Guides to running stock in a small business
Short, practical guides on stock counts, moving from Excel to an inventory app, and choosing an app for a shop, café or small warehouse.
Templates
- A free stock list template for Excel, with stock in and outAn Excel stock list with stock in and out: log each delivery and sale, and quantity and stock value work themselves out, with low stock rows in red. Free, and it imports into Invenva in one step.
- A stocktake sheet for Excel, with the differences worked outA printable stocktake sheet with the date and who counted at the top: book quantity, counted quantity, the difference calculated for you, a reason column and mismatched rows in red. Free Excel download.
- A purchase order template for Excel, with the totals worked outA one-page Excel purchase order for a small shop: supplier and dates at the top, then item, unit, quantity, purchase price and line totals, with the order total at the bottom. Free download.
- Keeping on top of use-by and best before datesA free Excel expiry date tracker that flags out-of-date products and the ones close to their date, plus why use-by and best before are not the same job, and what an app should warn you about.
How-to guides
- You probably do not need a warehouse management systemWhat a real WMS actually does, why most small operations pay for a fraction of it, what they need instead, and the point at which the answer changes.
- Keeping track of materials and tools across a yard and several sitesWhy tools and materials go missing between the yard and the site, what actually helps, and the one thing this kind of software does not do for you.
- How to keep track of stock when you are the one running the placeThe four ways people actually do it, the point at which each one stops working, and the one habit that decides whether any of them works at all.
- Running stock in a shop without a back officeWhat makes stock in a shop different from stock in a warehouse, the three numbers that decide whether a shop makes money, and what to look for in a system before you pay for one.
- Reorder level and safety stock: setting a level that actually worksThe question is not how much you have, it is when to order. The two numbers that decide it, the formula and a calculator for safety stock and your reorder level, and what to check in an app.
- A stock control app that works with no signal, and why most do notStockrooms are where the signal dies. Offline means three different things in stock apps, only one of them is any use in a shop, and a two-minute test tells you which one you have.
- Using a phone as the barcode scanner for your stockA phone camera reads a barcode as fast as a handheld scanner. What that changes in a small shop, what to do about lines with no barcode, and where scanning saves no time at all.
- Sharing stock with your staff without losing track of who did whatThe day a second person touches your stock, two new problems arrive: changes that collide, and changes you did not want that person making. What a shared stock app has to get right.
- How to do a stocktake in a small shop without losing a dayDo your stocktake with your phone: how to prepare, count without losing your place, note why numbers differ and apply it in one step. On the yearly plan the first 7 days are free.
Comparisons
- Stock control in Excel: where the spreadsheet breaks, and what to doA spreadsheet is a fine way to start on stock control. This guide shows the four points where it breaks for a growing shop, the signs it is time to move, and how to switch without losing a single row.
- Best stock management software for small business in 2026What a team of five or ten pays a year for Invenva, Sortly, BoxHero, Zoho Inventory and inFlow, in US dollars before VAT, checked on 21 October 2026, and what each one does.