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 6581 3431

Warehouse management module

Warehouse inventory management system in Singapore for stock counts, batches and expiry dates

Count a few bins every day instead of shutting the warehouse for a weekend stock take, approve every variance before the stock changes, and know which batch sits in which bin, when it expires and which customers received it. This warehouse inventory management module is one part of Episcript's warehouse management system, working from the same scans as receiving, picking and dispatch, and AI features can be added to flag counts and adjustments that do not look right.

Built in Singapore for distributors, 3PL warehouses, manufacturers and anyone holding food, pharmaceuticals or other goods with a batch number and a shelf life.

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Warehouse supervisor approving a cycle count variance on a tablet beside racking stacked with batch-labelled cartons
  • Cycle counts and stock takes on handheld scanners
  • Batch, serial number and expiry tracked from the dock
  • Eligible for government grants
  • Built and supported in Singapore

Counting cycle

A warehouse inventory management system that counts, checks and corrects stock every day

Count schedules, blind counts, variance approval and stock adjustments all work from one record of each bin, batch and serial number, and every change carries a name and a reason.

  1. Plan the count

    Bins are chosen for counting by value, rate of movement or an event such as a short pick, and sent to the counters' scanners.

  2. Count blind

    The counter scans the bin and keys in what is there, without seeing the quantity the system expects to find.

  3. Review the variance

    Differences inside your tolerance are accepted. Anything larger goes back for a recount, then to a supervisor.

  4. Adjust with a reason

    Approved adjustments change the stock with a reason code, a name and a time, and their value passes to accounts.

Stock counts

Cycle counting and full stock takes without closing the warehouse

A year-end stock take that closes the warehouse for a weekend tells you how wrong the figures were, months after the errors happened. Cycle counting spreads the work across the year: a handful of bins each day, chosen by rules you set, counted by whoever has a quiet half hour and a scanner. High-value and fast-moving items come round often, say monthly, while slow lines in the back racks are counted once or twice a year. It is worth settling how a cycle counting programme should be set up before the first schedule goes live.

Counts also follow events. A bin a picker found short, a location that has just been emptied or a balance about to go below zero raises its own count task. An empty or nearly empty bin is the quickest count there is, and the moment a mistake is easiest to trace.

  • Count schedules by value and movement. Classes of items, each with its own count frequency, spread evenly across the working days.
  • Counts triggered by events. Short picks, empty bins, negative balances and putaway into a location that should have been empty.
  • Counting while orders go out. A bin under count is held from picking for a few minutes, or movements during the count are recorded and allowed for.
  • Full stock takes zone by zone. For a year-end or audit count, zones are frozen in turn, counted on scanners and recounted by a second team where you require it.
  • Count accuracy by zone and counter. The report shows where stock goes wrong most often, which is where the next round of counts should go.
Counter scanning a shelf bin during a blind cycle count, the handheld showing the bin location but not the expected quantity

Variance control

Count variances, approvals and stock adjustments with reason codes

Most stock errors are corrected quietly. Someone sees that the system says twelve and the shelf holds ten, changes the figure and moves on. Nobody learns why, and the same bin is wrong again next month. Here every difference between a count and the record passes a check before the stock changes.

The same rules cover adjustments made outside a count: a carton crushed by a forklift, stock found behind a pallet, goods past their expiry date. Each one is recorded with its reason, approved at the right level and passed to accounts at its value.

Variance tolerances by quantity and value

Set how large a difference may be accepted without question, by quantity and by value. Two missing packets of screws pass; two missing laptops do not.

Recounts by a second counter

A variance outside tolerance sends the bin back for a recount, by a different person where you choose, before anyone is asked to approve it.

Approval levels for adjustments

A supervisor approves small adjustments, and the warehouse manager or finance approves larger ones from a phone or a desk. Until then the record stays as it was.

Reason codes and the adjustment log

Damage, miscount, found stock, expiry, samples or suspected loss: every adjustment carries a reason, a name and a time, and the log filters by any of them.

