How to do a stock take without closing for the day
A practical way for a small business to count its stock accurately, one area at a time, and correct the figures as you go.
By The Osmuch team · · 6 min read
In short
- Count one area at a time rather than the whole business at once, so you can keep trading.
- Stop stock moving in and out of the area you are counting, not everywhere.
- Count twice where the value is high or the two counts disagree.
- Record why each figure changed, so a gap is something you can explain later.
- Afterwards, look at the biggest differences first. They usually point to a gap in a process.
A stock take is the moment the figures in your system meet the shelves. For a small business it often happens once a year, under pressure from an accountant, over a weekend nobody wanted to give up. It does not have to be like that. Counted in the right order, a stock take can be done in pieces while the business keeps running, and it gets easier each time.
Why counts drift in the first place
Stock figures go wrong for ordinary reasons. A part is taken from the shelf for a job and never booked out. A delivery is short and nobody notices. A sale goes through the till as a custom line instead of the product. Something is moved to a van and the yard still thinks it has it. None of these is dramatic, and all of them add up.
That matters for what you do with the results. If you treat every difference as a mystery, you will count, correct and drift again. If you treat each one as a clue about where a process leaks, the next count will be closer.
Before you start
- Split the business into areas you can count in an hour or two: a run of shelving, the yard, each van.
- Pick a quiet time for each area. First thing in the morning works for most trades.
- Book in any deliveries waiting to be put away, and book out anything already used, before you count that area.
- Tell the team which area is being counted, so nothing is taken from it until you have finished.
- Have the product list for that area to hand, on paper or on a phone.
Counting
Two people make a count faster and more accurate: one counts, one records, and they swap for a second pass on anything expensive or anything that disagrees with the system by more than a little. Count what is actually there, not what the label on the box says. Open part-used boxes. For things sold by length or volume, such as cable or sealant, measure or weigh rather than guessing, and record the part quantity rather than rounding it.
Count in the unit you sell in. If you buy cable in 100 metre drums but sell it by the metre, count metres. A count in drums will not match a system that sells in metres, and you will spend the afternoon converting.
Recording the difference
When the shelf and the system disagree, correct the system, but do not simply overwrite the number. Record an adjustment with a reason: counted at stock take, damaged, found in the wrong place. The reason is what lets you look back in three months and see whether the same product keeps going missing.
Resist correcting a figure you have not counted. If an area has not been counted yet, leave its figures alone until it has.
After the count
Sort the differences by value, not by quantity, and look at the top ten. Ask where each one could have come from. The usual answers are parts used on jobs but not booked, sales entered as free text, deliveries booked in at the ordered quantity rather than the received one, and stock moved between locations without a transfer being recorded. Fix the process behind the biggest one and your next count will show it.
How often to count
Rather than one big count a year, count a little often. A common pattern is to count your fastest-moving and most valuable products every month, everything else every quarter, and to do a full count at your financial year end, when your accountant will usually want a stock figure. Counting in small, regular pieces means no single count takes a whole day.
Questions
How often should a small business do a stock take?
Count your fastest-moving and most valuable products monthly, everything else quarterly, and do a full count at your year end. Small regular counts are easier than one large one and catch problems sooner.
Do I have to close to do a stock take?
No. Count one area at a time and stop stock moving in and out of that area while you count it. The rest of the business can keep trading.
What should I do if the count is lower than the system?
Correct the system with an adjustment and a reason, then look for the cause. The most common causes are parts used on jobs but not booked out, and sales entered without the product attached.
Doing this in Osmuch
In Osmuch every change to a count is a stock movement with a reason, so an adjustment after a stock take sits in the product's history beside the sales, jobs and deliveries that came before it. Scan a product's barcode with your phone to open it and adjust the count where you are standing, and if you keep stock in more than one place, each location keeps its own figure while the total stays right.
Guide: adding your first product · Guide: low stock alerts and locations · Guide: barcodes batches and serials