Hi,

I realise stock taking is an area being worked on by LInnworks, where member of staff can use a tablet in the warehouse to check and amend stock levels while stock checking. It has been fed back to me that there will not be a feature for a supervisor or manager to authorise this stock count in this new system. If, say, the stock level for SKU123 is 100 in the Linnworks system, and a warehouse operative counts 90, then they will just be able to amend to 90 and no further check is required. 

Stock taking is often not a job for a supervisor or manager. But the approval of it is. The reason being, is that stock levels are crucial and someone just changing something from 100 to 90, can have big implications. The question of why 10 went missing is a supervisors or managers job.

A stock count taken by a warehouse person needs to come back to someone for approval. At the moment I know Linnworks are not going to add line manager approval as by the time they get it stock levels could be different anyway. But I know other warehouse systems handle this. The way Linnworks are setting this up means that Line managers will be the ones doing the stock counts in some businesses as stock approval is such a big deal. Which can be a waste of a resource. Especially if you have a lot of SKUs. 

The way I have seen this handled in other systems is that the approval of the warehouse operatives count comes back to the line manager, and the line manager can then approve / accept the lines of the stock count they are happy with. And the lines they want recounted are somehow pushed back to that person to check again. 

This then approves probably 95% + of the count, and only sending 1 or 2 items back to get checked again. And when they are rechecked, they will be checked again at the current level on their tablet etc, but they will know it is a recheck and check much more carefully. OR the line manager needs to check those stock levels personally.

But to not have an "Approval" negates all the great work Linnworks are doing on this. We need this feature as I am not happy for pickers and packers to have the final say on our stock changes. I know from experience that a picker or packer sometimes does not realise the huge significance of 10 items unaccounted for. Or they forget that 100 are on the top shelf and input that the stock is 100 down and it never gets seen, only to find those extra products months or even years later.

Please add line manager approval to stock checks. Let me know if you would like input on this from us. And others please post if you have other / better ideas.

(On a side note, I am not sure if "blind" stock checks are planned, where the warehouse operative checks the stock without knowing what the correct level in the Linnworks system is. As this would dovetail well with the above).

Thanks for listening,
Brett

Holistic Trader Ltd

Hi, i totally agree with Brett

We've just gone through 2 stock counts because the first one was so incorrect and random skus were popping up weeks after so we decided to do it again

But as he mentioned, its so crucial that there must be a way to verify or accept the changes

I understand you differentiated between rolling stock count and stock take which is fine, so will Linnworks provide functionality to do full stock takes where all operations stop. If so, how would managers verify what warehouse staff are inputting?

Hi Adam, 

Thanks for your detailed reply. Yes, my Dispatch Supervisor told me about the blind count just after I posted! So that is good news. 

I am also aware of "Inventory > Stock Count" in Linnworks. I have pasted in a screenshot of this solely for the benefit of the community reading this. It has proved useful in spotting big errors, as it highlights whether a stock count is up or down and what the difference in product count and stock value is. 

And I hear what you say about a rolling stock needing to be the live rate, as yes, someone could have ordered something between it being checked at the bay, and approved by the manager. But the way I have seen this handled in another system is that the manager approves the stock check in total as it was taken at that particular time, but marks the SKUs that they want re-checked. And they get thrown back in again to be checked again, maybe through a Recount Page or something. 

It would be a very nice feature to have (and something that is still a request from over here), but the "Inventory > Stock Count" feature aleviates one of my biggest fear of huge errors being made unnoticed. But it does take a supervisor or manager to keep a check on that page. 

Brett

wow i didnt even know about the stock count screen lol

I agree with adam

I also think it would be highly beneficial for both Linnworks and its users if it creates youtube videos more regularly and in depth to explain the different parts of Linnworks and just how normal everyday users can make use of them

We've been using linnworks 4 years and probably haven't scratched the surface

Hello Brett you can do this in our system which integrates with Linnworks

http://help.smartcode.co.uk/en/articles/2058706-how-to-stock-check-by-item-scan

If you want free trial just submit a request on the live chat