How to cut your inventory time in half with COSYS

Which obstacles can ruin the efficiency of your stocktake?

Many stocktakes slow down for predictable reasons. Paper lists look simple but create double work; you first count, then re-type, then reconcile after finding transcription errors. Item identification is another friction point: faint labels, tiny fonts or near-identical SKUs force counters to stop, squint and second-guess. Weak master data compounds the problem when units of measure don’t match, barcodes are missing or locations are outdated. Devices can let you down too—shared scanners with low batteries, apps that freeze when Wi-Fi drops, or no offline mode at all. The longer teams pause to solve such problems, the more momentum you lose across an aisle, a zone, even an entire site. Perhaps the biggest hidden time-waster is late variance discovery. If differences between system and reality surface only at the end, you burn hours hunting for causes when your best clues are already stale. Add in temporary staff who lack clear instructions, and you’ve built a perfect recipe for delays, frustration and overtime.

How can the stocktaking app by COSYS contribute to your inventory count?

COSYS tackles those pain points head-on by guiding each step of the count and capturing clean data at the source. Counters scan quickly using industrial handhelds or smartphones; the app reads 1D and 2D barcodes, supports GS1 formats and handles serial numbers, batches and best-before dates with the same ease as a simple EAN. Each scan is validated in real time. If someone is in the wrong bin, enters an impossible quantity or repeats a serial number, the app flags it immediately and offers clear next steps. Because warehouses are full of dead zones, COSYS is built offline-first: counting continues without a network and synchronizes as soon as a signal returns. That single design choice prevents queues, keeps teams moving and preserves data integrity.

All captured information flows straight into the backend, so there is no second round of typing or spreadsheet merging at night. Supervisors see variances appear as they happen, rather than after the fact, which allows quick spot checks while people and pallets are still in place. The app adapts to your method—blind counts, double counts, ABC-prioritized cycle counts or a full annual shutdown—and its user interface is intentionally simple so temporary staff can become productive within minutes. For auditability, each action is logged with user, timestamp and location, creating a transparent trail that satisfies finance and external auditors alike. COSYS also integrates with common ERPs such as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV and Sage via standardized interfaces or tailored connectors, so your processes improve without tearing up your system landscape.

What is COSYS Business Intelligence and why is it helpful?

COSYS Business Intelligence (BI) turns counting from a black box into a controllable process. Live dashboards show progress by site, zone or team, so you can see at a glance which aisle is ahead and which needs reinforcement. Variance analysis breaks differences down by item, lot, location and user, helping you separate one-off mistakes from recurring patterns. Quality metrics like first-pass accuracy, average scan time and recount rates highlight where coaching or process tweaks will pay off. Perhaps most valuable, BI exposes weak master data—items that often fail scans, locations that generate frequent mismatches, units of measure that confuse staff—so you fix root causes after the event.

Picture a busy count day at 11:00. A heatmap shows Zone C lagging behind; with a few taps you reassign two people from a finished zone, and throughput normalizes in minutes. Meanwhile, a variance widget reveals that one SKU is repeatedly short in multiple bins. Instead of shrugging and accepting a write-off, a supervisor walks over, finds a misplaced carton and corrects several records at once. When the day ends, finance receives a clean variance list with drill-down to individual scans, making approvals straightforward and audit questions easy to answer.

How can COSYS further support you with your stocktake

Software is only part of a successful count. COSYS provides surround services that make the day run smoothly from the first scan to the final sign-off. If you don’t want to own an entire fleet of devices for a once-a-year event, you can rent preconfigured handhelds from COSYS. They arrive staged with the app, user profiles and Wi-Fi settings, so your team can start immediately. If labels are a weak link, COSYS helps design and apply durable article and location labels that scan reliably and speed up future counts. Short, practical training sessions and “train-the-trainer” materials get new staff up to speed fast, while a hotline offers remote assistance during the counting window to resolve issues before they snowball.

Conclusion

A physical inventory is mandatory for compliance, but it doesn’t need to be a grind. The COSYS stocktaking app speeds up scanning, prevents errors at the moment they occur and eliminates the tedious re-typing that steals your evenings. COSYS Business Intelligence brings real-time visibility and sharp analysis so you can steer resources during the count, resolve variances while evidence is fresh and present auditors with a transparent trail. With rental devices, labeling support, training and responsive help on the day, COSYS offers a complete, pragmatic package that shortens your count, raises accuracy and reduces stress. Put simply: by aligning people, process and technology around fast, validated data capture, COSYS gives you the control you need to cut inventory time in half—and the confidence to sign off without second thoughts.