Prepare for the New Year with End-of-Year Inventory Counts

  In this article, you'll learn:

• The importance of end-of-year inventory.
• Methods for how you can conduct your end-of-year inventory in CommentSold.

About End-of-Year Inventory

End-of-year inventory is an opportunity for retailers to take stock of their post-holiday season inventory levels with physical counts. It’s a crucial step in closing out a fiscal year to start a new one.

Performing end-of-year inventory requires retailers to identify the different areas they store products (e.g., bins, racks, displays, etc.), and count every unit of inventory. As a result, retailers get an accurate picture of what they have on hand and what products sold over the holiday versus what products didn’t. It’s important preparation for end-of-year financials, taxes, and purchasing.

In this article, we walk through ways to update your inventory counts in CommentSold; however, it’s important to understand that end-of-year inventory is a process that warrants adequate preparation. That’s why we’ve also included the below recommendations to help retailers plan for their end-of-year inventory counts.

• Plan ahead. Know which day(s) you plan to count inventory and ensure you have enough team members available to assist.
• Organize your shelving and fixtures. Ensure your team can perform inventory counts quickly and that products aren’t missed due to being out of place.
• Communicate plan and responsibilities. Set your team up for success by clearly communicating how inventory should be counted. Some retailers might choose to have team members assigned to count specific areas of their warehouse whereas other retailers might assign roles like one team member counts, one records the count, and one updates the counts in the system.
• Create an inventory map. Divide your warehouse or space into locations (if you haven’t already) and make sure each team member has a copy of the layout. This allows you and your team to track which locations you’ve already counted as the day goes on.

How End-of-Year Inventory Benefits Your Business

Enable Inventory Timestamp (Optional)

Before we talk inventory count methods, we wanted to highlight a feature on a product's Edit Inventory page that allows retailers to timestamp when a member of their team performed an inventory count of the product and its variants.

Timestamps include the date, time, and team member who conducted the count. If interested, reach out to the CommentSold Support team to enable this feature. Simply select the blue Support icon in the bottom-right corner of your CommentSold dashboard to start a chat.

1. Select Products in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
2. Select the hyperlinked Name of the product you are counting.
3. Select Edit Inventory at the top of the page.
4. Select the Set Inventory Count Timestamp button in the top-left corner of the page.
5. Select Confirm to enter the current time and date as the count timestamp.

Please note that once a timestamp is placed it cannot be changed or removed. Selecting the Set Inventory Count Timestamp again will override the previous timestamp.

Choose Your Inventory Count Method

Below we review a few options for performing end-of-year inventory counts in CommentSold. Choose the option that best fits your operation.

Inventory Quick Update

This method allows you to quickly update inventory quantities of each variant using a barcode scanner. Simply scan the variant barcode, verify the on-shelf count, and move on.

1. Select Inventory Logs in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
2. Select Inventory Quick Update from the options listed at the top of the page.
3. Scan the variant barcode using your barcode scanner.
4. Verify the quantity matches the count in the Quantity field.
   • If the quantity is correct, move on to the next variant by scanning its barcode.
   • If the quantity is not correct, enter the correct count in the Quantity field and select Update.

On-Shelf Counts 

This method uses a report that lists every active product in your inventory including in-stock products, carted products, and products yet fulfilled. 

Export this report and compare it to your actual inventory. Notate any discrepancies, investigate those discrepancies, and reconcile by manually updating the inventory for those products.

1. Select Reporting in the side menu of your CommentSold dashboard.
2. Select CSV from the report options listed at the top of the page.
3. Enter the current date in both the Start Date and End Date fields, then select Retrieve.
4. Define your Start Date and End Date in the fields provided, then select the Retrieve button.
5. Scroll and locate CSV #10.
6. Select Generate and Email. This sends an email to your shop's primary email address that contains a link to download the report.

Set Quantities to Zero

Retailers can chat with the CommentSold Support team and request their product inventory counts be set to zero (0). 

This action sets inventory quantities to zero (0), at which point a retailer can perform a FULL inventory count. Retailers can then update their inventory to reflect the physical, on-hand inventory so they’re ready for the new year.

Please review the below bullet list before contacting Support:

• The request to zero out inventory must come from your Shop Admin.
• Zeroing out your inventory counts should only be done once all paid orders have shipped.
• There is no undo on this option. Once Support zeroes out the quantity of your products, it cannot be undone.

Retailers have two options when setting inventory quantities to zero: zero inventory quantities for ALL products or zero inventory quantities for specific products in a product selection. We walk through each below.

Learn More

• Manage Team Accounts. Learn how to create team member accounts, delete team member accounts, and make changes to feature access and permissions.
• Review Account Activity Using Shop Logs. Learn how to review activity and action taken in your CommentSold account using your shop audit log.