How to count stock without closing the store
The once-a-year stocktake is the worst way to count. How cycle counts work, why blind counts are more accurate, and how to count with phones while you trade.
You count a little at a time while you trade, rather than closing for a day to count everything. Staff count on their own phones from a link, several people can count at once, and the expected quantities can be hidden so they record what is on the shelf rather than what the screen says. Over a quarter the whole range gets covered.
The traditional stocktake closes the shop for a day, puts everyone on a clipboard, and produces a number that is wrong by the following Tuesday. It is also the only count most stores do, which is why their inventory drifts for eleven months and gets corrected in one bad-tempered weekend.
There is a better pattern, and it does not need an ERP or a POS Pro subscription. This guide uses Stockroom as the example.
Count a little, often
A cycle count is a small count of part of the range, done on a schedule, while trading continues. Count one supplier’s products on Monday, one product type on Wednesday, the twenty items you have not counted for longest on Friday. Over a quarter you have covered everything, each count took under an hour, and no one closed the door.
The scope is what makes this work. Stockroom lets you start a count for a location by supplier, by vendor, by product type, by product status (Active for the shop floor, Draft for back-stock you park as unpublished products), or by the N products least recently counted. There is also an only what I scan mode, where the session starts empty and each scan adds the item it counts. That one is for spot checks and receiving-bay counts where choosing a scope up front is the wrong question.
Count against on-hand, with the tills open
Counting while selling sounds like a recipe for a mess. It is fine if the count is set up right.
Stockroom counts against on-hand, never against available. Available moves every time an order is placed, so a count against it would be corrupted by the customer at the till. On-hand moves only when goods physically move, which is exactly what you are counting.
When the count is applied, the app writes the difference between what you counted and what was expected, and it reads the expected figure at the moment counting starts on a line. A sale before that moment sits behind the baseline. A sale after it moves the same number the difference lands on. Either way the result is right, and no one has to stop selling.
A line that finds no variance writes nothing. A cancelled session writes nothing to Shopify at all. An applied session stays in the history and cannot be deleted, so the count is a document you can open later, and it reaches QuickBooks as a count rather than an unexplained quantity change if you use MyWorks Sync.
Count blind
A blind count is one where the counter cannot see the expected quantity. It is more accurate for a simple reason: shown “expected 24”, most people glance at the shelf, see roughly two dozen, and type 24. Shown nothing, they count.
Stockroom’s blind mode enforces this on the server. Expected quantities never leave the API while counting is in progress, so a counter cannot peek by opening another tab. The review step, where you see counted against expected and decide what to apply, stays in the admin.
Use phones, not clipboards
Every count in Stockroom is scan-to-count. A hardware scanner works. So does the camera on a phone, in any browser, including iOS. And the people counting do not need a Shopify login.
A counting link is a named, revocable URL that opens a count-only page for one session. Give one to each person on the floor. Their scans land on the shared session as they happen, with their name on each count, and the link dies when you revoke it or when counting ends. Several people count the same session at once and the app keeps the rows straight.
If you run Shopify POS, the counting tile on the POS device does the same job at that device’s location. No POS Pro plan is needed. As with the links, POS counters never see expected quantities, and the review and apply steps stay in the admin so one device cannot end everyone’s session.
Scan feedback is audible: a short beep when a scan lands, a lower buzz when a code does not match or when two products share a barcode and the counter has to pick one. The counting page also refreshes itself every ten seconds, so a manager watching in the admin sees the floor’s progress without reloading.
Review, then apply
When counting is done, the session moves to review. You see each line’s counted and expected quantities, the variance, and who counted it. Recount a line if something looks wrong. Skip a line if it should not be adjusted. Then apply, and Stockroom pushes the adjustments to Shopify under the session’s name, so the product history explains where the change came from.
Make it a habit
Set up a few standing sessions: a location, a scope, blind or not, and a cadence. Stockroom can schedule them so the Monday supplier count appears on Monday without anyone creating it. A quarter of small counts beats one big one, and the store never closes for it.
Stockroom is free on the Shopify App Store. Stocktakes are included, with no limit on sessions or items.