Count a little, often
The traditional stocktake closes the shop, counts everything, and finds a big difference nobody can explain. A better habit is the rolling count: one shelf, one aisle or one area at a time, a few times a week. Over a month everything is counted, the shop never closes, and each difference is small and recent.
Count the expensive and the fast-moving items most often: they are where money disappears fastest.
Before you count
- Pick the area. “Shelf 3, provisions”, “the cement stack in the yard”.
- Write what the records say. For each product in the area, the quantity your book or spreadsheet says should be there. If you use a sheet, fill this column first.
- Agree the unit. Bags or kilos? Cartons or pieces? Write the unit beside each product so nobody counts cartons while the record is in pieces.
- Pause movements for that area while you count it. A sale halfway through a count makes the difference meaningless.
Counting
- Count what you can see and touch. Opened cartons count as pieces; sealed cartons count as cartons times what is inside.
- Have one person count and another check the high-value lines. Write both names on the sheet.
- Count anything damaged or expired separately and write it in the notes.
After counting: the difference
Difference = counted − should be. A minus means something is missing; a plus usually means a delivery or a sale was never written down.
Explain every difference the same day, while people remember. The usual reasons, in order:
- A sale or delivery that was not recorded.
- A wrong unit: cartons recorded as pieces, or the other way round.
- Damage or spoilage that was thrown away without a record.
- Stock that left without being sold.
Fix what you can explain, record the rest as an adjustment with a note, and correct the records so the next count starts from the truth. Our guide how to stop stock going missing covers what to do when the same product keeps coming up short.
A count sheet that makes it easy
Use one sheet per area, with columns for product, unit, should be, counted, difference and a note, and space for who counted and who checked. Ours is free: download the stock count sheet or print it from the page.