Barcode Physical Inventory
The Bar Code Physical Inventory allows store personnel to take a physical store inventory by using a portable bar code reader. (This assumes you have already tagged your merchandise with Bar-codes via the BPS garment tag printing program in the Permanent Inventory).
Once the inventory has been collected into the portable reader, you are ready to update the computer's inventory.
Refer to Appendix F for information concerning the programming of the portable bar code reader.
There are a few steps involved in updating the computer's inventory with the Reader's count information.
Note: The following instructions assume that you are using a Worthington Data Solutions’ TriCoder to perform your physical inventory. BBL Systems highly recommends the use of a Tricoder over any other brand of portable barcode reader and is, in fact, the only model BBL Systems directly supports.
Step 1)
Do the physical inventory with the reader.
Disconnect the reader from the computer (if it is connected) and turn it on. Press the F1 key until it asks:
DATA COLLECTION?
KEY [YES/NO]?_
Press the YES key. It will ask:
PROGRAM NO?
The system is asking you for a program number.
KEY [0-3]?_
Press 1. You are now ready to collect data with the reader. During the physical inventory the reader will be asking for two bits of information.
The item number of the inventory and the quantity on hand. You can quickly enter the item number by waving the wand over the bar code found on the garment tag.
Enter the quantity by pressing the appropriate number on the reader's keypad, then pressing Enter on the reader's keypad. A faster method may be to print a bar code for the most popular quantity, then tape it to the top of the reader. You can then simply wand the bar code instead of manually entering the code from the keypad.
You may have several inventory entries of the same item number. Just move the wand over each one separately (with quantity of 1), or move the wand over the first item and key in the correct quantity. Either way, the computer will update the permanent inventory properly.
Once you have completed the physical inventory data collection, press F1 on the reader's keypad at the reader's Enter Item No. prompt. This action will exit you out of data collection where you can turn the reader off or proceed with transferring the data to the computer.
It is not necessary to complete the physical inventory data collection in 1 session. You could do it over several days. The reader maintains the data with its batteries until you are ready to upload the data to the computer and delete the data in the reader.
To resume data entry with the reader from where you left off, just turn it on. Press the reader's F1 key until it asks:
DATA COLLECTION?
KEY [YES/NO]?_
Press YES on the reader. It will say:
DATA FILE EXISTS
HIT ANY KEY_
Press the YES key. You are now ready to resume the count.
Step 2)
Once the physical inventory is collected with the portable reader, plug the reader into the computer. We assume here the reader has already been installed on your computer.
Step 3)
You select the Bar code Physical Count Inventory program from within BPS. If data exists in the file, the system will present a message stating that data exists and would you like it deleted. You normally would want the file empty so it is fresh for the new data.
A situation may arise where you did a physical and uploaded the data to the computer, then deleted the data on you portable reader. You then realized that you skipped counting an entire section of the stores inventory and now you want to go back and count it with the portable reader.
You can do this by following the same steps. When the computer asks you to delete the existing data in the physical inventory file on the computer, answer NO. You can then upload the new data from the reader. You can do this even if you had already updated the permanent inventory with the physical count data. Just re-update the permanent inventory.
Step 4)
You upload the portable reader's inventory information into the computer.
To upload the data, turn on the portable reader and press the F1 key until it asks you:
DATA UPLOAD?
KEY [YES/NO]?_
Press the YES key. The reader will say:
UPLOADING DATA
PLEASE WAIT_
At this point, you can watch the computer accept the data from the reader. It takes approximately two seconds for each item to be entered. Once the data entry is completed, the portable reader will ask:
END OF TRANSMIT
DEL FILE [Y/N]?_
The reader is asking you to delete the data file that was collected with the reader.
Press the YES key. The reader will ask:
ARE YOU SURE?
KEY (YES/NO)?_
Press the YES key. Now the reader will say:
You can turn the reader off and proceed to the next step.
Step 5)
The next step is to print a Listing of the Physical count. From the listing data entry errors will be easily found. This listing is printed from the Physical Count data screen. Correct any errors and then proceed to the next step.
Step 6)
Update the Permanent Inventory from the physical count file. Make this selection from the menu.
The computer will take a few minutes to update all of your permanent inventory.
Step 7)
Finally, print the Exception Reports. These reports will print the items in the permanent inventory (items not counted in the physical count), and those items in the physical inventory file (those items counted, but not entered into the permanent inventory) that were not matched.
From the Exception Reports, you can make the final manual adjustments to your permanent inventory.
Note: The Exception reports may be limited to specific inventory categories, i.e. shoes. This allows you to perform a partial physical inventory count.