Inventory - Using the Find In Store Screen

If your store does physical inventories that are then uploaded into FieldStack with item quantity and location of inventory scan, the Find in Store screen can be used to help locate an item.

You might have had difficulty several times trying to find items for a customer, for an upstocking report, or for a Pick List. Fortunately, if your store regularly takes inventory of stock and uploads it into FieldStack, there is a way to view an item's last known location (i.e., the last place scanned during an inventory).  This is the "Find in Store" button that appears when looking at an item listing.

When you click on this button (or press F) you are presented with the screen shown below:

This screen presents you with a whole bunch of useful information to use when tracking down an item.

• The top window marks the item's "new" condition copies, while the lower window marks the item's "used" condition copies.  
• Next to each window is a corresponding "print" button, which will print the displayed list through your computer's receipt printer- that way, you can bring the list with you instead of writing your own, or trying to remember what other titles the item is supposed to be sandwiched between.  
• Printing an item's location will only print the item name column, not the scan location, quantity, or area.

Aside from these buttons, the listings themselves are very useful.  The lists will display all of the items surrounding the one you are trying to find, marking them as used and new.  The item that you are looking for will be indented with asterisks *** in order to visually indicate the desired item on the list. Keep in mind that one title often has multiple UPCs, so there may be listings that appear as though they should be highlighted, but are in fact same-titled items of a different UPC.

Scan locations vary from location to location.  Your supervisors will be able to tell you what each abbreviation stands for.  If an item isn't able to found on the shelf in its proper section, check the scan location.  If the location is something like "ENDCP", for example, then it might be on an end cap for a promotion or for greater visibility.  Scan locations are typically pretty easy to decipher, but there are some that can be tricky.

The quantity column will display the quantity of each item listed.  How this column is used will depend on location.  When taking inventory it is fairly typical of stores to scan each item as they go down the shelf.  However, some stores may scan an item once and then enter the quantity, which will result in much neater but less-accurate item locations.

Area codes are similar to scan locations in that they vary from location to location.  Just as with scan locations, your supervisors will be the best resource for what the area codes in your store mean.