Manage inventory

Associates can use NewStore Associate App for the following tasks if these features have been enabled for their business:

• Receiving inventory

• Transferring inventory

• Cycle count inventory

• Performing full counts

• Adjusting inventory

Receiving inventory

Associates can use NewStore Associate App to receive inventory, if the feature has been configured for their store.

Currently, NewStore allows associates to use NewStore Associate App to receive only carton-level inventory into the store.

Pre-requisites

• To receive inventory via cartons, retailers must include carton IDs in the ASN data imported into the NewStore platform. For more information, see the sample payload of the Create ASN method.

• You must also have the basic inventory permissions  to use NewStore Associate App before you could transfer inventory. Talk to your store manager or IT support team for more information.

  Technical configuration

  The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

  Before receiving inventory using Associate App, enable the store to do so using the Update app configuration method and set the enabled_carton_receiving_stores property to the IDs of stores where you want to receive the inventory.

Receiving inventory with a carton ID

To receive inventory into your store via NewStore Associate App:

1. Tap  Inventory.

2. Tap Receiving > Scan carton.

   Note

   The Scan carton button is enabled only if the carton-level inventory receiving via NewStore Associate App is configured for your business. For more information, see Pre-requisites.

   Important

   It is not possible to scan a carton after starting to receive inventory with ASN.

3. Scan each carton that you want to receive. After scanning each carton, verify that the number of items and the items for each product received are correct.

   Note

   • If the ASN of the physical shipment is not yet on NewStore, you will see this message displayed:

     Unable to receive carton. Carton ## not found.

   • If the ASN is on NewStore but the carton information is not available, the same message is displayed.

   • If the ASN of the physical shipment was injected into the platform, but failed due to a separate issue such as a product missing from the catalog or missing store information, the app displays:

     This delivery is not available due to a technical issue. Try again later.

     After the root cause is resolved and the ASN is replayed on the third-party system, you can start seeing the ASN on Associate App or try again to scan the carton and receive the shipment.

4. Tap Receive Carton.

5. Follow the above steps to continue receiving remaining cartons that have arrived in the store.

Receiving inventory with an ASN

To receive inventory against an ASN into your store via Associate App:

1. Tap   Inventory.

2. Tap Receiving > Receive with ASN to start scanning the items in the shipment.

   Note

   The Receive with ASN button is enabled only if the NewStore Associate App is configured for your business. For more information, see Pre-requisites.

3. Check the ASN list.

4. Find the ASN ID of the shipment that arrived into the store and tap on it.

5. Check whether any shipments have already been received for this ASN or not.

6. Tap Start Receiving.

7. Tap Receive Items to scan the barcode of the product or tap on the product to manually update the quantity.

   If configured for your business, you can remove the manual update of the quantity and force the associates to scan all units. For more information, see Configuring manual quantity updates.

8. Tap Complete Receive to submit the received inventory.

View the completed ASNs

1. Tap   Inventory.

2. Tap Receiving > Receive with ASN to start scanning the items in the shipment.

   Note

   The Receive with ASN button is enabled only if the NewStore Associate App is configured for your business. For more information, see Pre-requisites.

3. Tap on the Completed tab.

4. Tap on the ASN of interest to see the related receiving transactions.

5. Tap on the receiving transaction to see the product details.

Receiving excess inventory with an ASN

If configured for your business, you can receive a product that is not in the ASN, or receive a quantity that is more than what is expected in the ASN. This is also called overreceiving.

Technical configuration

The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

See Enabling overreceiving with an ASN.

For example, when receiving excess inventory is enabled for your business:

• If you find Emily Dress, Size 6, Black, in the shipment but not in the ASN, you can receive the product.

• If the quantity of the dress in the ASN is 2, but you find 3 in the shipment, you can receive the third dress.

Receiving inventory without an ASN

To receive inventory without any reference such as an ASN into your store via Associate App :

1. Tap   Inventory.

2. Tap Receiving > Receive without ASN to start scanning the items in the shipment.

   Note

   The Receive without ASN button is enabled only if the NewStore Associate App is configured for your business. For more information, see Pre-requisites.

