Inventory: Support for Inventory During Opening Hours 

Use

To help with an inventory during opening hours, you can include all sales that are relevant for the book inventory at count time.

Prerequisites

In Customizing for the Inventory, you must have switched on the procedure for an inventory during opening hours. Note also the other settings for control of an inventory during opening hours.

If you use the procedure, then the inbound IDoc for the inventory must contain the exact time for every article payment. The clock of the checkout that provides the transaction time for the sales and the clocks of the MDE devices must be synchronized exactly.

Features

Determination of the POS transactions (sales or returns)

In Customizing fir IDoc processing for the store inventory, you can use the Control of POS Data Determination setting under Enhancement: Control of Store Inventory to define how the system is to determine receipt-based POS data. This setting depends on how you post POS transactions in the SAP ERP system and whether you use the POS Inbound Processing Engine (PIPE).

You can select one of the following settings:

●      Use Buffered Data for Receipt-Based POS Inbound

For more information, see Inventory During Opening Hours (Receipt-Based POS Inbound).

●      Request POS Transactions From PIPE

For more information, see Inventory During Opening Hours (PIPE).

●      Determine Transactions by BAdI

For more information, see Inventory During Opening Hours (BAdI).

Calculation of Book Inventory at Count Time

The R_SRS_PI_STOCK_CALC program (transaction WSTI_R_PI_CALC) runs an analysis and corrects the book inventory in the inventory document so that it shows the position at the time of the inventory count. This means that it contains POS transactions only and no other goods movements. The program determines the POS transactions based on your fixed setting.

Analysis of Calculation of Book Inventory at Count Time

You can use the R_SRS_PI_CALC_SHOW program (transaction WSTI_R_PI_SHOW) to check the calculation executed by the system. It displays the POS transactions that belong to a particular item of an inventory document, the status of the calculation, and the quantity or sales value of articles by which the system has adjusted the book inventory fixed in the inventory document.

Analysis of Message Log in Application Log

You can use the R_SRS_PI_LOG program (transaction WSTI_R_PI_LOG) to analyze the application log after calculating the book value at count time. To do so, on the selection screen of the calculation report, choose Write Application Log.

Customizing

If you want to make settings for a client, you can do so under General Settings for Inventory During Opening Hours.  The system uses your entered values as default values and displays them in the parameters on the selection screen of the R_SRS_PI_STOCK_CALC and R_SRS_PI_CALC_SHOW programs.

An exception is the Save Processed POS Transactions setting, which you can use to define whether the system is to save the POS transactions requested from PIPE in the WSTI_POS_EVENT database table for more detailed analysis. The system does not display this setting on the selection screen because you should switch on this setting in exceptional cases only due to the high data volumes that result.

Adjustment Option

Deactivation of Inventory During Opening Hours Using BAdI WVFI_BADI_TWPII

You can create an implementation of this BAdI to ensure that this inventory procedure is deactivated even if the inventory during opening hours function is switched on. You have the option of deactivating the procedure for a complete company (for a specific period of time defined in the BAdI implementation, for example) or for specific inventory documents.

Constraints

Constraints that can lead to inaccuracies

●      Goods in shopping trolley

If you are counting an article during opening hours, then the count does not include articles that are already in the customer's shopping trolley. This can lead to an incorrect inventory result, because the sale of the articles that were in the shopping trolley at count time takes place after the count, which means that these articles are not included in the calculation of the book inventory at count time for the article. This inaccuracy is due to the process itself and cannot be corrected by technical means. It can also lead to negative stock amounts for the store.

●      Multiple placements

SAP Retail uses a single count time for the calculation of the book inventory because a unique count time must exist for determination of the relevant POS transactions. This can lead to inaccuracy in the calculation of the book inventory at count time if several counts are posted for the same article because the system either takes the time of the first count of the article or the time of the last count. You can define this setting in Customizing.

●      Stock transfers

The system does not provide any support if stock transfer occurs at the same time as an inventory during opening hours. These may be stock transfers from the reserve store room to the sales room, for example. If stock transfers occur, you must ensure that the goods are counted completely and that individual articles are not counted twice. If individual articles are not counted completely or are counted twice, this can lead to inaccuracies in the inventory result. It is not possible to prevent these inaccuracies by technical means.

Other Restrictions

●      Multiple inventories for an article

You can execute one inventory only for an article in the time between posting two POS entries because the inventory cannot be completed until after posting of the POS inbound. An article can only be contained in one active inventory document position within a store (an inventory document position is active if the inventory is not yet complete for this position). An inventory can be closed when differences are posted, for example. If there are multiple cashiers for an article during a day, it may not possible for every cashier to execute an inventory if only one POS inbound is to be posted per day.

●      Posting other goods movements

The system does not take into account other goods movements. This means that an organizational solution must be found if goods are received on the day of the inventory, for example.

●      Entering the count time in dialog mode in SAP Retail.

If you enter count quantities manually in an online dialog box (MI04 - create count), the system stores the entry time of the count as the count time in the inventory document. You cannot enter the count time manually.

●      Control counts

It is not possible to use a later control count to check the count quantities taken at a specific time for an inventory during opening hours because some of the articles could have been sold between the first count and the control count. This restriction is due to the process itself and cannot be corrected by technical means.

●      Difference analysis is not possible until after the calculation of the book inventory at count time

The analysis and clearing of inventory differences is only possible for an inventory during opening hours once the book inventory has been calculated at count time (if the receipt-based POS inbound and the calculation of the book inventory at count time have been executed during the night, this time may be on the day after the inventory count). This restriction is due to the process itself and cannot be corrected by technical means.

●      Consignment processing in SAP Retail

The calculation of the book inventory at count time does not support consignment processing in SAP Retail. If the posting of the POS inbound for an article was converted into postings from the consignment stock or available stock because consignment processing is switched on, then the system cannot use the corresponding POS transaction for the calculation of the book inventory.

The function supports rack jobber processing.