How to count your stock without closing the store or warehouse
The annual stocktake is an exhausting day: the store or warehouse closes, everything is counted once, the balance is corrected and the cause is forgotten. Two months later the difference is back, because nobody learned where it came from.
The alternative the large retail chains use is available to any store or company, with one branch or several: cycle counting. You count one shelf or one category each day at a quiet time, covering the whole warehouse within a month without closing for an hour.
1 · Split the stock into small groups
Divide each warehouse by what can be counted in half an hour: a shelf, an aisle, or a product category. Fast-moving or expensive items are counted more than once a month; slow, cheap ones once a quarter. The rule: what moves more, errs more.
- One group per day, at a quiet hour, with two people if possible
- Items with expiry dates are counted by batch, not in total
- Fix the order on a monthly calendar; do not leave the choice to mood
2 · Count what is on the shelf, not what is in the system
The common mistake is an employee counting while looking at the system's number, and searching for the pieces that match it. Print the item list without quantities, or use a count screen that hides the system balance until the count is done. A blind count is what reveals the real difference.
3 · Variances are reviewed before they are applied
After the count comes a list of variances: what is over, what is short, and by how much. The adjustment is not applied automatically. A manager reviews each difference: a receipt that was not recorded? A sale that was not posted? Spoilage that was not documented? Breakage or theft? The adjustment is approved with a written reason, so it becomes information rather than a mere correction.
Repeated variances on the same item point to a process problem: a duplicated barcode, a pack sold by the piece and received by the carton, or a shelf near the door. Cycle counting exposes these patterns because the count repeats; the annual stocktake does not, because it happens once.
4 · Selling continues during the count
Because a count takes half an hour on a small section, there is no need to stop the till. Good software records the count as a snapshot against the balance at the moment the count began, so a sale made during the count is not treated as a variance. If your software does not distinguish the two, count the items that are not selling at that hour.
5 · Every branch and warehouse on its own calendar
In a company with several branches, give each warehouse its own counting calendar and someone responsible for it, and have the variances approved by someone other than the counter: the branch manager or head office. Never run two counts for the same warehouse at once, or the same difference may be applied twice. And compare the match rate across branches: a branch whose variances keep recurring needs its procedures reviewed, not more counting.
6 · What to measure after three months
After a full cycle, measure two things: the share of items whose count matched the system balance, and the net value of the variances. The aim is for the share to improve month on month, not to reach perfection. Once it passes 95% you have turned the stocktake from a day of misery into a half-hour habit.
Track food, medicine and cosmetics by batch and expiry date: sales take the nearest expiry first, and the dashboard flags what is about to spoil or run out.
Periodic counts with approved variances in Vezano Pro
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