Setting Up Advanced Cycle Counting

Use the Define Products tab from Advanced Cycle Count to select the products you want to count. The system selects the products to include in the count control file based on attributes you define, such as whether to include both stock and nonstock products and which ranks to include. After defining the cycle count parameters, you schedule when and where to generate the counts for your warehouse staff.

When creating count IDs, consider the warehouse type you are counting. If you have some branches counting through RF and some branches counting using paper count sheets, you need a different count ID for each one. Once the branches or territories have been selected and saved for a count ID you cannot change it. Additionally, if you have a lot of branches that will be counting their inventory the same, you can create one count ID that all branches can use. You do not need to set up a different count for each one.

Additionally, consider the following control maintenance record (New in Release 9.0.4):

Physical Count Days To Keep For Advanced Cycle Counts - Indicate how many days you want to keep non-RF physical counts before the counts are removed.

Only Include Current Advanced Cycle Count In Calculations - Indicate if you want to include only the advanced cycle count calculations when populating the Progress tab in Advanced Cycle Counting.

Note: Each time the Advanced Cycle Count runs it calls the same routines to generate an RF or Non-RF count that is run from the menus. If you are running the Advanced Cycle Count for RF, the system updates the Warehouse Queue the same way as if you ran it from the menu. The system populates the same RF screens as standard cycle counts. For non-RF the system generates different control files, same way as if you generated 2 counts from the menu.

You can exclude specific products, groups, or lines, as needed, to makes sure that your count is pulling the specific counts you need to handle.

To set up advanced cycle count parameters:

From the Physical menu, select Advanced Cycle Count.

Click the Define Products tab.

In the Advanced Count ID field, enter the count sheet number you want to view or click New to create a new count.

If you are creating a new count, use the Title field to enter a description of the count, such as Branch 1, YR2015.

In the Define Products area, use the fields to define the count parameters.

Field	Description
Branch/Territory	Select the branch or territory for which you want to create a cycle count.
Start Count Date	Define the date parameters between which you want cycle counts performed. For example, to define an annual count for 2014, enter the following: Start Count Date: 01/012014 End Count Date: 12/31/2014
End Count Date
Available Count Days	The total number of days available to count. This is the End Count Date minus the Start Count Date. Users can override this field, if needed, but cannot exceed the number of days available between Start Count Date and End Count Date. The default is 252. Eclipse assumes the following to reach 252 as a default: 365 days in a year. Company is closed on weekend days. Company is closed for eight (8) U.S. holidays.
Use Rank Number	Select the product ranking method number the program uses to select items for counting. The default is 1. The system uses ranking methods assigned to Rank #1 through Rank #5 on the Product Ranking window.
Only Stock Items with Activity in Last ____ Days	Time frame in which to include stock products with transactions and on-hand quantities. Enter the number of days to define the time frame. For example, you are running an annual count, but only want to include all stock products that had transactions or on-hand quantities within the last 90 days only, enter 90 in this field. The system includes only those stock products with activity over the last 90 days. Entering a zero (0) in this field causes the system to ignore product activity and selects all products.
Only Nonstock Items with Activity in Last ____ Days	Time frame in which to include nonstock products with transactions and on-hand quantities. For example, you are running an annual count, but only want to include all nonstock products that had transactions or on-hand quantities within the last 30 days, enter 30 in this field. The system includes only those nonstock products with activity over the last 30 days. The default value is blank (0).
Include Only Branch Stock Items	Whether to include only stock items in the count control file. Select this field to include only stock products in this generation of the count control file. Deselect this field to include both stock and nonstock products in this generation of the count control file. If you select this field, the system determines which stock products to include in the count control file as follows: If the product has an on-hand quantity, the product status is Stock, and the value in the inventory Stkcolumn is either - or Y, the system includes the product in the count control file. If the product has an on-hand quantity but the value in the inventory Stkcolumn is N, the system does not include the product in the count control file. If the product does not have an on-hand quantity, the system determines how many times the product was entered on a sales order, purchase order, transfer order, or inventory adjustment during the time period you indicated in the Only Stock Items With Activity in Last (Days) field. If it had activity within the time frame and its product status is Stock, then the system includes the product in the count control file. For example, if you enter365days in theOnly Stock Items With Activity in Last (Days)field, the system includes any product that was ordered or adjusted at least once in the last year, providing that the product status is Stock.
Include Only Items with PIL New in Release 9.0.4	Whether to include only those items with a projected inventory level (PIL) in the count control file.
Exclude Blank Locations New in Release 9.0.4	Whether to eliminate products with blank locations in the count control file.

In the Number of Counts by Rank area, define how many counts during the selected time frame you want to count each rank item.

For example, you are counting your A ranked items four times per year. You want to specify a minimum number of days in between counts, so you are not counting an item too often in the beginning of the cycle.

Counts Per Day for each rank is calculated:

Available Days for Date Range = Available Count Days / Number of Rank Counts

Counts Per Day = Number of Items for Rank / Available Days

Click here for an example for Counts Per Day:

In the Exclude from Count area, indicate in you want to exclude one or more of the following from this count ID sheet: Buy Line, Price Line, Sell Group, Buy Group, or Product.

In the Branch Detail area, click Detail to display by branch the number of items and counts that will need to be done per day.

Click Analyze for Eclipse to use the defined settings and show an analysis of how many total counts, by item, would need to be counted in order to meet the goal of what is set in the Number of Counts by Rank table, taking into account all of the include/exclude options.

The results display in the Counts by Branch area to give you a quick snapshot of how your counts will look over the course of the specified time period before saving the count ID to be used.