Overview
A stock take, or physical inventory, is the process of counting or measuring the stock at a company's location or sub-location. Import your initial stock quantities is as simple as copy and pasting from Excel. If your are concerned about establishing an Average Cost for all of your products and your beginning stock levels from day one, you should use a Purchase Order to establish your opening stock balances.
Basic Stock Import
To import beginning stock levels without an Avg. Cost value, use Home>Import>Stock Take
If you only have a single location and your products do not have lot or serial number tracking, you simply need a two-column Excel file where first column is the product id, and the second column is the quantity. Although it is not used in the actual import, using an optional description column is helpful to allow you to make an easier association with the product.
Advanced Stock Import (multi-location or Lot/serial Tracking)
If you keep stock at multiple location or your product requires lot or serial number tracking, two additional columns are required in the Excel file. A sublocation column is to tag where the products are stored. Additionally, a lot id column is required to track the lot or serial number of the product.
Since there are multiple permutations, product ids may be listed in multiple rows in the Excel file. Although it is not used for the actual import, using an optional description column is helpful to allow you to make an easier association with the product.
Use a Blanket PO to Receive Stock
If you want your stock to have an Average Cost for your beginning stock levels, you must use a bulk/blanket Purchase Order to receive your stock levels at a set unit price. This will establish an Average Cost for each product and unit. Go to Home>Create>Purchase Order. You can use the Action menu, Import order items to create the PO. You can also import the shipment specifics like storage sublocations, Lot Ids, or Serial numbers, using the Action menu on the shipment tab of the PO.