How to count stock in PointLit

What a blind count is, and why to use one

A blind count hides the system quantity while you enter figures. You are shown the item and asked what is on the shelf, and nothing else. It matters because seeing the expected number first changes what people write down: a figure that is nearly right looks close enough to confirm, and a count that has been nudged to agree with the system is not a count at all. If you only ever want to find the discrepancies you already suspect, count openly. If you want to know what is actually on the shelves, count blind.

Running a count

Counting locks the location for the duration, so do it when the shop is quiet rather than across a busy afternoon.

1. Open Stock counts and pick the location.
2. Decide whether it is a blind count before you start, and tick it if so.
3. Start the count. The location is locked and a snapshot of the current figures is taken.
4. Walk the shelves, entering the counted quantity for each item.
5. Press Save counts as you go. You do not have to finish in one pass.

Posting the adjustment

When the counting is done, the screen shows the System figure, your Counted figure and the Delta between them for every line you entered. Posting writes those deltas to the ledger as adjustments, and the system on-hand is recomputed at the moment of posting rather than from the snapshot taken when you started, so a sale rung during a long count is not quietly undone. Lines you never entered a figure for are left alone: an item you did not count is not an item you counted as zero.

Press Post adjustment, check the figures, then press Post the adjustment. Any figure you typed and did not save is saved first and then posted, so the Counted figures in the confirmation are the ones posted. If the save is refused, nothing is posted and the confirmation says why.

When stock gains need approval

“Stock gains need approval” is a switch in Business settings, and it stays off unless someone turns it on: open Manage, then Settings, then Business, turn it on and press Save.

While it is on, posting a count writes the pieces it finds missing at once, but the pieces it finds above the System figure wait on the Stock gains screen, and nobody can sell them until someone approves them. The same rule holds for a line marked In under Stock adjustments and for a lot correction that raises a lot's received figure. A count that finds pieces missing asks “Why are pieces missing?” and is not posted without an answer.

After posting, the count says how many stock gains wait for approval, with Open Stock gains and, for someone allowed to approve, Approve now. Approve now opens the waiting gains for review; it does not approve them in one press. If the switch is turned off later, the gains already waiting stay on Stock gains until someone decides them.

Approving or refusing a stock gain

Only someone whose role holds Approve stock gains can decide, and only at their own branches. As standard that is the Owner, and Staff accounts and roles shows how to give it to another role.

1. Open Manage, then Stock gains, and stay on the Waiting tab.
2. Press Review on a gain. Under Where this item may be, check the open transfers that still carry the item. If one is On the way to this shop, the extra pieces are probably that transfer's: open it with Open transfer, receive it there, and refuse the gain.
3. Under What the business has of this item, compare what was bought, sold and held. If approving would give the business more than it bought and has not sold, the screen warns you.
4. To approve, choose a reason under “Why is this stock real?”: Found in the shop, The supplier sent extra, or Other with a Note. Press Approve, and the pieces are added to stock at that branch.
5. To refuse, write a Note saying why and press Refuse. Nothing is added.

Found stock from offline sales

A till that was offline sends its queued sales when the line comes back, and by then a sale can be for more pieces than the branch's stock shows. PointLit books the missing pieces as found stock so the sale stands, because the sale really happened. While “Stock gains need approval” is on, that found stock is also listed on the To check tab of Stock gains. It is already in stock, so it is not approved or refused: look into it, then open it and press Mark as checked.

Afterwards

Every count stays in the count log with its status, so a shelf that is repeatedly wrong is visible as a pattern rather than as a series of forgotten one-off corrections. That log is usually the fastest way to answer why an item's on-hand moved without a sale.