Traceability

Batch and lot tracking, serial numbers and expiry dates in the warehouse

Batch, lot and serial numbers only help in a recall if they were captured at the dock and carried through every move after it. A number missed at receiving cannot be recovered later. These controls keep the trail complete for food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, electronics and anything else with a shelf life or a serial plate.

Carton label with a batch number barcode being scanned at the receiving dock

Batch and lot numbers from receipt to delivery

The batch or lot is scanned from the supplier's label at receiving, or keyed in where there is no barcode, and stays with the stock through putaway, transfers, picking and dispatch. A pallet carrying two batches is booked as two lines, and two batches sharing a bin are counted and picked separately.

Boxed device with a serial number plate beside a delivery note listing its unit

Serial numbers for equipment and high-value items

Each unit's serial number is scanned on arrival and again at dispatch, and the delivery note lists exactly which units went to which customer. A return is matched to its original delivery, and a unit that never left your warehouse is caught at the returns bench.

Two cartons with different expiry dates, the earlier one marked to be picked first

Expiry dates and first expiry, first out

Pick tasks send the picker to the batch with the earliest expiry date. Scan a later batch while an earlier one is still available and the scanner stops the pick, unless a supervisor allows the exception and records why.

Calendar with an alert bell beside a carton nearing its expiry date

Minimum shelf life and near-expiry alerts

Some customers only accept goods with a set share of shelf life left, say at least two-thirds. That rule is held per customer and checked at picking. Stock nearing its date appears on a near-expiry list in time to sell, move or write it off, and expired stock is blocked from picking.

Holds and recalls

Quarantine, stock holds and batch recall traceability

When a supplier warns that a batch may be faulty, the questions arrive together: how much of it do we still hold, where is it, and who has already received it? With batches tracked from the dock, one hold on that batch stops every carton of it being picked in every warehouse, and the trace report answers the rest from records you already have.

The trace works in both directions. It runs forward from a batch to every order, delivery and customer, with quantities and dates, and backward from a customer complaint to the batch, the supplier receipt and every other customer who took the same batch. A practice recall now and then shows whether the trail holds before a real one tests it, and how a warehouse runs a product recall covers the steps around the system.

  • Inspection holds on receipt. Goods that need checking wait in a receiving hold and cannot be released for picking until someone signs them off.
  • Quarantine bins and statuses. Damaged, returned or suspect stock carries a status that no pick task can override, wherever it sits.
  • Holds by batch, item or supplier. One hold reaches every location and warehouse holding the stock, and each release is approved and logged.
  • Recall lists. Customers, delivery addresses, quantities and dates for an affected batch, exported for your recall notices.
Batch trace on screen following one lot from its supplier receipt through warehouse bins to the orders and customers that received it

Replenishment

Pick-face replenishment from bulk and reserve storage

A picker who reaches an empty pick face stops, radios for a forklift and waits, and the order goes out late or goes out short. Replenishment keeps each pick face topped up from the reserve racking before that happens, using a minimum and a maximum set for each picking location.

Two triggers work together. A pick face that falls below its minimum raises a top-up task, and before a wave of orders is released the system checks whether each pick face holds enough to cover it, raising the task early if it does not. The pallet brought down is chosen by the same batch and expiry rules as picking, which keeps the oldest stock moving first and stops a fresh pallet being opened in front of an older one.

Topping up a pick face
  1. 01

    Trigger

    The pick face drops below its minimum, or the next wave of orders needs more than it holds.

  2. 02

    Task

    A replenishment task is raised, naming the reserve location that holds the earliest expiry date.

  3. 03

    Move

    The forklift driver scans the pallet out of reserve and scans it into the pick face.

  4. 04

    Confirm

    Both locations update at the scan, and a shortfall in reserve is flagged to the supervisor.

Several sites

Multiple warehouse inventory management for cold rooms and regulated goods

Stock accuracy gets harder with every site you add: a second warehouse, a chilled room, a store at the factory, a locked cage for goods only named staff may touch. The same counting, batch and hold rules run across all of them, with settings that differ where the goods differ.

Two warehouse buildings joined by an arrow carrying a pallet between them

Stock across several warehouses

One view of every item by warehouse, location, batch and status, with count schedules and tolerances set per site. Stock moving between warehouses shows as in transit until it is scanned in at the other end, and never drops out of the count.

