Closing the count day: collecting sheets and reopening the site

The last item has been counted, the team is tired and everyone wants to go home. This is exactly when most things get lost: a sheet slips under a desk, a zone is marked "counted" yet still has uncounted pallets in it, and the warehouse must be back at work next morning. Closing the count day is a stage of its own, and it needs its own closing checklist. It takes half an hour to an hour, but it decides how far the whole job can be trusted. No special tools are needed, only a few simple checks.

Collecting the sheets

At the start of the count every sheet was numbered and assigned to a team member. At closing, work in this order:

1. Compare the number of sheets issued and returned.
2. Check that each sheet carries a date, a zone and the signatures of the counter and the checker.
3. Do not throw away spoiled or cancelled sheets: write "cancelled" on them and keep them with the rest.
4. Transfer the scanner data to a computer and keep a copy somewhere else.
5. Gather everything in one folder and write the date and zones on the cover.

In the evening photograph every sheet on a phone and keep the pictures in a closed folder: if an original is lost, a trace remains. No sheet should be left with the thought "it will turn up". If a missing sheet is looked for before the team disperses, the zone does not have to be counted again.

A hypothetical example

120 sheets were issued. Back came 116 handed in and 3 spoiled ones marked "cancelled". That makes 119, so one sheet is missing. The search began before the team left, and the sheet turned out to be in zone 4, left on a pallet. Had it been found later, the zone would have needed recounting. The figures are invented.

A last walk round the site

When the sheets are ready, walk the zones and check the following:

• no uncounted pallet or box remains, and no place lacks a count mark;
• temporary notes, markers and tags have been removed;
• goods are back in place and the aisles are clear;
• label scraps, film and other rubbish have been taken out;
• the team's kit, meaning ladders, scanners and lights, has been gathered.

It is better to do the walk with the warehouse manager: an extra pair of eyes spots what is missed. If doubt remains about a zone, do not let it pass: recount a few of its most valuable or numerous lines and, if they differ, recount the whole zone.

Reopening the warehouse

Once the zones are checked, the manager confirms each zone in writing or by signature as "released", and only then does stock movement resume. Documents that piled up during the count (receipts or dispatches) are processed in turn, with a clear note of which document came before the count and which after. Otherwise the balance will not agree tomorrow. If needed, allow only essential orders in the first hours. Set aside a separate place for goods that were in transit during the count and for returns; they are added to the balance in order.

Who is responsible for what

Closing is the work of several people, so assign roles in advance:

• the team leader answers for the sheets, scanner data and kit;
• the warehouse manager answers for checking the site, releasing zones and restarting work;
• a committee representative or accountant answers for documents raised during the count and the cut-off date.

Each role-holder closes their part with a signature. Then the question "whose job was this?" does not arise the next day, when everyone has dispersed.

The first spoken summary

The preliminary summary is short. Before leaving, the team leader talks with the manager for ten or fifteen minutes. What is said: the count is finished, the preliminary position, the zones to be rechecked and the date the report will be ready. What is not said: any conclusion about the final shortage or about who is to blame. The preliminary figure has not been checked yet, and calling it "final" and then correcting it damages trust. Write down the recheck list: in the morning those zones are looked at first.

Conclusion

The work does not end when the count does: collected sheets, a checked site and a warehouse back at work are the three proofs of a closed day. After the count, Inventory hands over the final report with a discrepancy analysis and recommendations in Excel or 1C format.