3. Enter Shipment Reference (ASN ID) and/or Order Reference (Purchase Order ID).

4. Tap Receive Items to scan the barcode of the product or tap on the product to manually update the quantity.

   If configured for your business, you can remove the manual update of the quantity and force the associates to scan all units. For more information, see Configuring manual quantity updates.

5. Tap Complete Receive to submit the received inventory.

Managing ASNs

Retail Operations Managers or Inventory Controllers Associates can use NewStore Omnichannel Manager to manage the ASNs and force close, if needed.

Force closing an ASN

Permission required

This action can be performed by users with the View inventory management permission.

When inventory is received into your store, an ASN is closed automatically. You can also force close the ASN manually when inventory is received partially into your store from the warehouse, and you do not want to receive the remaining part of the inventory.

Technical configuration

The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

To enable this feature, see Enabling inventory reports in NewStore Omnichannel Manager.

To force close a specific ASN:

1. Click Store Operations > Inventory > ASN.

2. Click the specific ASN Number that you want to force close.

3. Click Force close ASN, and in the dialog box that appears, click Confirm.

The status of the ASN changes to Closed and the user who closed the ASN is displayed on the ASN detail page in Omnichannel Manager. In Associate App, the ASN is moved to the Completed ASNs area.

If you are using an ERP to manage your inventory, it is notified about the status of the ASN via their integration with NewStore. For more information, see the Integration guides and Event-Stream Webhooks documentation.

Transferring inventory

Associates can use NewStore Associate App to transfer inventory from their stores, if the feature has been configured for their business.

Note

Associates can create multiple transactions within one transfer order to transfer inventory. If you want to limit the number of transactions per transfer order, train your associates and communicate such limits accordingly. NewStore does not provide a configuration to limit transactions for a transfer order.

The business use cases of inventory transfer transactions are described as follows:

Pre-requisites

Technical configuration

The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

Before transferring inventory using Associate App, enable the store to do so using the Update app configuration method and set the enable_initiating_transfers property to true.

You must also have the basic permissions to use NewStore Associate App before you could transfer inventory. Talk to your store manager or IT support team for more information.

Inventory can be transferred from a store to another location in the following two ways:

• Transfers against transfer orders

• Store-initiated transfers

Transfers against transfer orders

To create a transfer against a transfer order for your store via Associate App:

1. Tap  Inventory.

2. Tap Transfers to view the transfer orders.

3. Select a transfer order to view transfers already performed against this transfer order.

4. Tap Transfers > Start a transfer to initiate an inventory transfer to a store.

5. View the list of products and the units ordered.

6. Tap Add Item and scan the product that you want to send or type the barcode/SKU of the product.

7. Now tap on the product and use the - and + buttons to manually update the item quantity.

   Repeat this step to continue adding more items to be transferred to the store.
   If configured for your business, you can remove the manual update of the quantity and force the associates to scan all units. For more information, see Configuring manual quantity updates.

8. Tap Ready to Transfer. The transfer shipping options are displayed.

9. In the Book Shipment screen, tap the option of your choice:

   • If you want to book a shipment, tap on the shipping option of your choice and the app will start generating the shipping label and the transfer packing slip. You will see the options to view these documents and to print them. After the documents are printed, you can tap Complete Transfer.

   • The tracking number of the shipment is set as the carton ID so the receiving store can receive all the items inside it by scanning the carton ID. A transfer transaction and an ASN are created for the shipment. You have to print and complete the transfer.

   • If you don't want to book a shipment and continue without printing labels for these items, tap Complete without carrier > Complete Transfer. A confirmation message appears. You can print the packing list of the transfer. You can still go back to select another shipping option to ship the products.

   • The transfer is complete. After manually picking the item, the associate from the store that requested the transfer, can receive the item using Associate App.

View the completed transfer orders

1. Tap  Inventory.

2. Tap Transfers to view the transfer orders.

3. Tap on the Completed tab.

4. Tap on the relevant Transfer Order to see the related transfer transactions.

5. Tap on the transfer transaction to see the product details.

Store-initiated transfers

To create a transfer for your store via Associate App:

1. Tap  Inventory.

2. Tap Transfers > Start a transfer to initiate an inventory transfer to the store that requested the transfer.

   Note

   The Start a transfer button is enabled only if initiating transfers is configured for your business via NewStore Associate App. For more information, see Pre-requisites.