Pallet being placed on a racking level whose storage rules decide what it may hold

Chilled, frozen and ambient rooms

Each location carries its temperature zone, and putaway or a transfer into the wrong zone is refused at the scan. Temperature checks can be recorded against each room at set times, and scanner screens keep working in a cold room with weak Wi-Fi.

Stacked cartons beside a status card separating available stock from stock on hold

Food, pharmaceuticals and other regulated goods

Restricted locations limit who may move or adjust stock, adjustments can need a second person's sign-off, and supplier certificates are filed against the batch they cover. The records are ready when a customer, an auditor or an inspector asks to see them.

Shelf bin carrying a barcode location label, standing for stock accuracy by bin

Stock accuracy by warehouse, zone and bin

Count accuracy, adjustment value by reason and near-expiry stock are reported per site, zone and counter. A manager sees which warehouse needs attention without asking each site to send a spreadsheet.

How it fits

Where inventory control sits in your warehouse management system

Inventory control is one module of Episcript's warehouse management system rather than a product sold on its own. It depends on receiving to capture batches and expiry dates, and picking depends on it in turn to follow expiry rules and respect holds.

Valuation and buying sit next door. Stock valuation, reorder levels and purchasing belong to inventory management, built on the same item records, and the value of each approved adjustment passes to your accounts. Where the warehouse is one part of a wider business, the whole system can run inside our custom ERP software, and it helps to know where a WMS ends and an inventory system or ERP begins.

Holds and expiry rules also decide what our order management software may promise a customer, because quarantined or short-dated stock is left out of the quantity available to sell. Most warehouses start with counts, batch tracking and holds in the first release, then add replenishment rules, cold room settings and AI features in later phases.

Uses the stock records

What draws on warehouse inventory control

  • Receiving, which captures the batch, serial number and expiry date at the dock
  • Putaway and transfers, which respect temperature zones and restricted locations
  • Picking, which follows first expiry, first out and skips stock on hold
  • Order management, which promises only stock that is free to sell
  • Your accounts, which receive the value of each approved adjustment
  • Reports on count accuracy, adjustments and near-expiry stock by site

Capability

AI features for warehouse inventory management software

AI features for warehouse inventory management software are most useful where people miss patterns: a counter whose figures never quite add up, a batch that will expire before it sells. Each one is scoped with you and built in its own phase, using information from your own warehouse records, and a person approves anything that changes stock.

Anomaly checks on counts and adjustments

AI flags what does not fit the usual pattern: one counter whose variances always favour the record, adjustments bunched at the end of a shift, or a location that comes up short time after time.

Batch and expiry details read from documents

AI reads supplier certificates, delivery orders and photos of carton labels, and prepares the batch numbers and expiry dates for the receiving team to confirm.

Questions about your own stock

Ask which batches of an item expire before month end across every warehouse, or which zone had the most adjustments last quarter, and get the answer with the records behind it.

Expiry risk forecasts

AI compares each batch's expiry date with the item's recent rate of sale and lists stock likely to expire before it sells, early enough to discount it, transfer it or return it to the supplier.

Drafted recall and hold notices

When a batch goes on hold, AI drafts the notice to each customer who received it, with quantities and delivery dates taken from the trace, for your staff to check and send.

Weighing it up

Warehouse stock control in a WMS compared with spreadsheets and an accounting stock module

A spreadsheet, or the stock module in your accounting software, records how much you own and serves a small store room well. It strains once stock sits in hundreds of bins across several sites, carries batches and expiry dates, and has to be counted while orders are still going out.

How inventory control inside a warehouse management system compares with a spreadsheet or an accounting stock module.

