What do you use the Warehouse Physical Inventory Journal for?
If I’m working on a location with a checkmark in the directed put away and pick on the location card, I would need to use the warehouse physical journal to do the inventory counting. I cannot use a normal physical item journal. So, I use the warehouse physical journal and I need to synchronize it after counting.
This is what happens in the video
If you run warehouse management with directed put-away and pick in Business Central, you cannot use the standard physical inventory journal to count your stock. You must use the warehouse physical inventory journal instead, and then synchronise the result back to your items.
The warehouse physical inventory journal lets you calculate the current inventory based on your warehouse entries, but it does not pre-fill the counted quantity. You enter the actual counted quantity yourself, register the journal to update the warehouse entries, and then run a calculate warehouse adjustment in the normal item journal to update the item ledger entries.
The process updates inventory in two steps. First your warehouse entries, then your item ledger entries.
Why directed put-away requires the warehouse physical inventory journal
When you work on a location that has a checkmark in “Directed Put-away and Pick” on the location card, the standard physical item journal is not available for counting. You have to use the warehouse physical inventory journal instead. After counting, you also need to synchronise the result, so the counting is not finished in a single step.
Calculating the inventory in the warehouse physical inventory journal
In the warehouse physical inventory journal you can calculate the existing inventory based on your warehouse entries. You can do this for a single item, or you can filter by bin, zone, unit of measure and several other criteria. Filtering on a single item keeps the number of lines manageable, but in practice you would typically calculate across racks, bins or zones depending on how you want to count.
When you calculate the inventory, the journal shows the calculated quantity but leaves the counted quantity empty. This is by design. You cannot pre-fill the physical inventory quantity, because the point of directed put-away is that you actually walk out and count what is on the shelves.
Counting per bin instead of per item
Before you count, you print the document and hand it to your warehouse employee. They walk around the warehouse and count per item and per bin, writing the physical quantity in the column on the right-hand side of the printout.
This is where the warehouse physical inventory journal is genuinely useful. Instead of counting only per item, you count per bin. For example, you might find 2.5 of one item on a bin, 5 of another, and only 9 on a third bin. When you enter these numbers back in the journal, Business Central calculates the difference between the calculated quantity and your counted quantity, and that difference is what gets posted.
Registering the journal and synchronising with the item ledger
After you have entered all the counted quantities, you register the journal. This registers the changes to your warehouse entries.
The important step to remember is that registering the warehouse journal is not the end. You still have to synchronise the result against your items. You do this in the normal item journal using the function to calculate warehouse adjustments. These adjustments are the differences between the calculated quantities and your final counts, and you post them into the item journal.
Once both steps are done, you have updated your warehouse entries first and your item ledger entries afterwards, and your inventory is correct again.
Q&A
Can I use the standard physical inventory journal with directed put-away and pick?
No. When a location has a checkmark in “Directed Put-away and Pick” on the location card, you must use the warehouse physical inventory journal for counting. The standard physical item journal is not available for those locations.
Why is the counted quantity empty after I calculate the inventory?
This is intentional. The warehouse physical inventory journal shows the calculated quantity based on your warehouse entries, but it does not pre-fill the counted quantity. You have to enter what you actually count yourself.
Can I count per bin instead of per item?
Yes. The warehouse physical inventory journal lets you count per bin, which is one of its main advantages. You can also filter your calculation by zone, bin, item and unit of measure.
How do I update the item ledger after registering the warehouse journal?
Registering the warehouse journal updates your warehouse entries only. To update the item ledger entries, you go to the normal item journal and use the function to calculate warehouse adjustments, then post the adjustments. These adjustments are the differences between the calculated and counted quantities.