3. For a new transfer, select a destination store from the drop-down list to which you want to send the inventory.

4. Tap Add Item and scan the item that you want to send. Use the - and + buttons to manually update the item quantity. Repeat this step to continue adding more items to be transferred to the store that requested the transfer.

   If configured for your business, you can remove the manual update of the quantity and force the associates to scan all units. For more information, see Configuring manual quantity updates.

5. Tap Ready to Transfer. The transfer shipping options are displayed.

6. In the Book Shipment screen, tap the option of your choice:

   • If you want to book a shipment, tap on the shipping option of your choice and the app will start generating the shipping label and the transfer packing slip. You will see the options to view these documents and to print them. After the documents are printed, you can tap Complete Transfer.

   • The tracking number of the shipment is set as the carton ID so the receiving store can receive all the items inside it by scanning the carton ID. A transfer transaction and an ASN are created for the shipment. You have to print and complete the transfer.

   • If you don't want to book a shipment and continue without printing labels for these items, tap Complete without carrier > Complete Transfer. A confirmation message appears. You can print the packing list of the transfer. You can still go back to select another shipping option to ship the products.

   • The transfer is complete. After manually picking the item, the associate from the store that requested the transfer, can receive the item using Associate App.

Next steps

You can view the transfers in Omnichannel Manager. For more information, see Monitoring inventory transactions.

Managing transfer orders

Retail Operations Managers or Inventory Controllers Associates can use NewStore Omnichannel Manager to manage the ASNs and force close, if needed.

Closing a transfer order

To close a specific Transfer Order:

1. Click Store Operations > Inventory > Transfer Order.

2. Click the specific External Reference for the transfer order that you want to close.

3. Click Close Transfer Order, and in the dialog box that appears, click Confirm.

The status of the transfer order changes to Closed in NewStore Omnichannel Manager. The ERP is notified about the transfer order changes through the inventory_transaction.transfer_order_closed event. For more information, see the Event-Stream Webhooks documentation.

Cycle count inventory

Note

The Cycle Count button is enabled only if cycle count is configured for your business via Associate App. For more information, see Configuration API.

Use cycle count on Associate App to audit and update the stock on hand in your store. See process workflows for maintaining inventory.

Technical configuration

The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

To enable cycle count via Associate App, see Configuring cycle count settings.

Creating a cycle count

Permission required

This action can be performed by users with the Create cycle counts permission.

You can create a cycle count for inventory in your business via Omnichannel Manager.

To create a cycle count:

1. Go to Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Click Create Count.

3. In the Create count screen, enter the following details:

   • Name: Specify the name of the cycle count.

   • Store: To add a group of stores or a specific store, click Select Stores. The stores are grouped by country, which helps you select all stores in a specific country or you can also select specific stores by selecting the relevant. Cycle counts are then created for all the selected stores.

   • Stock Location: Select the stock location that contains the products that are being counted.

   • Due Date: Specify the date when the count should be completed by.

   • Add Products: Specify the product IDs for which the count must be performed.

4. Click Create Count.

The cycle count entry is now displayed on the Counts page in Omnichannel Manager.

Important

If a product is not available in the catalog or has an invalid ID, an error message is displayed and the count is not created. Try creating the count again after removing the invalid product ID from the list.

Performing cycle counts

To count inventory items in your store via Associate App:

1. Tap   Inventory.

2. Tap Cycle Count.

3. Check the cycle counts created by the retailer or the cycle counts created for mispicks.

4. View the status of cycle counts.

   Note

   The counts that have not been started yet are displayed as Pending and the counts that have already been started are displayed as In Progress.

5. Select a cycle count from the list and tap to see the details.

6. Tap Start count.

7. Tap Scan Item to scan barcode of the product or tap on the product to manually update the quantity.

   If configured for your business, you can remove the manual update of the quantity and force the associates to scan all units. For more information, see Configuring manual quantity updates.

8. Tap Review Discrepancy after you have scanned all products from the cycle count to see which product count doesn't match with the stock on hand quantity.

9. Review the products with discrepancies and re-count or accept the discrepancies by tapping Confirm & Complete.

Note

Only 1 associate can work on a Cycle Count at a time. If another associate needs to work on the same cycle count, they need to take over the count task.

