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Cycle counting

A cycle count is a count nobody plans by hand: the system decides which cell is due and creates the document for it. A one-off count starts with somebody's decision; a cycle count starts with two things — how often a cell should be counted, and a scheduled task that checks whether that time has come.

How often a cell is counted​

The interval is set on the storage zone, as a number of days; zero means "do not count this". Every cell in the zone may override it — inherit the zone's interval, which is the default, set its own, or stay out of counting altogether.

When a cell becomes due​

For every cell the system keeps the date of its last count and its count status. A cell becomes due when more days have passed since that date than its interval allows.

The status outranks the calendar, though. A cell marked Count required goes for counting at once, whatever its date and interval say. The system marks it itself when it could not find what the records promised — most often when picking was closed without finding a line.

What you set on the task​

In a scheduled task of type Cycle counting, below the fields every task has, you decide:

  • Warehouse — one per instance.
  • What to count — cells with stock, regardless of stock, or empty only. There is little sense in driving empty cells round the general cycle, so they usually get an instance of their own — once every two months, or on Saturdays.
  • Which cells qualify — count required, due by interval, negative stock. Choose none and every cell that passes the filters is taken. Critical cells usually get their own instance firing every hour, while "due by interval" is aimed at the morning, or at the hour when cell staff come free after receiving.
  • Cell filters — the same set the cell list offers: name, address, cell type, section, aisle, rack, level, position, storage zone, work zone, size, order and accessibility, capacity, owner, and so on. A filter compares against a single value, so two storage zones mean two instances.
  • Documents — the kind of count to create, and the maximum number of documents one run may produce.

What the task creates​

One count document per due cell, a Draft scoped to a single cell. Several cells are not gathered into one document, which makes the per-run limit the thing to watch: when a large part of the warehouse comes due at once, one run creates only as many documents as you allowed and the rest wait for the next.

How many cells came up due and how many became documents is shown in the run history.

From there the document takes the ordinary inventory count path: it is taken into work from draft, counted on the PDT, and its discrepancies approved. On the terminal it looks like any other count — there is no mark saying a schedule created it, and its author is the user the task runs as. Completing a document that fully covers its cell sets the cell's status to Count completed and records the date, and it is from that date that the next cycle counts.