Stock Counts & Cycle Counting
Plan a count, let counters submit blind figures, review the variances, and turn the approved differences into stock adjustments — without anyone editing a balance by hand.
Stock counting lives at Inventory → Inventory Counts. A count is a session: a defined scope of stock, a set of counters, a list of lines with a counted quantity against a system quantity, and a review step. Sessions can be one-off (a full stocktake) or generated from a repeating plan (cycle counting).
Count Plans
A plan describes what to count and how often, so you are not rebuilding the same scope every month. You can scope a plan by warehouse, location, category, ABC class, velocity class, risk level, or a stock-value band, then set a frequency (for example monthly) and how many days a session stays due. Two switches matter:
- Blind count (on by default) hides the system quantity from the counter, so the count is evidence rather than confirmation.
- Freeze stock holds movement on the counted scope while the session is open, which removes the "it moved while we were counting" argument.
How A Session Moves
- Open. The session is created from a plan or built ad hoc, and lines are generated for the scope.
- Counting. Counters — assigned people, on the web or on a scanner — submit a counted quantity per line.
- Review. A reviewer approves each submitted line, or sends it back with a recount request and a reason. An approved line cannot be quietly re-typed; changing it means asking for a recount.
- Adjustment pending. When the variances are approved, the session raises the stock movements and waits.
- Adjusted. Stock changes when those adjustments are adjusted, and the session closes.
You cannot skip step 3. If lines are still submitted or awaiting a recount, applying the count is refused and nothing is changed.
Variances Become Adjustments, Not Direct Edits
This is the part most people expect to work differently. Applying a count does not write stock balances directly. It raises stock adjustments, which is the same path every other movement in AWRA takes — so the correction carries a reference number, an approval gate, a line in the adjustments register, and the accounting entries behind it.
- Gains and losses travel separately. An adjustment moves in one direction, so a session that is short on some lines and over on others raises two documents. That is also the right shape for review: approving found stock and approving a write-off are different decisions.
- It raises the difference, not the counted figure. The adjustment is plus or minus the variance. If stock legitimately moves between the count and the correction, a delta still lands on the right number, where "set it to what we counted" would erase that movement.
- While the movements are awaiting approval, the session sits in adjustment pending — counted and reviewed, but not yet reflected in stock.
Variance Rules
Rules decide which variances a person must look at. A rule can be scoped to a warehouse or category and set a tolerance by absolute quantity, percentage, or variance value. Within tolerance, a rule can be set to auto-adjust; outside it, the line requires approval. Start strict — everything reviewed — and loosen the tolerances once you trust the counting discipline.
Signatures & Audit Trail
A session can take two distinct marks: a count signature and an approval signature, each only while the session is in a status where that mark still means something. Every step — submission, recount request, approval, cancellation, application — is written to the session's audit tab with who did it and when. See Signature Capture.
If The Numbers Look Wrong
A count that shows a variance you cannot explain is usually a missed movement rather than a miscount — an unposted receipt, a transfer still in transit, or stock on a quality hold. Check Stock Mismatch and Stock Status & Quality Holds before adjusting.
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