Running a stock take and dealing with differences
How a shop plans and runs a stock take by location, what a count changes in Achekam and what it does not, and how to chase the biggest differences.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Retail businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A stock take is the one day a year, or a month, or a week, when a shop finds out what it really has. It is tiring, it eats into trading time, and it nearly always produces a surprise. Done well, it gives you quantities you can trust for the till and a clear list of where stock is going missing. Done badly, it replaces one set of wrong numbers with another.
This article walks through planning and running a stock take in a shop using Achekam: when to count, how to count by location, what the count changes in the system, one screen to avoid, what the count does not do to your books, and how to work through the differences afterwards.
Choosing a cut-off: counting with the tills closed or counted around
Every count needs a cut-off: a moment at which the quantity you count is the quantity the records should show. Because a till sale takes the sold quantity off stock at the till's location in the same step, any sale during the count changes the figure you are comparing against.
You have two choices:
Count with the tills closed. After trading, or on a day the shop is shut. Nothing moves, and the count compares cleanly with the records. Best for a full stock take.
Count around trading. Count one section at a time while the shop is open, and freeze that section while you count it: no sales from it, no deliveries put away into it. This suits cycle counts, where a few product groups are counted each week so the whole shop is covered over time.
Either way, stop receiving deliveries into the area being counted, and finish putting away anything already received before you start.
Counting by location: shop floor, storeroom and warehouse
With the Warehousing add-on, a business keeps stock locations such as warehouses, stores, bins and vans on the server, with the quantity on hand at each. Several tills can run at once, each opened at one of those locations.
Count each location separately, and record each count against the right location. Stock on the shop floor and the same product in the storeroom are two different quantities in the records, and mixing them up creates a surplus in one place and a shortage in the other.
A practical plan:
- Draw a simple map of each location, divided into numbered zones.
- Assign two people per zone: one counts, one records.
- Count zone by zone, and mark each zone done.
- Recount any zone where the result looks wrong, with a different pair.
AccountingTools sets out a fuller inventory count procedure, from preparation and count tags to the checks after the count, which is worth adapting for a first full stock take. Vans and other mobile stock follow the same principles; see equipment on installer vans.
What a count sets: the location's quantity and a recorded adjustment
With the Warehousing add-on, a stock count sets a location's quantity to what was counted, and records the difference as an adjustment.
So after you record the count, the till sells from the counted figure. The adjustment is the list of differences: how many of each product were more or fewer than the records said. Keep that list; it is the starting point for the investigation below.
The Commerce stock screen whose buttons only change what you see
The Stock & Inventory screen inside Commerce looks like the natural place to do a stock take. Today it is not. It shows products only if the till was opened earlier in the same browser session, and its stock buttons change only what is on the screen. Nothing is saved to the server.
Record counts through the Warehousing add-on's stock count, which does save, and tell everyone who helps with the stock take not to use the Commerce stock screen for it.
Why a count does not move the inventory account by itself
Stock counts, wastage, transfers and opening quantities do not post to the general ledger. Only till sales and till returns move the inventory account.
That means a count fixes your quantities but not your books. If the count finds goods missing, the till now knows, but the inventory account on your balance sheet still holds their value. To bring the books into line, a journal has to move the value of the difference out of inventory. How to work out and post that journal is covered in writing off damaged, expired and missing stock.
Investigating the largest differences before the next count
Not every difference deserves the same attention. Sort the adjustment list by value, quantity difference times cost, and work from the top:
| Difference | Questions to ask |
|---|---|
| Large surplus | Was a delivery counted that was never added to stock? Was the opening quantity understated? |
| Large shortage | Was stock sold under another product's code? Is it in another location? Was it damaged and thrown away? |
| Shortage on small, valuable items | Who handles them from delivery to sale? |
| Matching surplus and shortage on similar products | Scanning or labelling confusion |
Record the explanation next to each large difference. Where there is no explanation, note it, and count that product again sooner. If the till has been allowed to sell below nothing, the products that showed negative quantities before the count are worth checking first among the large differences; the trade-offs of that setting are in should the till sell stock it shows you do not have.
Set the date for your next count now, choose whether the tills will be closed, and draw the zone map before the day arrives.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