Point of comparison EpiscriptInventory control in your WMS Typical setupSpreadsheet or accounting stock module
Stock counts Cycle counts on scanners every working day, by schedule and by event A full stock take on paper, keyed in afterwards
Count variances Tolerances, recounts and approval before the stock changes Figures overwritten with no record of why
Stock adjustments Reason code, name, time and value on every change A corrected cell or a journal entry
Batch, lot and serial numbers Captured at the dock and carried to each delivery Extra columns, where they are kept at all
Expiry dates First expiry, first out checked at the scan, with near-expiry lists Checked by eye on the shelf
Holds and recalls One hold across every warehouse, traced to each customer Delivery notes searched by hand
Several warehouses and cold rooms Stock by site, bin and temperature zone, with transfers in transit Usually one total per item, or per site
AI features Scoped with you and built on your own warehouse records Whatever the spreadsheet or accounting product offers in general
Cost Quoted as part of the warehouse management system project and eligible for government grants Little to start, paid for later in write-offs and staff time
Speed to start Needs scoping and a build before the first release Available today

Swipe to see the full table

Questions

Warehouse inventory management system FAQs

An ERP and a warehouse inventory management system overlap but do different jobs. An ERP runs the business as a whole, covering sales, purchasing, accounts and stock values, often with stock held per item and per warehouse. WMS inventory management works at the level of the bin, batch and scan, controlling counts, expiry dates, holds and replenishment. Many businesses run both on the same item records.

Cycle counting checks a few bins every working day instead of the whole warehouse at once. Bins are chosen by value, rate of movement and events such as a short pick, then counted blind on a scanner. A bin under count is held from picking for a few minutes, or movements during the count are allowed for, and orders keep going out while stock is checked.

Approval follows rules you set. A count variance inside tolerance is accepted, a larger one goes to a recount and then to a supervisor, and adjustments above a value you choose need the warehouse manager or finance. Every adjustment records the reason, the people involved, the time and the value, and the log can be filtered for an auditor or a monthly review.

Batch and lot numbers are scanned at receiving and again at picking, and the trace report uses those scans to list every order, delivery and customer that took the batch, with quantities and dates, plus any stock still on hand by location. One hold stops the remaining stock being picked in every warehouse, and the customer list exports for your recall notices.

The system holds stock by warehouse, zone, bin, batch and status, with count schedules and tolerances set per site. Every location carries a temperature zone, and putaway or a transfer into the wrong zone is refused at the scan. Transfers between warehouses stay visible as stock in transit until they are scanned in at the other end.

It is a module of our warehouse management system rather than a product sold on its own, because it relies on the same scans as receiving, putaway and picking. Most warehouses include counts, batch tracking and holds in the first release, then add replenishment rules, cold room settings and AI features in later phases, each quoted on its own.

The AI features we build work with information from your own warehouse records: anomaly checks on counts and adjustments, reading batch numbers and expiry dates from supplier documents and carton labels, plain English questions about your stock, forecasts of stock likely to expire before it sells, and drafted recall notices. Each is scoped with you, and a person approves anything that changes stock.

Items, locations and units of measure are imported from your spreadsheets or current system and checked with your team first. The opening balance then comes from a full count by location, with batch numbers and expiry dates recorded as each bin is scanned. We plan that count with you around a quiet point in the week, one zone or one warehouse at a time where that helps.

The cost depends on scope: the number of warehouses and temperature zones, whether you track batches, serial numbers or expiry dates, the approval rules, the scanning devices, the integrations and any AI features. We quote against an agreed specification after a scoping session. Our solutions are eligible for government grants, and we talk that through with you as part of scoping.

Related builds

Related software for warehouse stock, orders and accounts

Warehouse management system

The full system: receiving, putaway, picking, packing, dispatch, scanning and 3PL billing, with inventory control inside it.

View solution

Custom ERP software

Sales, purchasing, invoicing and accounts on the same item records as the warehouse.

View solution

Order management software

Sales orders, stock allocation and back orders, promising customers only stock that is free to sell.

View solution

Next step

Plan your warehouse inventory management system with Episcript

Stock problems in a warehouse rarely start with the count. They start with the batch number nobody recorded, the adjustment nobody explained and the short-dated pallet nobody noticed until a customer refused it. Bring us your last stock take results and a batch you would need to trace, and we will show you how counts, approvals and traceability would run in your own warehouse, and what a first release would cover. We build and support it here in Singapore.

Request a demo 6581 3431