Counting Tasks

A count is something any task can carry: a list of products with expected quantities and a built-in barcode scanner, making it easy to count what’s on the shelf and spot discrepancies. A task that includes a count is what we call a counting task — you can create one from scratch, or add a count to a task that already exists.

How Counting Tasks Work

A counting task contains a list of products, each with an expected quantity. Your job is to physically count the items on the shelf and record what you find. FastQuery compares your count to the expected quantity and highlights any discrepancies.

Performing a Count

1. Open the counting task from your My tab
2. The counting interface shows the list of products to count
3. Use the barcode scanner to scan each item — the app automatically records your count
4. Swipe through items to move to the next product
5. When you’ve counted everything, finalize the count to generate a report

On a Zebra handheld, you can pull the device’s hardware trigger instead of using the camera — the scan behaves exactly the same. If you scan an item that isn’t on the count list, you’ll hear a miss tone and get a tappable prompt to add it to the count. See Zebra Handheld Scanners.

Understanding the Color Indicators

As you count, color-coded indicators help you see your progress at a glance:

• Green — Your count matches the expected quantity. You’re all set.
• Orange — The item hasn’t been counted yet, or the count is below the expected quantity. Keep counting.
• Blue — The item has been counted to zero.
• Red — Your count is higher than expected. Double-check for errors or misplaced items.

Navigation

Items in a counting task are sorted by bin, making it easy to work through your count aisle by aisle. This way you can walk the store in a logical order instead of jumping around.

Creating Counting Tasks

There are several ways counting tasks can be created:

From Inventory Selection (Web App)

1. Open the inventory grid in the web app
2. Apply filters to narrow down what you want to count — for example:
   • One aisle or shelf — filter by bin
   • A category or department — filter by category
   • A brand or supplier — filter by manufacturer or supplier
3. Click Create Tasks in the toolbar and choose counting tasks
4. The task is created with the filtered products and their expected quantities. This is bulk task creation — large selections are automatically grouped by store and split into multiple tasks along bin (shelf location) lines, targeting the Items per task size you choose (500 by default, adjustable from 25 to 2,500) while always keeping the items on a shelf together in one task. So a large department or fineline becomes several manageable tasks rather than one oversized one. Up to 35,000 items can be turned into tasks at once.

Creating tasks from the inventory grid is available to anyone who can manage tasks at that facility — admins everywhere, managers at their assigned facilities, and regular users at their home facility (see Roles and Permissions).

From the AI Assistant

You can also ask the AI to set up a count in plain language — for example, “Create a counting task for aisle 5” or “Have someone count the paint display.” The AI drafts the task and asks you to confirm before creating it.

Automatic Creation from Shelf Scanning

If your store uses Zippedi or Badger shelf-scanning robots, counting tasks can be created automatically when the robot detects discrepancies between what’s on the shelf and what’s expected. This lets your team focus on verifying and resolving issues rather than finding them.

From POS Discrepancy Reports

When your point-of-sale system flags inventory discrepancies — for example, an item that sold but shows zero stock — counting tasks can be generated to verify the actual quantities on the shelf.

Finalizing a Count

When you’re ready, tap Finalize to close out the items you’ve counted so far. This:

• Records those counts and locks the items against further edits
• Generates a summary report showing matches and discrepancies
• Emails the report to the addresses you choose — including an adjustment file formatted for your POS system, so the corrected quantities can be imported instead of retyped. Epicor Eagle stores get a PIP file (see Importing PIP Files); Acceo stores get a fixed-width TXT file ready for Acceo’s import; Paladin stores get a CSV of SKUs and new quantities.

You don’t have to count everything before finalizing — untouched items stay open in the same task, and you can finalize again in another round once they’re counted. Finalizing never completes the task: mark it done whenever the work is finished, even with items left uncounted.

Once a count is finalized, you can also bulk-print fresh price tags for every item in the count — useful after a section reset or pricing change. See Label Printing.