What is a Cycle Count?
A cycle count is when a retail shop counts all physical inventory and compares those quantities with what Meadow’s Inventory displays.
Keep track of products on hand and make sure everything adds up. Using cycle counts makes it easy to confirm your inventory is accurate and losses are detectable.
In a perfect world, what you have on hand matches what the system says you should have. Cycle counts offer your shop the ability to account for theft, discrepancies, and shrinkage. It’s important to perform regular cycle counts to regulate your inventory so your shop can execute sales flawlessly.
Why are cycle counts important?
It is a DCC requirement to have a full count of inventory every 30 days.
Without performing cycle counts regularly your business is at risk of fines and license suspension.
Know your shrinkage.
Shops who use cycle counts on a regular basis see a dramatic decrease in inventory discrepancies.
Reduce your risk and the cost associated
Reduce your compliance risk
There are a few different methods of counting that retail stores consider:
Print out your current inventory from Meadow with products and expected quantities 👎
Problem: A perfect opportunity to keep those discrepancies a secret
Problem: It’s easy to say that the numbers are accurate when they are off by one or two
Print outs with products and hide the expected quantities 👎
Problem: Counters will not notice a product on your shelf that is not on the list
Problem: A perfect world, all inventory is in one place, but in reality, most stores have inventory in multiple locations.
A blind count 🏆
Assign an employee a physical space to count. Use the Cycle Count system to add quantities together for you for accuracy and accountability purposes.
In this image, this inventory location is considered "Retail Floor," however each employee is designated a section to count on the retail floor.
How to Perform a Blind Count 🏆
Assign a physical location for each person to count.
With Meadow Cycle counts, your count can be location specific, can be completed by category, and works best with scanning.
The location you select for your cycle count would be a specific inventory location inside Meadow. However the location you assign an employee to Blind Count can be that location divided into manageable work loads.
While each employee counts a section of that location independently, as long as they are contributing to the same Cycle count from an iPad or a laptop, Meadow will add those quantities together for you.
💡 Pro tip: Perform smaller, more frequent cycle counts to decrease labor and count more efficiently.
How to perform a Cycle Count
There are two stages:
Stage 1: Open the Count
You can begin a new cycle count or contribute to one either through Meadow Admin from a computer or in the Meadow app using the Cycle count tool.
Count using an iPad
Tool select > Cycle count
Select location
Select category
View open cycle counts, submitted, closed, and all counts here.
Open: A count has been created and is being contributed towards. You do not want two open cycle counts for the same location in the same category.
Submitted: A count has been completed and can still be contributed to, otherwise is waiting for review from a manager to implement the adjustments in inventory.
Note: All inactive products will not appear on an iPad cycle count. You will need to add inactive products to your cycle counts from admin.
Open a new cycle count or continue a count (Make sure there is only one count per location per category)
To scan, or not to scan?
Begin to scan individual products. You can scan to count by scanning every individual label.
You can also manually add quantities to each package if you don’t want to scan every individual product.
Scan/select the next product, continue through your assigned location
The app will continue to populate these quantities live
If you scan a product that doesn’t belong in this category, Meadow will stop you from adding the product that doesn’t belong.
You can manually select a product if the label is smudged or not on the product and you can’t scan it. Select the according package.
Submit your cycle count for review
Count using Meadow Admin
Select the Inventory, then the Cycle Counts tab, and either create a New Cycle Count or continue an Open Count.
Name the cycle count (optional) and select a location of inventory to count (if you only have one location it will default to that location).
Search and add line items to the count by product, option or brand name.
Once you're finished counting, submit the cycle count for approval.
Pro tip: scan items into a cycle count with barcodes to reduce mistakes.
Along with the quantity, you can use notes to record if a product was lost, found, damaged, moved, etc.
You can leave a cycle count open and come back to finish it later. By selecting an open cycle count, you will be able to pick up where you left off counting your products. Be aware this may lead to inventory conflicts (more below).
Stage 2: Submit for approval
Once the cycle count has been sent to the review phase, head to Meadow Admin. Cycle counts can be submitted by any user via the app or Admin.
Once a count has been submitted, new functions will appear for managers.
Managers can review these tabs to make sure the count is accurate, complete and ready to finalize.
My Actions tab: This is a view of all submitted counts. You also have the ability to add products manually here.
Summary tab: This is an overview of what counts were submitted compared to what your inventory in Meadow states.
Sort by discrepancy
Prioritize large discrepancies. Investigate why these counts were off before submitting your cycle count.
Before confirming discrepancies, check all inventory locations. Sometimes a discrepancy is resolved by an easy transfer from one location to another.
Select a METRC adjustment reason for the discrepancies (METRC requirement)
Undersold
Oversold
Incorrect quantity
Some reasons require a METRC Adjustment Note
💡 Tip: Add an action to the count to resolve discrepancies: Can you see that someone counted twice causing a large discrepancy? Add an action that puts your discrepancy to a zero quantity, rather than cancel an entire action to record data and for accountability.
Missing Products tab: The missing products tab in a submitted count shows all products in that inventory location that have not been added to that cycle count. Filter missing products to a specific category or by brand to see what products weren't counted.
Conflicts tab: Conflicts show any inventory changes that have been made since the cycle count was opened, that conflicts with a product in that count. These will be expressed here chronologically.
Conflicts must be resolved to finalize a count.
Finalize your cycle count and your new quantities (represented in the color orange) will remain in your Meadow Inventory. Your changes will reflect in METRC.
Take this course to learn how to use Meadow's Cycle Count to improve your inventory efficiency.