Inventory Control process flow

Inventory Control setup

While setting up Inventory Control, you must consider the inventory needs of your central reporting structure. Specifically, you need to determine what items are needed and what kind of allocation control is set for those items.

Conducting physical inventory

It is important that you conduct a physical inventory assessment before you begin normal inventory activities.

Inventory processing

Inventory processing is the day-to-day movement of inventory in and out of locations. It consists of issuing, transferring, receiving, and adjusting inventory items.

Inventory processing also includes replenishing inventory. You can replenish inventory by evaluating the needs of your company and then selecting the replenishment formula that suits those needs.

At the end of each period, Lawson recommends that you do period end processing. Period end processing creates general ledger transactions, updates accounts, and closes the inventory period.

Managing cart/par locations

Cart/par locations are used by companies that have a specific need for inventory stored at a level below location. One location may have several cart-par locations associated with it. Most commonly, cart/par locations are used in the healthcare industry to accommodate the need to have items readily available at many locations per department.

Inventory Control: a big picture

To represent Inventory Control's major processes, this user guide is divided into four main parts: Setup, Physical Inventory, Processing, and Managing Cart/Par Locations.

This diagram shows the Inventory Control's four main processes, breaks the processes down into subprocesses, and serves as a reminder of where you are in the big picture.