When you talk about best practices in inventory management, one of the cornerstones of accurate inventory is a process called cycle counting. Cycle counting is a process whereby you periodically do a manual inventory count of the items within your warehouse and compare that to what your inventory software says your count is -- then you adjust the electronic count to reflect the actual amount of items on hand.

Let's face it...on hand inventory counts can be error prone.  Someone may make a mistake during purchasing, receiving or put away.  Items become damaged and discarded, or even stolen.  For whatever reason -- your electronic inventory count can be off from the actual amount on the shelf.  When that happens, customer service runs the risk of telling a customer that an item is in stock, when in fact it isn't, resulting in unhappy customers.  Having an accurate count is important, and the only way to do it is to walk into the warehouse and look.

Typically it is too overwhelming to count ALL your items at the same time, so you'll want to set up a manageable schedule to count a portion of your warehouse at a time -- and over time, you'll have achieved a physical inventory of all items.  SAP Business One helps facilitate good inventory cycle counting through functionality built right into the software.

STEP 1:  DEFINE HOW OFTEN YOU WILL CYCLE COUNT

First, you'll need to define an inventory cycle (how often you'll count).  Go under the menu path of Administration - Setup - Inventory - Inventory Cycles.  The Inventory Cycles Setup window will open:


Determine your frequency as follows:

Daily: An alert is issued every day.
Weekly: An alert is issued on the same day every week. If you select a weekly cycle, from the   adjacent field, select the day of the week.

Every 4 Weeks: An alert is issued on the same day every four weeks. If you choose a monthly cycle,   from the adjacent field, select the day of the month
Monthly :  An alert is issued on the same date every month; for example, the 20th of every month.

Quarterly: An alert is issued on the same date every third calendar month.

Semi-annually: An alert is issued on the same date every sixth calendar month.

Annually: An alert is issued on the same date once each year.

One Time: A single alert is issued on the specified date.

STEP 2:  DEFINE WHAT ITEM GROUPS YOU WILL CYCLE COUNT

Next you will link the cycle code to an Item Group, or to an individual item at the warehouse level.

Here is where you'll define a cycle group to an item group within the Item Groups Setup Window:


Alternatively you can link the cycle code to an individual item through the Item Master Data Screen:


The Cycle Count Recommendation Window — can be accessed from the Alert, or can be generated manually

Inventory → Inventory Transactions → Cycle Count Recommendations, as shown below: