In a stock count, you count physical inventory and compare it to recorded quantities to assess your stock levels. The Lightspeed Inventory module assists with this by providing tools that help you track and facilitate your counts.

This guide covers how to begin a stock count, count items, submit adjustments to your stock levels, and view finished counts. Follow these steps to ensure up-to-date records, reduce discrepancies, and improve efficiency.

Starting and resuming stock counts

To begin with stock counts, either start a new stock count or resume an existing draft count. This section guides you through these initial steps to get started.

1. Log in to the Inventory module with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. From the navigation menu, select Stock management > Stock counts.
3. Click New stock count to start a new count, or click Resume to continue a draft count.
   • Use a new stock count for each separate counting event. For example, if you count weekly, each week would be a new stock count.
   • Resume a draft stock count to work on a started, but still unsubmitted / unfinished, count. As you count items, progress is automatically saved as a draft stock count. Multiple employees can count together by each resuming the same stock count from different devices.

   

After starting or resuming a stock count, you'll be taken to the page where you can count your stock items.

Counting items

After starting or resuming a stock count, you'll need to count the items in your inventory. This section details the counting process. If multiple employees are counting, real-time updates across all devices ensure everyone stays coordinated.

Changes save automatically every few seconds. If you need to pause, you can always resume the draft stock count at a later time.

1. If you’ve set up stock locations, select a location to see a list of items stored in that space.

   

2. Use the search field or scroll through the list to find the item to count and click its name.
3. On the right, enter the exact item quantity in the Units field or use the + / - buttons to adjust the value by one.

   

4. Click Save, next item to save and advance to the next item on the list, or click the next item you want to count.
5. (Optional) To skip a selected item without counting it, click Don’t count this item or click another item from within the list.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 for all items you want to count.

   Note: Uncounted items will appear with a - - in the Counted Quantity column and are omitted from the count submission. To set an item to 0 quantity, you must count it as 0 before submitting the count.

7. After all desired items are counted, submit the stock count to finalize it.

Submitting a stock count

Once all items have been counted, submitting the stock count is the final step to update your inventory levels. This section explains how to review and finalize your counts, ensuring all changes are accurately reflected in your inventory records.

Before submitting a stock count, make sure all employees are finished counting. Each employee still counting will be represented by a letter at the top of the count. Once submitted, no additional changes can be made to the stock count.

1. During a stock count, click Review stock count to see the resulting inventory changes.
2. (Optional) If any items were miscounted, select the item from the list and click Recount to adjust the number. Click Apply changes to finish.
3. Enter a Stock count name, then click Submit stock count > Submit to finish the count. The stock levels of your items will automatically update to reflect the new counted quantities.

Viewing finished stock counts

After submitting your stock counts, you can view historical data to understand their impact on your inventory. This section provides instructions on accessing and analyzing past stock counts, helping you track inventory changes and make informed decisions.

1. Log in to the Inventory module with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. From the navigation menu, select Stock management > Stock counts.
3. Click the name of a stock count to view more information. 

The details page shows the stock count's date and the emails of all users who worked on it. The total number of variances, cost of those variances, and total value of your counted stock items is also shown. You can search by item, filter by accounting group, and view a breakdown by item. 

To export the item table to a spreadsheet, click Export to CSV.