Using Groups for Counts in Multiple Areas

Overview:

The two standard options for an Inventory Count Valuation in COGS-Well are to list the items by Category or by Storage Location on the Count Worksheet and Count Entry display. For many customers, this is all the flexibility that is required.

However, If you want to enter separate Valuation Counts for the same date, then you can create an Inventory Group and then use an Inventory Department, Category, or Storage Location as the "Source" for the items.

A common example is a desire to take and enter separate counts for the restaurant versus the bar, often on the same date. For this example, a "Bar Count" and a "Restaurant Count" inventory group would be set up and a source for the items in each group (either Departments, Categories, or Storage Locations) would be selected.

Why Use Inventory Groups for Counting?

An Inventory Group can be selected for an Inventory Count Worksheet and the Inventory Count Entry feature. If an item Source (Departments, Categories, or Storage Locations) is assigned to an inventory group, then the items that will appear on the worksheet and count entry feature when a group is selected can be further controlled.

Using the restaurant versus the bar example above, setting up an inventory group for counts with a source for the items being the storage locations that are in the restaurant or bar will result in fewer worksheets needing to be generated (print one for the bar and one for the restaurant). It will also better facilitate entering two counts (often done by 2 different Users) for the same date.

Finally, reports that provide an option to filter for a selected Inventory Group, such as the Extension or Usage Reports, can be run for any Inventory Group or Groups so using this example, an Extension Report could be run for the restaurant and the bar.

Setting Up Group Sources:

Navigate to Inventory>Setup>Inventory Groups

Select to add a new inventory group from the Setup Grid:

Below we are looking at an Inventory Group we set up for Bar Counts. The Source field defaulted to Items, but for this example, we want to select from either Inventory Departments, Categories, or Storage Locations:

Example Using Departments: For this example, we have selected Inventory Departments because we can use them to separate the inventory items that are in the bar from the ones that are in the restaurant.:

Once we have selected to use Inventory Departments, we can move to the tab for Departments that will be added to the display to select the departments. Below we are looking at the Departments that were selected from the dual list box for Bar Counts (Liquor, Beer, and Wine):

If we save the above example, when the Bar Inventory Count Group is selected, the count worksheet and count entry display will list the inventory items assigned to each selected department and alphabetically within each department.

Example Using Storage Locations: In the below example, we have set up an Inventory Group for Restaurant Inventory Counts using Storage Locations as the Source:

In the below example, we moved to the Storage Location tab and selected the Storage Locations associated with the restaurant:

If we save the above example, when the Restaurant Inventory Count Group is selected, the count worksheet and count entry display will list the inventory items assigned to each selected storage location and in the sort order they were assigned.

Summary:

The reason to set up Inventory Groups with a Source other than Items is to provide more flexibility and control for taking and reporting inventory counts.

The two primary advantages that setting up groups with a source provides are more control over count worksheets (separate bar versus restaurant worksheets) and the ability to enter and report separate valuation counts for each source (even on the same day).

If you have questions or would like additional guidance, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@cogs-well.com.