Inventory Counting with Your Team: Faster, Together

Inventory counting--it's the process of checking stock quantities and keeping track of items stored in warehouses, stores, or job sites. Businesses typically conduct inventory counts several times a year to ensure their physical stock matches the records in their systems.

To make this process easier, BoxHero's Inventory Count feature has been updated to support team-based counting. Now, you can easily conduct inventory counts with your team members, whether you’re using a PC or a mobile device!

Who Can Benefit from Collaborative Inventory Counting?

Companies with Large-scale Inventory

For logistics centers in large supermarkets or department stores, conducting inventory counts can be time-consuming. To finish quickly without disrupting day-to-day operations, companies often need to mobilize many employees. With BoxHero's team-based inventory counting feature, multiple team members can work on the same inventory project at the same time. Plus, you can save on the costs of purchasing warehouse PDAs by scanning barcodes with a smartphone camera.

Rapidly Growing Businesses

Companies experiencing rapid growth may see a sudden increase in their product variety and quantity, making inventory management even more necessary. In the early stages of growth, one employee may be able to manage all the inventory counting. However, as stock levels increase, the risk of human error also rises. That's why having multiple team members conduct inventory counts together is beneficial—more collaboration means fewer mistakes.

Seasonal Demand Businesses

For businesses that see a surge in demand during specific seasons, it’s important to know your inventory levels ahead of time. Team-based inventory counts helps you get an accurate picture of what’s physically in stock so you can have the right amount of inventory on hand. In addition, it can help spot problems like theft, spoilage, or damage ahead of time, keeping your inventory management on track for the busy season.

Businesses Selling across Multiple Channels

Businesses that sell through different channels—like e-commerce sites, their own online stores, and physical locations—often keep inventory separate for each one. This setup helps avoid delays when handling multiple orders at once. With BoxHero’s team-based inventory counting, your team members can easily work together (or independently) to track inventory for each channel, giving you a clear picture of your total stock levels.

How to Start Team-based Inventory Counting with BoxHero

1. Log into your BoxHero account and create an inventory count project to begin the collaborative counting process.
   - BoxHero PC/Web: Go to Other Features > Inventory Count > + Add.
   - BoxHero Mobile App: Tap Start Inventory Count  > + button in the top right corner.

If you want to count specific items, click Partial and choose or search for the items from your list that you want to check the quantities for.

2. Now, let’s set up task sheets for each team member (i.e. appointee) involved in your inventory count project. If you're the team admin, click + Add Task Sheet and assign sheets to each appointee based on their roles/responsibilities. You can assign individuals by section/location or by item to make collaborative inventory counting easier.

3. Each appointee can add items to their task sheets and input the quantities of physical stock. On the PC, you can use "Barcode Scanning Mode" to use an external barcode scanner. If you're using BoxHero's mobile app, tap the barcode can icon in the upper right corner to use your phone's camera or a Bluetooth-connected barcode scanner. If you need to take a break from the inventory count for other tasks, simply click Save Draft to pause and save your progress.

4. Once all the appointees have completed their inventory counts, the team admin should click Submit. Take a moment to review and compare the existing quantities with the actual stock and submit the count to complete the process. This will change the status of the inventory count project from Pending Review to Submitted, and your item quantities will be updated to reflect the actual stock levels. You can see the adjusted details in the Transactions history log.

With our latest update, you can now work together with your team on inventory counts while enjoying the same user experience on both PC and mobile. Whether you begin on one device or the other, you can easily switch between them and keep your workflow going. Click the button below to get started with BoxHero and make your inventory counting smarter and faster with your team!