Counting inventory can be a tedious and lengthy task! The Inventory Audit page enables you and your team to save time and increase accuracy while counting your product quantities.
What is an Audit?
An inventory audit is a thorough examination and verification of the physical inventory at your store. It ensures that the actual stock on-hand matches what is recorded in Greenline POS. The audit will identify inventory discrepancies and helps maintain accurate records for financial and regulatory compliance reporting.
DO's
✅ Try to do audits outside of business hours or during a really slow time of day.
✅ Break your audits into smaller pieces, e.g. one audit for every category.
✅ Start the audit > perform the audit > complete the audit within that shift.
DON'Ts
❌ Do not perform an audit while a purchase order or transfer is underway.
❌ Do not create an audit that includes every product in the Product List.
❌ Do not leave audits open and pending for more than a single business day or shift.
Audit Summary
Audit information is displayed in the top-right of the audit screen:
- Title - defaults to the current date, but can be edited as preferred
- Location - the inventory location the audit will affect
- Employee - the name of the employee that created the audit
- Greenline ID - a system-generated identifier
- Created - the date/time when the audit was created
- Completed - the status of the audit
- Progress - indicates how many of total products have had counted quantities input.
- Discrepancies - shows the Under/Over (+/-) $ cost value total
Adding Products to an Audit
"Add a Product" Search Bar
Below the audit summary on the right side of the screen is the "Add a product" search bar.
Type the name or SKU number of the product to be added and a preview of available products will appear.
Click on the product preview and it will be added to the audit list.
Bulk Import
The Bulk Import tool allows you to import multiple products into the audit at one time.
- Click the Bulk Import button found on the right side
- The Bulk Product Import window will appear
- Categories and/or Brands may be selected from the drop-downs to specify which products to add
- Under Options, two selections can be toggled:
- Only show in-stock products will import only those products with inventory
- Active inventory date restriction will import only those products with active inventory over a set date range. Toggling this option ON will display a Start/End Date selector
- When the desired settings are applied, click the Import ## Products button
- The import button will display the total number of products that will be added to the audit
- The Bulk Product Import window will close and you should now see the audit list populated
If no selections are made, the Import ## Products button will default to any products that have ever had active inventory, whether currently in stock or not.
Scanning Products to Audit
To scan products into an audit, you must first connect a barcode scanner to the computer that you're working on.
- Click Start Scanning
- The button will show "Scanning" and turn blue, indicating that the system is ready to accept a barcode scan
- Scan the product barcode
- The product will now be added to the audit list
Scanners connected to the Greenline POS on iPad or Android tablet may not be able to scan products into an audit.
It is suggested that a USB-connected barcode scanner is connected to a PC for scanning products into audits.
Product Search Bar
As your audit list grows, ensure you have added all the products to the list.
Click in the “Search by product name or SKU” search bar to easily find products already in the audit by name or SKU number without having to scroll down the entire list.
Mid-Day Audits or Audits During Business Hours
It is perfectly suitable to perform inventory audits during business hours, while sales are taking place. However, there are a few things to consider if doing so:
- When an audit is created it is a "snapshot" of the current inventory on hand at that time. If those on-hand values change via sales or other inventory adjustments, the system will not automatically update the EXPECTED or COUNTED on-hand quantity.
- Keep track of any products that are sold after they have been counted and input to the audit.
- Click "Refresh Expected Quantities" (top-left) to update the expected on-hand unit values.
- Manually adjust the counted quantity originally input to the audit based on any sales or inventory changes. It may be necessary to recount the product in question.
Scenario:
Ernest creates an audit at 10:00 am.
He counts 10 units of Hindu Kush 3.5g Dried Flower in the store.
He inputs 10 in the Counted column of the inventory audit, which matches the expected 10 unit quantity on hand in the system, which means the inventory is accurate.
It is now 12:00 pm and Ernest has noted that 5 units of Hindu Kush 3.5g Dried Flower have been sold at the POS since the audit was created.
To ensure accuracy, Ernest must now click Refresh Expected Quantities.
The expected value for Hindu Kush 3.5g Dried Flower will update to reflect the 5 units sold.
Ernest must now manually update the counted quantity of 10 that he input originally, as that value is not automatically updated.
Ernest is now ready to complete the audit with confidence!
Sync Counted Quantities and Notes
Ensure your values are successfully added to the audit. When you enter a value in the "Counted" or "Notes" columns, you will see an exclamation icon to notify the user that sync is required to account for the information.
To sync values in the audit, click anywhere outside the "Counted" or "Notes" fields. Or click on the icon to force-sync values. You will see the exclamation icon change to a green checkmark to indicate that the information was successfully added to the audit.
A red cross indicates that the value was not successfully added, and the user will need to retry. This red cross may appear if there is a connection issue with your internet or network.
Lot Tracked Audits
Click HERE for an article outlining how lot tracking works in relation to inventory audits