HOW TO DO AN INVENTORY - THE BARCODE WAY

Doing inventory can be a challenge, but by using simple barcode technology, the process can be made more efficient and accurate. 

Many businesses perform inventories at the end of the year, however, each company has their own schedule. An inventory is the total amount of goods, products, or parts on the shelves or in the warehouse of a business. Typically, the inventory consists of collecting the Part Number and Quantity of all parts or assets throughout the store, warehouse or distribution center. MSS Software has developed a very simple way to do inventories. Just rent or buy the barcode readers from MSS and use their Inventory Tracker Software Utility to match the Part Number and update the Quantity field to the correct inventory count. At the end of your inventory, you will have a complete list of the actual count of the inventory, including the following:

• Part Numbers

• Descriptions

• Manufacturers

• Models

• Prices

• Other Fields

• Total Inventory Count

Doing an Inventory

There are three basic things you need for doing a barcode inventory.

1. Bar-coded items or parts
2. Barcode Reader/Scanner for colleting the inventory
3. Inventory Software to match data with count from Barcode Readers

Having a warehouse or store that has an inventory of bar-coded items and using a simple barcode reader to collect the part number and quantity is all that is necessary to do the actual physical inventory.  Matching the collected data up with the Inventory List is also an important key to a successful inventory.  The example following is the typical way most companies do an inventory using barcode readers.

The Barcode Reader

The barcode reader will usually have prompts to allow the user to collect the data in the format they need.  For example, if you only needed to collect the part number and quantity, then the prompt of the barcode reader would be as follows: 

Sample barcode screen

This data would be captured in the barcode reader’s memory as 28-5515,10 and a typical data file might look something like this: 

After completing the inventory count using the barcode readers, you will have either a number of files or one large appended file that contains the complete count of inventory at that particular point in time.  Now, it is time to match this data with actual descriptions, prices etc. so that you can determine the value of your inventory.

Inventory Software

Using a simple inventory software such as MSS Software’s Inventory Tracker, you start this process with a spreadsheet list of all your part #’s, descriptions, prices, etc. and the quantity field starts out as 0 (zero).

Sample Master Spreadsheet of Parts

Also, the data files gathered by the barcode readers will have data that looks something like this:

Sample data file from a barcode reader with part# and quantity

Matching Data Collected with the Master Spreadsheet

Now, using a simple utility like the Inventory Tracker Utility from MSS Software, the barcode collected data is matched to the part #’s and quantity fields of the Master Spreadsheet with the correct quantity. 

Sample Screen of Inventory Tracker Utility

The Inventory Tracker Utility produces an updated spreadsheet containing all the fields including the quantity field and by applying simple formulas, you can get the following results such as “Total Price” in this example.

Sample Inventory after using the Utility and applying formulas

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