It's Sunday evening, the shop is closed, and you and two staff are on the floor with clipboards. By ten o'clock the numbers still don't match the book. Somebody counted the top shelf twice. Nobody knows whether the six cartons by the back door were received or are still waiting to go back to the supplier.
Most owners have had a night like that. A stock take doesn't have to go that way.
In short: a stock take is a physical count of everything you hold, compared with what your records say you should have. The value is not in the count itself but in what you do with the differences: finding out why stock is missing or extra, fixing the cause, and then correcting the records. Done properly, with a bit of preparation and regular smaller counts in between, it gets faster every time.
Why bother?
Your records drift. A sale gets rung up under the wrong item. A delivery comes in short and nobody checks. A broken bottle goes in the bin without being written off. Someone helps themselves.
Over weeks, the gap grows, and it costs you:
- You don't reorder things that have actually run out, because the system still shows stock.
- You reorder things you already have, because they are sitting in the storeroom uncounted.
- Losses go unnoticed, whether that's theft, damage or a supplier who keeps short-delivering.
- Your figures for stock value and profit are wrong, which matters when you talk to the bank, a partner or IRD.
Full count or cycle count?
There are two ways to do this, and most shops end up using both.
| Full stock take | Cycle count | |
|---|---|---|
| What you count | Everything, all at once | A small section at a time, on a rota |
| How often | Once or twice a year | Weekly or monthly |
| Disruption | High: usually means closing or counting after hours | Low: fits into a quiet hour |
| Good for | Year-end, opening a new branch, starting a new system | Keeping records right all year and catching problems early |
We'll go through the full count first, then cycle counts.
Before the count
Most of the work in a good stock take happens before anyone counts a single item.
1. Pick the time. Choose your quietest window: after closing, early on a Sunday, or a public holiday. If you can't close, plan to count one zone at a time while the rest of the shop trades.
2. Bring the paperwork up to date. Receive every delivery that has arrived. Record any returns to suppliers. Write off damaged and expired stock you already know about. Finish any transfers between branches. Anything left half-done will show up as a false difference later.
3. Tidy and sort. Put stray items back where they belong. Keep each product in one place where you can, and label shelves. Stock scattered in three spots is how things get counted twice or missed.
4. Separate what shouldn't be counted. Customer orders that are paid for but not yet collected, goods waiting to go back to a supplier, and items on display that belong to someone else should be set aside and clearly marked.
5. Draw a map and split it into zones. Shelf by shelf, aisle by aisle, storeroom included. Give each counter their zones in writing so nobody wonders where to go next.
6. Brief the team. Five minutes is enough: how to count (one shelf at a time, left to right, top to bottom), how to record, what to do with an item that has no barcode or isn't in the system, and who to ask when unsure.
7. Get the scanners or phones ready. Barcode scanning cuts out handwriting mistakes and saves a lot of typing later. Charge everything the day before, and if power cuts are common where you are, have a backup plan for the lights and the devices.
During the count
1. Freeze stock movement. No sales, no deliveries, no transfers in the zones being counted. If you have to sell while counting, record those sales separately so you can account for them.
2. Count blind. Don't give counters the expected numbers. If they know the system says 24, they'll find 24. You want an honest number.
3. Work zone by zone, and mark each zone as done. A strip of tape or a sticky note on the shelf edge stops people recounting the same area.
4. Count in units you sell in. If you sell single sachets but store them in boxes of 20, decide in advance whether you count boxes or sachets, and stick to it. Open boxes need to be counted as loose units.
5. Use two people on high-value stock. Phones, perfumes, spirits, jewellery and controlled medicines should have one person counting and another checking. That's where a counting mistake costs the most.
6. Note what you find along the way. Damaged, expired or near-expiry stock should be recorded as you count, not "sorted out later".
After the count
This is the part most shops rush, and it's the part that pays.
1. Compare counted with expected. For each item, the difference between what you counted and what the system says is the variance.
- Less than expected is the common one. It can be theft, an unrecorded breakage, a sale rung up under the wrong product, a short delivery or a counting slip.
- More than expected usually means a delivery wasn't received in the system, a return wasn't recorded, or a sale was keyed against this item by mistake.
2. Recount the big ones. Before you investigate anything, recount any item with a large or expensive difference. A surprising number of "losses" are a box sitting on the wrong shelf.
3. Investigate before you adjust. For each real difference, check:
- delivery notes and invoices against what was received
- voided sales, refunds and returns for that item
- transfers between branches that may not have been recorded
- whether a similar product could have been sold under this item's code
4. Adjust with a reason. Only once you understand the difference should you correct the records. Give every adjustment a reason: damage, expiry, theft, receiving error, counting error. Without reasons, next year's figures tell you nothing.
5. Look for patterns. Keep each stock take's results. Are the losses always in one category, one branch, or after one supplier's deliveries? Are they on the shift when the same person is on the till? Patterns are what you act on. Our guide to [preventing inventory shrinkage](/blog/prevent-inventory-shrinkage/) goes further on what to do next.
6. Fix the process. If short deliveries are the problem, check every delivery at the door against the order. If breakages aren't being written off, make it easy for staff to record them. The count tells you where the leak is. Fixing the process stops it.
Cycle counts: the habit that makes stock takes easy
Once a year is too long to wait to find out something is wrong. Cycle counting means counting a small part of your stock regularly, so every item gets counted several times a year without ever closing the shop.
A simple way to set it up:
1. Sort your products into three groups. Group A: the expensive items and your bestsellers. Group B: steady sellers. Group C: everything else. 2. Count A most often, say every week or two. B monthly. C once a quarter. 3. Keep each count small enough to finish in a quiet half hour, for example one shelf or one category before opening. 4. Count anything that looks wrong straight away. If a customer is told an item is in stock and it isn't, count that item that day. 5. Treat cycle count differences exactly like a full stock take: recount, investigate, then adjust with a reason.
Do this for a few months and something good happens: your next full stock take is quick, because most of your records are already right.
How EliteTeQ helps
A POS can't count the shelf for you, but it can make everything around the count much easier. With EliteTeQ:
- Stock matches the shelf more often to begin with, because every sale, delivery, return and damage is recorded as it happens.
- Barcode scanning for receiving and checkout keeps items from being sold or received under the wrong code.
- Every adjustment is logged against the person who made it, with the time, so you have a clear audit trail.
- Staff roles let you decide who can adjust stock and who can only count.
- All branches in one view, so transfers between shops are recorded on both sides instead of going missing.
Common questions
How often should I do a stock take?
A full count once or twice a year, and cycle counts in between: your expensive items and bestsellers every week or two, and the rest monthly or quarterly.
Can I do it without closing the shop?
Yes. Count zone by zone in quiet hours, freeze movement in the zone you're counting, and record any sales from that zone separately. Cycle counts are designed for exactly this.
What should I do with an item that has no barcode?
Don't skip it or lump it under a general code. Add it to the system properly, then record the count. If it isn't in the system at all, find out how it was received.
How long does a stock take take?
It depends on how many products you carry, how tidy the shop is and whether you scan or write. A small shop that has kept up with cycle counts can often do a full count in an evening. A large store will need longer.
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If you'd like to see how stock adjustments, audit logs and branch transfers work in practice, [book a free demo](/contact/) or talk to a real person on WhatsApp.
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