Getting live on Ply comes down to one thing: getting accurate quantities into your stock locations without losing track of the material that moves while you're counting.
Most businesses can't close the doors for a week to do this. That's fine — this guide covers both realities. Work through it in order.
The one rule that makes all of this work:
If it's labeled, it's counted. If it's counted, it's live.
The moment a barcode label goes on a bin and the quantity is entered in Ply, that item is under management. Every movement from that point forward gets recorded in Ply.
This means you don't have to finish the whole warehouse before you start getting value. You go live section by section. Uncounted, unlabeled sections stay outside the system until you get to them.
✅ Part 1 — Before you count anything
Do not start counting until all six of these are true. Skipping any one of them is the most common reason a count has to be redone.
# Prerequisite | Why it matters |
1- Your catalog is clean | Duplicate items and mismatched units of measure (each vs. box vs. case) are the #1 source of bad counts. Fix these before anyone picks up a scanner. |
2- Materials are added to your warehouse location | The items have to exist at the location before you can count them. Add them with no quantity — the count sets the quantity. |
3- Every truck location exists in Ply | Even if the truck is empty. |
4- Every truck has a technician assigned | ⚠️ This is critical. See the warning below. |
5- Truck templates applied — min/max set, no quantity | Sets your reorder thresholds ahead of time. Leave quantities at zero; the truck count fills them in. |
6- Labels and printer ready, bin naming decided | Aisle / bay / level / bin naming should be locked before day one. You don't want to rename bins after they're labeled. |
⚠️ Assign a technician to every truck before you count.
Ply and your FSM use two things to decide where material comes from: the technician assigned to the job, and the technician assigned to the truck. If a truck has no technician assigned, Ply defaults to pulling that material from your warehouse — which will silently corrupt the warehouse count you just finished.
Helpful articles for this phase:
✅ Part 2 — Choose your path
Everything after this point depends on which of these two situations you're in.
| Full Shutdown | Live Count |
What it means | Warehouse is closed. No receiving, no pulls, nothing moves during the count. | Warehouse stays open. Material keeps coming and going while you count. |
Who it fits | Businesses that can close over a weekend or a slow week. | Most businesses. |
Receiving | Frozen. Communicate the freeze to your suppliers ahead of time. | Continues, with material segregated (see Part 4). |
Counter sales / field requests | Not honored while closed. | Honored based on whether the item has been counted yet. |
Go-live | One clean switch when the count is done. | Rolling — each section goes live as it's counted and labeled. |
Trade-off | Cleanest data, but you stop the business. | No disruption, but requires discipline from the whole team. |
Pick one now and tell your team which one you're running. Mixing the two is where counts fall apart.
✅ Part 3 — Integration settings
If you're connected to an FSM (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, FieldEdge), automations can move material in Ply while you're counting. You may or may not need to pause them.
Step 1: Screenshot your settings first
Go to Settings → Workspace → Integrations and take a screenshot of every toggle before you change anything. You'll use this to restore your exact configuration at go-live.
Step 2: Decide whether to turn anything off
If all of your trucks already exist in Ply with technicians assigned — even as empty trucks — you can leave your integration settings ON. Material will route to the correct truck instead of your warehouse, so the automations won't affect your warehouse count.
If your trucks aren't fully set up yet, toggle off the settings that move material — the ones that send materials to an invoice, and the ones that send materials from the FSM into Ply when added to a job. Anything that transfers material should be off until the warehouse count is complete.
Step 3: Don't disconnect your FSM
You do not need to unsync or disconnect the integration to run a count. Toggling the individual material-movement settings is enough, and it avoids a re-sync afterward.
Per-platform settings reference
Every FSM has a different set of toggles. Find yours:
✅ Part 4 — Counting the warehouse
Count one section at a time. Finish a section completely before moving to the next.
Create the inventory count in Ply and assign it to yourself or a team member.
Physically count each item in the section and enter the quantity.
Apply the barcode label to the bin as you count it. The label is your visual signal to the whole team that the item is now live.
Log any discrepancies in the Notes field before closing the section.
Mark the section complete — Ply updates on-hand quantities.
Related Articles:
☐ How to Create and Manage Inventory Counts in Ply
☐ Inventory Count Sheet
Handling material that moves during the count
This is where most counts go wrong. Use this table.
