARTS - Same as *ALL except all OFC code 5 parts are excluded (NOTE: OFC code 5 parts with a net on hand not equal to zero will be included in this category. Net on hand equals On Hand minus Allocated)
Once you have physically finished your count and recorded these quantities in the count system you can run a variance report and inventory value report to see the amount differences and to get dollar figures of your inventory. From these reports you can go and recount the bins where the variance seems unacceptable and then the count can be updated if any mistakes are found. Once the count is completed you can run the option to update the on hands of all the parts. The G/L is not updated through this option but the variance report gives you the journal entries needed to update the G/L.
Note: NOTE: Do not count parts that are reserved for customers as these are not reflected in the totals
If no quantity is keyed on a part through the Maintain Count option and an update is run, the system will assume the new on hand is 0 for that part.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO OPTIONS
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Inventory by bin gives you the current on hand quantities, inventory count doesn't give you any on hands
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Inventory by bin - you only have to record the differences where as inventory count you must record all part # quantities that are included in the count
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Inventory count will print the parts that are reserved (with a qty) only on the variance report where as the reserved quantity will print on the inventory by bin report
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Inventory by bin - Once you have completed your count & recorded the differences on your count sheets you can start billing out and receipting parts even though you haven't posted the invoice yet
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Inventory Count - You can't start receipting or selling parts until you have finished the count, run the reports, edited the count and updated the part master quantities.
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Inventory Count - as of R6V03 there is an option to update the G/L with this feature.
SUMMARY
Most people are using the inventory count option even though it is more time consuming then inventory by bin. I think the biggest factor to take into account before choosing which method you want to use is how long can I keep my parts system down while I do this inventory. If the answer to that question is not too long then you might want to look at the inventory by bin option.