In continuous inventory, you distribute the physical inventory for all storage bins over the course of the fiscal year, and can carry out inventories at different times as you require. This means that you can include the warehouse stock by material type and material quantity that exists on the closing key date, even without a simultaneous physical inventory (annual inventory) from the records in the Warehouse Management system (WMS).

• The effort and costs for the inventory is not concentrated on a certain day or days but is distributed over the entire year. You can better plan the workforce in the warehouse.
• You can carry out the inventory at idle times in the warehouse.
• Because of the lower inventory efforts at the end of the fiscal year, you can concentrate on creating year-end closing reports.

You have specified that you want to perform continuous inventory in a certain storage type. For more information, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Warehouse Management under Activities → Physical Inventory → Define Types per Storage Type

You have made settings for printing the warehouse inventory list in Customizing for Warehouse Management under Activities → Physical Inventory → Define Default Values

1. Plan the inventory by selecting the storage bins for which you want to perform the inventory at a certain time.

In the SAP Menu, choose Logistics → Logistics Execution → Internal Whse Processes → Physical Inventory → In Warehouse Management → Physical Inventory Document → Create.

Inventory Procedure	Menu Path
Continuous Inventory	→ Continuous Inventory
Cycle Counting	→ Cycle Counting
Quant inventory	→ Cycle Counting per Quant

You can control the scope of the inventory using selection criteria.



When selecting storage bins for inventory, you can only select storage bins for which there are no open transfer orders.

2. Create a system inventory record.

On the screen displaying the list of storage bins selected for inventory, choose Physical Inventory Document → Post.

The system creates the system inventory record and sets the Inventory planned indicator for the selected storage bins. At this point the storage bin is not yet blocked.

In the inventory document header, the Inv. Status indicator has the value N (Not counted).

3. Activate the system inventory record.

1. In the SAP Menu, choose Logistics → Logistics Execution → Internal Whse Processes → Physical Inventory → In Warehouse Management → Physical Inventory Document → Change.
2. Enter the inventory record number and choose ENTER.
3. Before you activate the inventory document, you can add new storage bins for which you want to perform an inventory. You can also delete items from the inventory document.
4. Choose Physical Inventory Document → Activate.

4. Print the warehouse inventory list.

1. In the SAP Menu, choose Logistics → Logistics Execution → Internal Whse Processes → Physical Inventory → In Warehouse Management → Physical Inventory Document → Print Whse Invent. List.
2. Enter data as required.
3. If you only want to display the inventory document onscreen, remove the Print List indicator.

5. Carry out the physical inventory in the warehouse for the selected storage bins.
6. Enter the count results in the system.

1. In the SAP Menu, choose Logistics → Logistics Execution → Internal Whse Processes → Physical Inventory → In Warehouse Management → Count Results → Enter.
2. Enter data as required.
3. Choose Enter.
4. Enter the inventory count results in the Counted Quantity column.

You can adjust the layout of the screen for entering inventory counts in the Customizing for Warehouse Management under Activities → Physical Inventory → Define Default Values.

Book Inventory Balance	Physical Inventory	Enter Count Result
The storage bin is an empty storage bin	You count zero stock	Select the Zero column for this item
The storage bin is an empty storage bin	You count an existing quantity	Enter the material and the quantity counted
The storage bin contains material stock	You count more quants than have been entered in the system	Choose Goto → New Item → List or Single, in order to add the material and the quantity counted
The storage bin contains material stock	You count fewer quants than have been entered in the system	Enter the quantity counted

5. If you enter a difference in the book inventory balance, the system issues a message according to the size of the difference.
6. Save your entries.

7. Process the Inventory Differences in the WMS.

Post the differences to the interim record for differences. In the standard system, storage type 999 is set up as the interim storage area for differences.

The system removes the blocks from the storage bins, because the inventory is now complete for these bins.

8. Clear the inventory differences in Inventory Management.
9. After the physical inventory is complete for the fiscal year, you reset the inventory data for storage bins and storage quants using the RLREOLPQ report. In the next inventory period, you can then perform a new physical inventory for these storage bins or quants.