Situation | Full Shutdown | Live Count |
Incoming receipts / open POs | Receiving is frozen. If something arrives anyway, segregate it — don't let it land in a counted section. Don't process the receipt until the count is complete. | Segregate it. Keep it physically out of any counted section. The receipt still gets honored on its own timeline. Once the receipt is completed, that material can go out to a job if it's needed — it just can't be added to warehouse stock until the count is finished. |
Returns and warranty parts | Same as receipts — segregate, then count and add through the normal process once the count is done. | Same as receipts — segregate, then add through the normal process. |
Counter sales | Not honored while the warehouse is closed. | Check the item's status. Counted → transact against it normally. Not counted yet → your call: either let it move without recording it, or make the requester wait until that section is counted. Decide this once, as a business, and hold to it. |
Field requests | Not honored while the warehouse is closed. | Same rule as counter sales — depends on whether the item has been counted. |
Direct-to-job purchases | Fine. Never touches warehouse stock. | Fine. Never touches warehouse stock. |
Pulling material from a counted section | N/A | Scan the label and reduce the quantity by whatever was handed over. An admin can do this from the mobile app. If it's labeled, it's tracked. |
Moving material from warehouse to a truck | N/A | Use a Transfer, not Edit Quantity. A transfer starts the material-usage record and begins building the truck's stock list, even if the truck is empty in Ply. Edit Quantity sets an absolute number and records no movement. |
Related Articles:
☐ Regular Transfers vs. Pick Lists
☐ How to Transfer or Adjust Quantities Without Scanning a Barcode
☐ Field Requests
☐ How to Receive Materials in a Purchase Order
✅ Part 5 — If a count goes wrong
A bad count doesn't mean starting over.
Full Shutdown: Run a quick root-cause analysis first — five whys, or whatever framework your team uses — to find where it broke. Then re-initiate the count from that point. Only default to a full recount and extended shutdown if that's genuinely what the situation calls for.
Live Count: No need to restart. Go back through and correct the affected accounts. A root-cause analysis is still recommended so the same gap doesn't reopen.
Either way, this is the point where your regular inventory count cycle takes over. Ongoing counts are how accuracy is maintained — not a one-time event you get perfect on the first try.
✅ Part 6 — Counting your trucks
Count the warehouse first. Then restore your integration settings. Then count trucks.
A truck is just a micro-warehouse. The advantage is that it's easy to shut down: the truck is off the road for the count, so it's out of service. Count it, finish, and it's back in service.
Bring the truck in and take it out of service for the count.
Count every item on the truck and enter quantities in Ply.
Apply labels as you go, same as the warehouse.
Mark complete. The truck is live.
Optional: stock your trucks before you count them
If you're already using your FSM actively, you can have Ply build your truck stock lists for you before you ever count a truck.
When a technician adds material to a job in the FSM, the FSM sends that to Ply, Ply creates the stock at that truck's location, then applies it to the job. Over a few weeks this builds a real usage history — which you can then use to drive Rolling Replenishment and automate restocking your trucks before the first physical count ever happens.
All this requires is that every truck exists in Ply with a technician assigned.
Related Articles:
✅ Part 7 — Go-live checklist
☐ Item
☐ All warehouse sections counted and labeled
☐ All trucks counted, or intentionally scheduled for a later count
☐ Every truck has a technician assigned
☐ Segregated material (receipts, returns) received into stock through the normal process
☐ Integration settings restored to match your pre-count screenshot
☐ Validation test: run one job in your FSM and confirm the material depletes from the correct location
☐ Min/max thresholds set on warehouse and truck items
☐ Discrepancies from the count logged and reviewed
☐ Team trained on scanning, transfers, and field requests
✅ Part 8 — Staying accurate after go-live
Going live isn't the finish line — the count cycle is what keeps your numbers trustworthy.
Location recommended cadence:
Trucks → Monthly, full count
Warehouse → Quarterly full count, with monthly spot-checks on high-velocity items
Set these up as recurring inventory counts in Ply so they don't depend on someone remembering.
Related Articles:
Need a hand?
Your Customer Success Manager can walk through your specific cutoff plan with you before you start — especially if you're running a live count. Reach out to your CSM or contact.