Inventory · 2 of 2 · 2 min read
Stock counts
Count what is on the shelf without closing the shop.
On this page
Counting the shelf and comparing it to the system is how you find out what shrinkage, breakage, and mis-scanning actually cost you.
You do not have to close
Start a count, and record what you find as you go. Counting a few categories on a quiet afternoon beats a full inventory that never happens because it would mean shutting for a day.
Many shops count high-value or fast-moving lines monthly and everything else once or twice a year.
Running a count
- Start a count and choose what it covers — everything, a category, or a location.
- Walk the shelf and enter what is there. Scan rather than type where you can.
- Review the variances before you post.
- Post it.
The review step is the one that matters. A variance of minus two hundred on one line is nearly always a counting error or a unit mix-up, and it is far cheaper to check the shelf again than to post it and spend a month wondering.
Posting does not overwrite your stock figure with the counted one. It records the variance and moves the cost of the difference through your books, so the loss shows up as a loss. That is why the count you post is auditable afterwards — and why counting the same shelf twice does not double anything.
Unposted counts are safe
A count in progress changes nothing. You can start one, get interrupted, and come back to it. Only posting affects stock and the ledger.
Common causes of a variance
- Sold without scanning — a busy period where things went through as a generic line
- Received but not recorded — a delivery that never became a purchase
- Units — bought in cases, sold in singles, counted in one of the two
- Breakage and waste — real, and worth recording as it happens rather than discovering here
- Theft — the one everybody assumes first and which is usually not the largest number
After posting
Look at the variance by value, not by quantity. Two hundred missing pens matter less than four missing bottles of spirits, and a report sorted by units will tell you the opposite.
Something here wrong or missing? Tell us — we would rather fix it than have you work around it.