Hand-held operations for conducting cycle counts and physical inventory are identical, except that with cycle counting, the operator is immediately notified if a discrepancy has been suspected.

Both cycle counting and physical inventory operations are conducted in coordination with supervisory functions which are available at the Administrative PC. Please refer to Administrative Features: Physical Inventory Processing and Administrative Features: Cycle Count Processing for a description of the supervisory functions.

The user selects Physical from the hand-held's main menu and is asked whether or not the system is to direct the cycle count process. If so, the user is directed to the location of the next available cycle count, according to the optimum route of the warehouse. Otherwise, the user goes to some location which has been determined to be cycle counted next.

Physical inventory and cycle counting is always conducted on a location basis. If more than one product is contained in a location, then the system requires all products in the location to be counted before the operation can be considered complete.

The user scans the location bar code. If the location is empty, he/she can so indicate on the initial screen and the inventory for the location will be complete. Otherwise, all product bar codes are scanned, following by entry of the quantity of each product at the location.

In the case of cycle counting, if there is not an exact match between the physical product/quantity set and the computer product/quantity set at the location, the user will be directed to recount the location. A recount of the location will be repeatedly required until the same product/quantity information is entered twice in a row or until there is a match with the information as contained in the computer.

Adjustments are never made based on hand-held user action. Physical inventory and cycle counts are first reviewed by the supervisor for reasonableness. Once the supervisor is satisfied with the results, the adjustment run is made and the results reported to the business system.