About Inventory Counts

Inventory counts are essential to keeping your business running smoothly and profitably. Here are a few reasons why regular Inventory Counts are important:

  • Inventory Counts help keep track of products on the shelf and help determine an accurate Inventory Value.
  • They also ensure that your product on-hand Stock Levels reflect your actual inventory.
  • Regularly checking inventory helps detect discrepancies from theft early, allowing you to act before those losses add up.

Tip: Use Inventory Counts to update on-hand values that may be incorrect as a result of theft, user error in Meevo, or unexpected increases in employee supply usage.

How often should I count inventory?

We recommend that inventory counts be performed:

  • Monthly if you notice pesky counts that are frequently off
  • Quarterly for tax and maintenance purposes
  • End of year for tax purposes

How does Meevo calculate Inventory Value?

When you commit an Inventory Count or receive a Product Order, your on-hands amounts are updated immediately. However, your overall Inventory Value is calculated at the end of each day. See our Inventory Value topic for more details.

Tip: To ensure accurate inventory value reports, always make sure that you enter a Wholesale value in your product definition prior to performing an Inventory Count.

How do I count inventory?

There are several ways to count inventory through Meevo:

  1. By incrementing each product manually 
  2. Through scanning product barcodes 
  3. Using a camera on a mobile device to scan product barcodes 

How does Auto-Save work?

You can enable and disable Auto-Save at any time for any Inventory Count. When the Auto-Save checkbox is enabled, the auto-save does not take place on a new count until you change the Count for a line item. Once an item’s Count is adjusted, the Cancel button disappears, and the Auto-Save setting briefly appears with a check, indicating that an auto-save took place.

Now, Meevo will automatically save the count any time something is changed (added, edited, or deleted). Even if you close the Inventory Count screen (or Meevo entirely), you can retrieve your saved count from the Inventory Count Search screen.

What happens if I make a mistake in my inventory count?

If you discover missed inventory after completing a count, you should create a new count for the miscounted items. You cannot edit completed counts.

What do the Inventory Count statuses mean?

Every Inventory Count will be in one of the following statuses:

  • Open: Inventory Counts that have not yet been committed. These counts can still be edited or deleted.
  • Deleted: Uncommitted Inventory Counts that were deleted. Deleted Inventory Counts cannot be undeleted.
  • Completed: Inventory Counts that were completed and committed. These counts cannot be edited or deleted.

How do I permanently remove a product from my Inventory Count list?

To permanently remove a product from the Inventory Count list, simply access the Product definition and select No beside Do you want to track inventory for this product? The product will no longer be available in the Stock Levels, Inventory Count, and Purchase Order lists.

Does Meevo track negative on-hand amounts?

The Business Information option Track negative inventory gives you the choice of whether or not to display and track negative on-hand values. This decision is purely up to your business and usually depends on how you manage your inventory. If, for example, you find that your business routinely sells products "out of the box" prior to receiving the PO in Meevo, then you should consider enabling this option to better track inventory.

When "Track negative inventory" is ON

Negative on-hand values will be displayed in Meevo, and they will persist into the next day (the negative amounts are not "zeroed out" at the end of each day).

For example, let's say a product's on-hand count drops to –6. If on that same day you receive a Purchase Order for 4 of that product, then the on-hand amount will become –2 (–6 + 4 = –2). Overnight, Meevo will not make any changes to this value since Track negative inventory is on, and tomorrow the on-hand will still be –2.

When "Track negative inventory" is OFF

If an on-hand amount drops below zero (for example, due to an Inventory Count error where an item with a 0 on-hand amount is sold in the register), Meevo will track that negative amount for that day only. At the end of each day, Meevo will zero out any negative amounts. Meevo does not take action on any amounts that are not negative at the end of the day.

For example, let's say a product's on-hand count drops to –2 (remember, in Meevo, the product's on-hand amount will display as 0):

  • If on that same day you receive a Purchase Order for 4 of that product, then the on-hand amount will become 2 (–2 + 4 = 2). Overnight, Meevo will not make any changes to this value since it is a positive number.
  • If no changes are made to the on-hand amount that day, Meevo will zero out the negative amount overnight. If, on the next day, you receive a Purchase Order for 4 of that product, then the on-hand amount will be 4.