Creating a full count

This feature can be adopted by the retailers who manage their inventory with NewStore.

Prerequisites

Handover all fulfilled orders before activating the count.

Permission required

This action can be performed by users with the Create cycle counts permission.

You can create a full count for inventory in your business via Omnichannel Manager, if the store's inventory is managed on NewStore platform.

To create a full count:

1. Go to Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Click Create Count.

3. In the Create count screen, enter the following details:

   • Name: Specify the name of the count.

   • Type: Cycle Count or Full Count.

   • Store: To add a group of stores or a specific store, click Select Stores. The stores are grouped by country, which helps you select all stores in a specific country or you can also select specific stores by selecting the relevant. Full counts are then created for all the selected stores.

   • Stock Location: Select the stock location that contains the products that are being counted.

   • Due Date: Specify the date when the full count will take place.

   • Information on how the count zones will be created out of NewStore currently.
     You have to split your store into zones by using QR Codes. These zones will then be recorded into your results. To use this feature, generate QR codes with an online tool and set the value of the QR code as "Text". The text value will be the name of your zones, such as Zone 1 or Zone 2.

     Note

     Associates using the app cannot perform full counts without scanning a zone QR code first.

4. Click Create Count.

The full count entry is now displayed on the Counts page in Omnichannel Manager.

Important

• The full count entry will have no details until it is activated in the store by the store or count manager on the day of the count. When not activated, the page displays Full Count Not Active when the full count is active, products that are part of the count are displayed.

• A full count cannot be created if there is a full count that has already been activated. Complete or cancel the active full count, and only then you can create another full count for the store.

Activating a full count

Best practices

• The more count zones the better for distributing the workload and checking the variances and recounting zones.

• Handover the fulfilled orders before activating the count as they will be included in the stock on hand snapshot. ( Team is evaluating solution ideas to mitigate this).

• Activate just before starting the count, as this will get record the baseline stock on hand.

• Do not sell or move inventory during the count, as in this first iteration we don’t have enough functionalities to equip the retailers to easily see and adjust the inventory impacts.

Permission required

This action can be performed by users with the Activate full counts permission.

You can activate a full count for inventory in your business via Omnichannel Manager. This will enable the count to be visible and actionable on Associate App in the store.

Important

If not activated, associates in the store cannot see the count and cannot start counting. There is no control over the date and activation. The activation captures the snapshot of the stock on hand in the store.

To activate a full count:

1. Go to Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Find the count you want to activate.

3. Click Activate Count.

The products in the store will be listed with ProductID, Zones (which are empty by default), Expected Quantity, Counted Quantity (which are all set to 0 by default) and Variance (which is derived by subtracting the Expected Quantity from the Counted Quantity).

Associates can now start counting, as the active count allows them to start scanning a zone. See Performing full counts .

Performing full counts

Use full counts in Associate App to count products within designated count zones.

Important

The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

The Full Count option is enabled only if full counts have been enabled for your business. To enable full counts via Associate App, set the enabled_full_counts_stores property to true in the Associate App Configuration API.

To count inventory items in your store via Associate App:

1. Tap > Inventory.

2. Tap Full Count.

3. Check if there is an active full count and the Open the Scanner button is visible and actionable.

4. Scan the count zone QR code. Tap the screen to continue. If the zone was counted before, the app will ask if you'd like to recount the zone or cancel the new count.

5. Scan each product in the count zone one after the other by tapping on the screen.

   This helps you stay in control of the scanning process. Check each product as you scan them, which appears at the bottom of the page.

   The app provides a haptic feedback each time a product is scanned, based on success (product scanned) or failure (product unavailable in the catalog).

6. Type the barcode, in case the barcode is not in scannable condition.

7. In case you notice a mistake in the count, remove the scanned barcode from the list by tapping X on the left of the barcode.

8. Once all products have been scanned, tap Complete Zone.

9. If the store manager asks for the zone to be recounted, repeat the same process, which overwrites the previous count.

Note

Multiple users can scan multiple zones at once, given they are scanning different zones. A zone can only be scanned by one associate. We recommend creating smaller count zones, so the store can be divided into more zones, distributing the workload evenly among associates. Discrepancies can be checked for at the end of the count.

