Inventory is the procedure of verifying the presence of goods and company assets, as well as reconciling them with financial expenditures and accounting records. This method of controlling assets is applied in every enterprise. Inventories can be full (covering the entire warehouse) or partial (limited to specific locations). You can find answers to frequently asked questions.

Why conduct an inventory?

Inventories are carried out in service centers, warehouses, and stores. They can be scheduled or unscheduled. There are several reasons for conducting an inventory in a service center or warehouse:

• to verify the presence of goods in the company;
• before compiling annual reports;
• to discover surpluses and shortages;
• to check the conditions for storing goods and their status;
• to identify and correct errors in accounting;
• to assess the remaining stock after natural disasters, fires, theft, or other emergencies;
• when changing personnel responsible for the contents of the warehouse;
• prior to reorganization or closing a warehouse.

What is a shortage?

A shortage is the difference between accounting records and the actual availability of goods in the warehouse. In other words, certain items should be in stock according to the list, but the inventory revealed that they are missing. If you have multiple locations, it is important to check for lost items in other warehouses. Employees of the company are responsible for completely lost items. The manager independently decides who will cover the losses.

What are surpluses?

Surplus refers to the difference between accounting records and the actual stock of goods in the warehouse. During the check, names that are recorded at another warehouse may be discovered. Excess goods can be returned to their designated locations. After this, the inventory module data in the program needs to be reconciled with accounting records.

If you own a store or service center, you will regularly conduct inventories. For this, you can use the Gincore app, which features a relevant module. This software covers all inventory-related tasks. To understand how to use the program, familiarize yourself with the frequently asked questions about it.

How is inventory conducted in a warehouse?

To conduct an inventory, you will need a laptop with the Gincore program installed and a barcode scanner. Each product has a label with a serial number that corresponds to its entry in the list and indicates its exact location in the warehouse. You need to walk around the entire facility and scan the barcodes of each item. The numbers of the scanned products will appear in the inventory report: red crosses indicate shortages, while green check marks confirm the presence of items. Reports on shortages and surpluses in the warehouse will be based on this information.

When I started the inventory, the entire list of goods shows as a shortage. Why?

In the inventory module, you select a warehouse and one or more locations. The list will display all items that should be here. Initially, they are marked as shortages by the system because their existence has not yet been confirmed. As a result, they will show up with a red cross. Once you scan the barcode of an item and it is found in the list, the cross will change to a green check mark. This indicates that the specific item is indeed in stock.

How do I complete the inventory? How do I close it? Why is there no status for closing the inventory?

After you have walked the entire warehouse with the scanner and checked the list of available goods, you need to click the “Save” button in the Gincore program. The results will be uploaded to the inventory report.

What should I do with the inventory reports?

The results of the inventory are formatted into reports. You can export the results to an Excel table, either for shortages only or for surpluses. A comprehensive report containing all information can also be obtained. This document will assist in reconciling with accounting records.

If I sell an item, will it disappear from the inventory?

Once an item is sold, the customer's order will close, meaning that the item disappears from the inventory. The item will no longer physically be in the warehouse and will be removed from the list, moving to the customer orders section.

Now, with the Gincore program, warehouse management and inventory checking will take less time, and order will be maintained in the warehouse.

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