Inventory Count Best Practices
Inventory counts support you updating your inventory quantity on hand (QOH) in a bulk efficient way.
We'd recommend coming up with a count schedule where you count smaller amounts of inventory throughout the year. Counts can also be done by inventory location to assist with more focused count events. This will help find discrepancies between Shepherd and your physical stock more easily—and can help identify potential theft, missed charges, expired items, etc. sooner.
It is recommended that counts for more valuable/highest turnover items should be performed more frequently than lesser valued or slower turnover items.
Count fast-moving items once a month
Count medium-moving items once a quarter
Count slow-moving items twice a year
Create a New Count
To create a new count navigate to: Admin -> Inventory -> Counts -> +Add New
Before you begin updating your new count, you'll need to confirm a few count details -
Blank Count: Enabling the toggle will offer you an empty count where you can define which items you want to include
The blank count toggle will override any location election and still provide an empty count page to update from
Location: You can select a location or leave the location of the count undefined.
If you select a location, any items associated with that location will be populated for you to update the QOH for
If you do not select a location, and have not indicated a blank count, you will receive your complete inventory list to work from
Locations can be physical areas of the clinic, a count frequency, or any type of informative categorization of your inventory items
A User is required to be selected before being able to proceed. A Count Note is optional, but can be helpful if reviewing counts in the future. Select 'Save' once all appropriate elections are defined.
Completing an Inventory Count
Once your new count page is open, you're ready to begin your counts!
You can download your count list if you prefer to complete your preliminary count through an external CSV or need to have a paper copy.
If you haven't selected a count that default includes inventory items, you'll first need to search and add your inventory items that you are updating counts for. Select +Add once you locate the inventory item(s) you want to add.
You can only include an inventory item on one open count at a time. If you are not able to find an item you are searching for, confirm it is not included in another open count.
Once your inventory items are listed, you can begin entering your count to update the QOH. You can finalize counts individually by item row, by selecting multiple rows, or as a complete effort using the Finalize All button.
Count values autosave before they are finalized. This means you can navigate away from the count page without losing any progress. Use the Refresh (circular arrow) icon to refresh your Current Quantity if you've been working on your count while sales have been occurring simultaneously.
Deleting Counts
Using the trash bin icon, you delete an inventory row from a count, or an entire count. If the icon is not present, or muted, this means you have finalized data and you can no longer delete the entry.
Counts with Inventory Lots
If you are utilizing inventory lot features, you'll be offered an additional row for each lot of each inventory item. Here's an example of what to expect:
You can update count values per lot row within each inventory item.
You can update existing lot details using the edit pencil located at the far right of the row.
You'll see a new lot row for sale events that occurred before an associated lot was available. This is a common use case where you could utilize the lot detail update workflow.
Adding a Lot During a Count
If a lot you've counted is not available within Shepherd, you can either receive the lot through a purchase order, or add the lot while performing your count. To create a new lot, select the Add Additional Lot text under the inventory item to open the newlot modal.
Count Statuses
You'll appreciate various count statuses present when working with inventory lots and counts.
Here's how to understand each:
Not Counted: This indicates a count update was not performed
Counted: This indicates a count update was applied
Not Count on Item Entry: This indicates that during inventory item creation, an initial count was not entered.
New Inventory Item Count
When creating a new inventory item, you can indicate if the item has stock available using the Has QOH toggle. If you are setting up a new pharmacy, or if the item has not arrived onsite yet, you can leave the Has QOH toggle disabled.
If you are defining an initial inventory lot count, you can define a custom Cost per UOM for that inventory quantity.
You can only enter initial counts for one inventory lot from within a new inventory item page. If you have multiple lots to define initial counts for, it is recommended you utilize the normal count workflow.