Viewing count details

You can view the count details of a cycle count via Omnichannel Manager. To view the details of a specific cycle count that has been used to count products in stores in your business:

1. Click Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Click the specific Count ID that you want to view.

In the count details page, the following columns are available, containing information about the products counted and the results from the count:

• Product ID: The ID of the product counted.

• Expected: The stock on hand for the product at the time of the count.

• Counted: The actual quantity of the product from the count.

• Variance: The total difference of the expected quantity of the product, when subtracted from the counted quantity.

  For example, if the expected quantity for a product is 5, and the actual quantity that is received at the location is 6, the Variance column displays 1 as the variance.

Viewing a specific full count

You can view the count details of a full count via Omnichannel Manager. To view the details of a specific full count that has been activated:

1. Click Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Click the specific Count Name that you want to view.

In the count details page, the following columns are available, containing information about the products counted and the results from the count:

• Product ID: The ID of the product counted.

• Zones : The count zones that contain the certain ProductID.

• Expected: The stock on hand for the product at the time of the count.

• Counted: The actual quantity of the product counted across count zones.

• Variance: The total difference of the expected quantity of the product, when subtracted from the counted quantity.

For example, if the expected quantity for a product is 5, and the actual quantity that is received at the location is 6, the Variance column displays 1 as the variance.

Exporting a full count

You can export the count details of a full count via Omnichannel Manager and compare the expected quantity against the counted quantity, which is the consolidated quantity across zones or to check how many units are counted in each zone.

With the full export you can also view the products that have the highest discrepancies, so you can check and recount them, whereas the Zone Totals export can help you compare the units if you pre-counted the store by units before starting the full count.

To export a count with all details:

1. Go to Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Find the count you want to export.

3. Click the Export dropdown.

4. Select Export .

The export will be in a CSV file format, and shows the following details:

• Product ID

• EAN or UPC

• Product Name, Size, Color, and Price

• Counted Quantity

• On-hand Quantity

• Quantity Variance

• Monetary Variance

• Count Zone

The store or count manager can use the spreadsheet to sort and filter to analyze the quality of the count. They can also ask for recounts of specific zones and review the impact by performing another export.

To export the zone totals of a count with all details:

1. Go to Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Find the count you want to export.

3. Click the Export dropdown.

4. Select Zone Totals .

The export will be in a CSV file format, and shows the following details:

• Count Zone

• Counted Quantity

Completing a full count

Permission required

This action can be performed by users with the Complete cycle counts permission.

You can complete a full count on Omnichannel Manager, once the discrepancy checks and recounts are completed and there is no other action to be taken regarding the full count. This action promotes the status of the count to Completed, stock on hand quantities are updated, and external events are emitted by the NewStore platform to update any downstream third-parties.

To complete a count:

1. Go to Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Find the count you want to complete.

3. Click Complete Count.

Important

This action cannot be reversed. Stock on hand updates and emitted external events cannot be reversed either. A count cannot be cancelled once it has already been completed.

Canceling a count

Permission required

This action can be performed by users with the Cancel cycle counts permission.

You can cancel a count via Omnichannel Manager, either a cycle or a full count, if the count is either in Pending or In Progress status.

To cancel a count:

1. Go to Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. For the count that you want to cancel, click Cancel and in the dialog box that appears, click Yes, proceed.

   Note

   A count, when cancelled, cannot be reactivated. Proceed with caution.

Exporting count data

You can export count data via Omnichannel Manager to analyze and monitor for patterns or for investigations into counted products and variances in the stores.

To export count data:

1. Go to Store Operations > Inventory > Counts.

2. Click Export.

The count data is exported into a CSV file.

Adjusting inventory

To adjust the on hand item quantity via Associate App:

1. Tap   Inventory.

2. Tap Adjustments.

3. Select Adjustment Reasons and type to Create Adjustment. For example, Damaged out - Destroyed.

4. Add a note to give details about the adjustment. For example, Broken item.

5. Tap Add Item to scan the barcode of the product or tap on the product to manually update the quantity.

   If configured for your business, you can remove the manual update of the quantity and force the associates to scan all units. For more information, see Configuring manual quantity updates.

6. Tap Complete to finish adjusting inventory.