Count your stock and correct the difference

The system knows how much stock it expects, because it adds up every purchase, sale and transfer. What is on the shelf can be different: something broke, something went missing, somebody captured a wrong quantity. Until you count, that difference goes unnoticed and the stock on screen stays wrong.

A physical inventory is that count, written down. You list what you really have, the system shows the difference against what it expected, you note what happened, and when you complete it the stock is corrected to match what you counted. The shrinkage — what is missing — is valued in money, so you can see how serious it was.

Before you start

Physical inventory is a module. Open Add-ons, under Administration in the team menu, find the Inventario Físico card and press Buy: it is a paid module, added to your subscription (see Your plan and support). While it is off, the Inventario Físico entry does not appear in the menu.

It counts stock, so it only makes sense together with Inventario: a product only appears in a count when it keeps stock, and that needs the inventory module to be on as well.

The list of every movement of your stock and the stock statistics button on the products list do not need this module: they come with Inventario.

Working with physical inventories needs its own permission, which is given from the roles like any other.

Decide what a large shrinkage is

Go to Configuración → Configuración General and fill in Monto de merma grande: the amount, in money, from which the shrinkage of a count is considered large. It is what decides the colour a completed count gets, as described further down. Leave it empty and no count is ever marked as large.

Start a count

Go to Inventario → Inventario Físico and press Nuevo conteo. The count is created with the date and time, in the En captura status.

It already carries the products worth counting: every product that keeps stock and has had some movement, with its Cantidad esperada — what the system says there should be. A product with variants appears once per variant, each with its own expected quantity.

If your team works with branches, the count belongs to the branch you are in, and it only looks at that branch's stock. You need to be inside a branch to start one. A team without branches counts the whole team.

Only one count can be in progress at a time for the same branch, or for the team. While one is open, the list offers Continuar conteo instead, and says so.

Capture what you counted

For each line, write what you really have in Cantidad contada. The Diferencia appears at once: in green with a plus sign when there is more than expected, in red when there is less. A line you have not counted yet says Sin contar.

When a line has a difference, use its Nota to say what happened with that product — it broke, it expired, it was a capture error. Observaciones, at the top, is a general note for the whole count, apart from the notes of each line.

A product that is not listed because the system has it at zero can still be counted: use Agregar un producto que no está en la lista to add it, and capture the surplus you found. Eliminar takes a line out of the count.

You do not have to count everything in one go. Guardar conteo saves what you have captured and takes you back to the list; Continuar opens it again where you left it. While it is in progress, Eliminar discards the whole count without touching the stock.

Complete the count

When you are done, press Completar conteo. The system asks you to confirm, because this cannot be undone. Completing:

• Gives the count its folio.
• Adjusts the stock of every counted line so it matches what you counted — surpluses and shrinkage alike. With branches, only that branch's stock moves; the same product in another branch is not touched. Each adjustment appears in the product's movements, pointing back to this count.
• Leaves the lines you did not count exactly as they were.
• Values the shrinkage in money, adding up only the lines where something is missing. A surplus does not reduce it.

To value a line, the system uses the first cost it finds: the lowest cost captured among the product's suppliers, then the cost of its most recent purchase, and finally its sale price. A line with none of the three shows Costo desconocido and is left out of the total, and the count says so.

You need at least one counted line to complete it.

The result

A completed count gets one of three statuses, by the value of its shrinkage:

• Completado, in green — nothing is missing. Only surpluses, or an exact match.
• Con merma, in yellow — something is missing, below your Monto de merma grande.
• Merma grande, in red — the shrinkage reaches or goes past that amount.

The list shows, for every count, its date, who created it, its status and its shrinkage. Opening a completed count shows the Diferencias encontradas, line by line, with the value of each shrinkage and its note, and a summary of what was counted.

A completed count is permanent. It cannot be edited, cancelled or reopened: if the stock needs correcting again, start a new count.