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
- Free inventory Excel template with stock in and outAn Excel inventory template 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.
- Stock count sheet template for Excel, with differences worked outA printable stock count 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.
- 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.
- Tool checkout: who has which tool, and when it comes backA printable tool sign out sheet with signature columns, and how to run tool checkout on a phone: who has what, what is overdue, and what someone still holds on their last day.
- Keeping track of expiration dates without losing money to wasteA free Excel expiration date tracker that flags expired products and the ones close to their date, plus why first expired first out beats first in first out, 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 inventory 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 retail store without a back officeWhat makes stock in a shop different from stock in a warehouse, the three numbers that decide whether a store makes money, and what to look for in a system before you pay for one.
- Reorder point and safety stock: when to order before you run outThe 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 point, and what to check in an app.
- An inventory app that works offline, and why most of them do notStockrooms are where phone signal dies. Offline means three different things in inventory apps, only one of them is useful in a shop, and there is a two-minute test that tells you which one you have.
- Using an iPhone as the barcode scanner for your stockA phone camera now reads barcodes as fast as a handheld scanner. What that changes in a small shop, what to do about products that have no barcode, and where scanning saves no time at all.
- Sharing stock with your team without losing track of who did whatThe day a second person touches your stock, an inventory app for multiple users has two problems to solve: changes that collide, and changes you did not want that person making.
- How to count inventory in a small shop without losing a dayCount your inventory 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
- Inventory in Excel: where the spreadsheet breaks, and what to do about itA spreadsheet is a fine way to start tracking stock. 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 inventory management software for small business in 2026What a team of 5 or 10 pays a year for Invenva, Sortly, BoxHero, Zoho Inventory and inFlow, checked on October 21, 2026, and the jobs each one does.
- Looking for a Sortly alternative: what to check before you moveSortly's plans and prices next to Invenva's on the same yearly basis, five things to check before you switch, and how to move your items across.