Why Smart Companies Leverage Cycle counting for eCommerce

Companies using poorly optimized inventory control processes pay a heavy price. It includes imbalanced lead times, fulfillment disruptions, revenue loss, inaccurate records, high inventory costs, and frequent stockouts.

How do you ensure your company is immune to these crippling costs? You could employ cycle counting just as top companies do.?

In this article, you’ll learn what inventory cycle counting entails, why it is better than other types of inventory audits, and how inventory management software helps businesses manage cycle counts.

What is Inventory Cycle Counting?

Inventory cycle counting is an inventory audit process that involves counting different products regularly.?

You audit products or SKUs in designated parts of your warehouse without stopping operations. Depending on the peculiarities of your business, you may decide to count daily, weekly, or monthly. The aim is to correct errors in inventory records as soon as they are detected. It is a more flexible?inventory management?process.

Cycle counting differs from traditional physical audits, where you count the entire inventory a few times yearly. The latter can be impractical and inconvenient.

The following are the different types of cycle counting:

1. Opportunity-based counting
2. ABC cycle counting?
3. Geographic counting
4. Random sample counting?
5. Control group cycle counting
6. Hybrid cycle counting

Why Inventory Cycle Counting is Better than Other Forms of Inventory Audits

Inventory cycle counting is a better form of inventory control because you only have to count a few products at a time without disrupting your business.?

?The following are some of its benefits:

• It reveals a more accurate picture of inventory levels
• You can quickly identify inventory errors and take corrective measures
• There is no disruption to warehouse operations
• It is less time-consuming
• It is less stressful for your staff
• You quickly detect thefts (if any)

How Inventory Management Software is used to Manage Cycle Counts

Inventory management software helps you streamline cycle counts and ensure more accurate records since it minimizes human errors.

It usually works with barcodes and QR codes, making cycle counting faster and easier. The software may employ statistical sampling to ensure more accuracy.

You can integrate the inventory software with your accounting software and generate granular or comprehensive reports. Overall, inventory management software makes cycle counting a breeze.

Final Thoughts

We learned about?cycle counting, its benefits, and how inventory management software helps with the cycle counting process.