Cycle counting & inventory audits

A cycle count (also called an inventory audit) is a structured process for verifying that the physical stock on your shelves matches the quantities recorded in FSM Navigator®. You start an audit session, count your items, and the system highlights any discrepancies — then adjusts your records to match reality in one click.

Why cycle counting matters

Inventory records drift over time. Parts get used without being logged, items are misplaced, or receiving errors go unnoticed. Without regular audits, you end up with:

• Phantom stock — the system says you have parts you don't actually have, leading to failed jobs.
• Surprise shortages — technicians arrive on-site without the parts they need because stock levels were wrong.
• Wasted spend — you reorder parts you already have sitting on a shelf somewhere.
• Financial inaccuracies — inventory valuations in reports don't reflect what's actually in the warehouse.

Regular cycle counts catch these problems early. Instead of shutting down for a full-day physical inventory once a year, you can audit sections of your stock on a rolling basis with minimal disruption.

Starting an audit session

Each audit session covers one warehouse. To count several warehouses, start one audit per warehouse. They can run at the same time, so two teams can count two warehouses on the same day.

1. Go to Inventory in the sidebar and open the Audit tab.
2. Select the warehouse you want to audit. A warehouse that already has an audit running shows (audit in progress) and can't be picked again until that audit ends.
3. Choose a freeze duration and click Start New Audit.
4. Confirm that you want to begin the audit session.

The system locks that warehouse's inventory and takes a snapshot of current stock levels — down to each individual storage bin. You are now in an active audit session.

Each running audit gets its own card at the top of the Audit tab, for example North Depot is FROZEN — audit in progress. Click Resume on a card to go back to that warehouse's counting worksheet, or Cancel to stop that audit. The start form stays available underneath, so you can start the next warehouse whenever you're ready.

What happens during a freeze

When an audit session is active, the system freezes the audited warehouse — meaning no one can add, remove, or transfer stock in that warehouse until the audit is completed, cancelled, or expires. This prevents changes from sneaking in while you are counting, which would make your counts unreliable. Your other warehouses are not affected.

While a warehouse is frozen:

• Stock adjustments in that warehouse are paused — users cannot manually increase or decrease its quantities.
• Transfers into or out of that warehouse are blocked — a transfer between two other warehouses still goes through.
• Purchase order receiving into that warehouse is paused — shipments can still be received into any other warehouse.
• Technician van-stock usage on jobs continues normally — only warehouse-level stock changes are blocked during the freeze.

If someone tries to change stock in a frozen warehouse, they see a message naming the warehouse and explaining that it is locked for an audit.

The freeze ensures the numbers you are counting against stay consistent from start to finish. Stock changes in the audited warehouse stay blocked until its audit completes, cancels, or expires; everything else, including technician van-stock usage on jobs, continues normally throughout.

Counting your stock

With the audit session active, you will see a counting worksheet with one line for every storage location a part occupies in the audited warehouse. A part kept on the open warehouse floor and in a storage bin gets two lines — one tagged Warehouse floor and one tagged with the bin code (for example, Bin A-03). Parts stored only in bins appear too, each under its own bin tag.

For each line:

1. Physically count the item in that exact spot — the floor area or the specific bin shown on the line.
2. Enter the Physical Count in the corresponding field.
3. Repeat for every line in the list.

The worksheet shows the Expected Quantity for that exact spot (what the system recorded at the start of the audit) alongside your physical count. When you submit, each spot is corrected individually — so a part that drifted from a bin to the floor is fixed in both places, not just in the warehouse total.

Reviewing variances

As you enter physical counts, the system calculates the variance for each item automatically:

Variance = Physical Count − Expected Quantity

Items with variances are highlighted so you can spot problems at a glance. Review any large or unexpected variances before submitting — it is easier to recount a few items now than to fix records after the fact.

Submitting and adjusting stock

Once you have entered physical counts for all items and reviewed the variances:

1. Click Submit Audit.
2. Review the summary showing total items counted, total surplus, and total shortage.
3. Confirm the submission.

On submission, the system adjusts your inventory records to match your physical counts. If you counted 47 units but the system expected 50, the record updates to 47. If you counted 53, it updates to 53.

The freeze on that warehouse is lifted immediately, and its stock changes (adjustments, transfers, PO receiving) can resume. Any other audits you have running are not affected.

Cancelling an audit

If you need to stop an audit without applying any changes:

1. Find the audit's card at the top of the Audit tab and click Cancel (or click Cancel Audit below the worksheet you are counting).
2. Confirm the cancellation. The confirmation names the warehouse, so you can check you picked the right one.

Cancelling discards the physical counts you entered for that audit and lifts the freeze on its warehouse. Your inventory records remain unchanged — no adjustments are made — and any other running audits carry on.

This is useful if you started an audit by mistake, an emergency requires immediate stock access, or you need to reschedule the count for a better time.

Audit history

Every audit session — whether completed, cancelled, or expired — is preserved in your audit history.

To view past audits:

1. Go to Inventory and open the Audit tab.
2. Scroll to the Audit History section.

Each record shows:

Click any record to view the full item-by-item breakdown, including the expected quantity, physical count, and variance for each part.

Audit session statuses

Every audit session moves through a simple lifecycle:

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> Frozen : Start audit
    Frozen --> Completed : Submit counts
    Frozen --> Cancelled : Cancel audit
    Frozen --> Expired : Session times out
    Completed --> [*]
    Cancelled --> [*]
    Expired --> [*]

Session expiration

To prevent a forgotten audit from blocking your team indefinitely, audit sessions expire automatically after a set period of inactivity. When a session expires:

• The freeze on that warehouse is lifted and its normal inventory operations resume.
• Physical counts entered during the session are discarded.
• The session is recorded in audit history with an Expired status.
• No stock adjustments are applied.

Your account administrator can configure the expiration window under Settings → Inventory to match your team's counting workflow.

Planning your audit schedule

Each audit covers one warehouse, so your schedule is about frequency and rotation:

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Warehouses & stock — manage the locations where your inventory is stored.
• Warehouse bins — organize stock by bin location within a warehouse.
• Parts catalog — view and manage the parts that appear in audit worksheets.
• Stock transfers — move parts between warehouses after an audit reveals misplaced stock.
• Technician van stock — understand how van stock works independently from warehouse audits.
• Low stock alerts — get notified when audit adjustments bring stock below threshold.
• Reports & audits — review audit history alongside other inventory reports.