Tracking Inventory
This page describes CORE's implementation of perpetual inventory. The major components are counts, orders, and sales. There's also some routine maintenance.
You always get started by counting what you currently have. Inventory only attempts to track items that have a count entered into the system. It's OK to have some items included in inventory and others excluded. See Base Counts for more in-depth information.
Counts are entered on the Inventory Counts page located under Perpetual Inventory.
You can enter counts for a single item (by UPC) or for all items from a vendor.
To enter counts directly to the Inventory Counts page select vendor and click on “Submit” button.
The optional super department filter is sometimes useful with larger vendors.
You have the option to enter a new count, a new par, or both. The count is how many individual, salable units you have. The par is how many individual, salable units you want to keep in stock. To update only the par leave count blank.
When a row is flagged pink it means that the item has never been counted in the system for the current store you are entering counts from.
Once items have been updated with desired counts and pars click on one of the “Save” (A) buttons located at the top or bottom of the page.
Once you have saved desired counts click on “Recalculate Totals” (B).
This will then update the On Hand Qty (C) and correctly identify what items need to be ordered based on pars. This will be highlighted in pink for a each single cell that is needed (D).
When hovering over highlighted cells a message box will appear to help with clarification of why it is highlighted.
If you are needing to have information on who has been doing the counts click on “Count History” (E)
If an item is purchased in one size but sold in multiple sizes, counts and pars are given in the smallest unit. For example, if Emergen-C is sold by the box and by the individual packet, counts and pars are given in individual packets. These type of items are managed as Aliases under Manage Vendors. Aliases Example
Tracking always operates based on the most recent count for an item. When you enter a new count, the system starts over and works from that number. If counts were taken on paper and entered into the electronic system later, you can click Adjust Dates to back-date any counts as needed.
Once the counts and pars are added for an item the On Hand count (F) and par (G) are also updated in Item Maintenance. Keep in mind, the On Hand numbers will include pending orders that are to be received.
Click on Item Maintenance => Perpetual Intentory => UPC box then scan item
Update count and/or par as needed. Click submit. This will then change the date and count (H).
locations (i.e. double merched, floor and backstock) enter first count, click “Submit”. Once item is scanned in second location enter second count and click “Add to Count”. The two counts are now totaled (I).
Orders must be entered into CORE for inventory tracking to function. Order entry and management tools are all found item the Item Maintenance menu under Purchase Orders.
To create a new order, use Create Order => By Vendor. This creates a single order built from a single vendor's catalog of items. On the Item Search tab order you can search for items by SKU or UPC and add them to the order. On the Item List tab you can see all items currently on the order and alter quantities. When you're done click View Order. To go back and add more items or adjust quantities click Add Items.
Under the Pending tab (O) click on the date and time under the “Created” column.
This will then open the specific Purchase Order based on pars given in the Inventory Counts. If the entire row is blue it means that the product is in a sale (current or upcoming). If you hover over the highlighted area it will show you when the sale is going on (J). This screen will show you how many is in a case (K), how many cases you are going to be ordering (L), how many eaches you have on hand (M), and if this is a Special Order (N). Special Orders will also be highlighted in green and will not add to the total in the Inventory Counts.
If you would like to add items that are not already on the order Click on “Add Items”
Once the order is ready it can be placed in three different ways. Directly emailed, exported and emailed, or called in.
- Directly emailed:
- There must be a correct email address (P). This can be updated in “Manage Vendors”
- Click on Send Via email (Q).
- An email will be sent to the vendor as well as the buyer team.
- The vendor will only get the buyer email address to reply to, allowing all buyers to be able to see communication and reply immediately if needed.
- Exporting and sending from personal email.
- Click the correct export file desired:
- Export the order and submit it to the vendor somehow (obviously this is going to vary by vendor)
- If an email address is associated with the vendor, Send via Email will email the export document to that address rather than downloading the document.
- Attach exported file to email sent to vendor
- Check the box for Placed. Once an order is placed, tracking will immediately add those quantities to inventory.
- Calling in order.
- Current Phone number (R)
- If need the coding can be sorted by clicking the coding cell (S)
- Once calling in click on placed
To receive an order, first find your order by going to the Purchase Orders main page and choosing View Orders. You can also search orders for a specific UPC by clicking “Search Orders”(V).
The default view shows all Placed orders from the past 30 days. Change the month or year to view older orders or the status to view orders that are not yet marked Placed. Click on the date/time of the order under the “Created” column. In the order click the Receive Order button. The default receiving tool is currently very handheld oriented and works one item at a time. Enter a UPC or enter a SKU to view that line-item of the order and adjust the received quantity or received cost as needed OR click Receive All to switch to a list of all items in the order.
- Scanning or entering sku in scanner
- Click on Receive Order
- Make sure cursor is in the SKU box. If not click in box.
- Scan item
- Once scanned the item verify that the Quantity Received is correct
- Note: this is in eaches not cases.
- Verify total is correct
- Click on Save
- Scan next item
- Once all items are scanned and received click on “Order”
- Scroll through order to verify that all items are correctly received.
- No Highlight-received
- Green row-SO product
- Purple row-ordered did not receive
- Click on “All Orders”. This will bring you back to the main page of Placed orders.
Sales should be deducted from inventory automatically. Shrink is counted separately but is also deducted automatically. The numbers shown may sometimes be "as of the end of yesterday". Returns are not added back into inventory. Special Orders are also current ignored (this only pertains to special orders created via CORE's special order system).
The Inventory (Approximate) task should be scheduled to run nightly. This recalculates inventory based on the day's activity. Auto Order can generate orders based on pars if that seems like a good idea.
There is also a fair amount of data maintenance to ensure the different components fit together - items need to belong to a vendor, they need a corresponding vendor catalog entry defining case size / order-able quantity, the UPCs on sales, orders, and counts have to agree, etc.
(These steps most likely will not all occur on the same day)
- Enter a new item. Make sure the case size is correct (one is fine). If relevant make sure the SKU is correct, too.
- If you're dealing with a number of existing items, checking case sizes and SKUs may be easier via Item Maintenance => Manage Vendors and then Edit Vendor Catalog.
- Go to Item Maintenance => Perpetual Inventory to enter count(s) and par(s).
- Scan an item to enter a count & par for that individual item, OR
- Choose a vendor to enter counts & pars for multiple items from that vendor (e.g., entering count information that was recorded on paper).
- Generate order(s) for items with current quantity on hand less than par
- Go to Item Maintenance => Purchase Orders then Generate Order. Select vendor(s).
- Generated orders will appear in the "Pending" set
- Click Add Items in an order to make any adjustments
- Email/fax/phone the order information to the vendor
- Mark the order as "Placed"
- This will increase inventory immediately by the ordered quantities.
- Receive the Order
- Pull up the order in Item Maintenance => Purchase Orders and click Receive. If you aren't using a handheld clicking Receive All probably makes the most sense.
- The received quantities will default to the same as the ordered quantities. If there are any discrepancies/out-of-stocks/etc adjust the numbers and save.