Use inventory counts to reconcile inventory, determine shrinkage and correct your inventory counts. You can do either full or partial counts.

An inventory count cannot be imported or merged to another count.

Creating an inventory count

1. From the main menu, click Inventory > Inventory Counts > +New Inventory Count.

2. Name your count. We recommend that you name it based on the situation and time of year, for example, Fall 2010 Count.

3. If you have a multi-store account, select your shop.

   Once you add items to your inventory count, you can no longer change the shop you selected.

4. Click Save Changes.

Counting your items

There are three ways that you can count and enter your items:

Using a barcode scanner

This is ideal for smaller inventory counts or where items are easily accessible near a device running Lightspeed Retail, allowing them to be scanned with a barcode scanner.

1. Click the Scan or enter items search field and ensure that your cursor is blinking.
2. Use the barcode scanner to scan each item you wish to count.

   You can scan the same item multiple times to increase the counted quantity. If you have a large amount of the same item to count, click the Counted quantity field next to the corresponding item on the list and enter a value from 1 to 99. For values larger than 99, scan the item again and continue to apply the desired values.

Using printouts

Printouts are ideal for medium-to-large counts and allows you to print a list of all items to count. These can be given to staff, quantities recorded on the printout, and then entered into Lightspeed Retail.

1. On the Inventory count page, click Print item list.
2. Select a Sort by option from the Sort by item ID or Sort by description lists.
3. Print the generated list and mark the quantity of each item in the Count box.
4. Once all items on the printout are counted, return to Lightspeed retail. Enter each item ID on the printout into the ID field and the corresponding quantity into the Count field, then click Enter count.

Import a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet import is ideal for large inventory counts. Items can be counted and the quantities formatted into a spreadsheet (CSV or XLSX) that will be recognized by Lightspeed Retail and added to the count automatically.

1. Create a CSV or XLSX spreadsheet, then name two columns ID and Count.
2. In the ID column, enter the System ID, UPC, EAN, Custom SKU or manufacturer SKU associated with the item counted in Lightspeed Retail.

   If you are not sure what to enter in the ID column, you can see all item details recorded for item(s) by navigating to Inventory > Item search and using the filters to curate a count list as required, then click Export to download a spreadsheet containing item details for all selected items. This can then be used to create a new import spreadsheet for the inventory count. 

3. In the Count column, enter the quantity of that item counted.
4. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV or XLSX file type.
5. On the Inventory count page in Lightspeed Retail, click Select file and select the spreadsheet you created, or drag and drop the file into the Import items field.
6. When the file has uploaded and the File has been uploaded message is displayed, click Map columns.
7. Ensure that the Your file and Lightspeed columns are correctly mapped
   
   • System ID to System ID
   • Count to Count
8. Click Verify file. Lightspeed Retail will check the import file for errors and when successful, display an Import overview.

   If there are errors in the import file, a This file has X items with errors message will be displayed. Click Download this file to fix the errors and then re-import.

9. Click Import.

Reviewing and reconciling the count

Follow these steps to accurately align your physical stock with system records after completing an inventory count. As you reconcile, a progress bar will offer a visual cue to your real-time progress.

1. Within the Inventory Count, on the left menu click Missed.

2. This list displays the uncounted inventory items. Some items may not have ever been counted and others may not have been counted because they are missing. Items in this list will have no inventory adjustments. If you're doing a partial count of a few select items there will always be items in this list.

3. You can set all the items in this list to have a count of zero by scrolling to the bottom, choosing the checkbox to select all the items, and clicking the Zero Selected Items button. This sets their inventory levels to zero when you reconcile. Reconciling is when you change your inventory records to match your physical count. Be careful when performing this function as it adjusts your inventory records for all counted items.

4. When you're sure the list is accurate, reconcile your inventory. On the INVENTORY COUNT page, on the left menu click Reconcile.

5. When you're certain that your counts are correct, click the Reconcile Inventory button.

6. After reconciling, on the left menu click Shrinkage to view how much inventory was lost due to shrinkage.

Inventory counts measure discrepancies in inventory levels. Sales or added inventory do not change your shortages. For example, if you find that you are short 2 hats, your adjustment will be -2 to quantity on hand for the hat. That doesn’t change as you sell items or receive purchase orders. The quantity on hand is still off by -2.

Inventory changes during a count

After you complete your count, if any items are highlighted in yellow with a QOH Changed button, it signals that the inventory has changed after you entered the count for the item. This can be any sort of change, such as a new sale, purchase order, transfer or manual adjustment, so investigate what the reason is if you're not sure why the quantity on hand changed.

If you're doing a count for a multi-store, the change is for the store you're doing the count for.