Stock count sheet template for Excel, with differences worked out

What is in the file

The first sheet, Stock Count, is the count itself. At the top: the date, who counted and the location. Then one row per product: name, unit, the quantity your records show, the quantity you counted, the difference (worked out for you), a reason and notes. A row turns red when counted and book quantity disagree, so the review afterwards takes minutes, not an evening. Printed, it has ruled lines for every product and at least thirty, so a blank copy works as a paper form too.

The second sheet, Year-end list, turns the count into the valued list for your year end. Each line takes the item, unit and counted quantity from the same line of Stock Count and numbers itself. You type the unit cost; the value of each line and the total value work themselves out, and a line still missing its quantity or cost turns orange. Above the list are lines for the business name, the date the stock is valued at, the count date, who counted, the location and the valuation method. Add, remove and sort lines on Stock Count before you type unit costs, because each line follows the same line there. Every printed page shows its page number and invenva.com at the bottom, the list adds two signature lines there, and the count sheet has a link to invenva.com under its title.

How to count with it

Fill the book quantities before you start, in the order you walk the shelves, then print it or open it on a tablet. Count what is in your hand, not what the sheet says, and write the reason on the spot: damaged, expired, lost, miscount, theft. A reason remembered an hour later is a guess.

• Give each person a whole shelf or room, never the same shelf twice.
• Count at closing time or before the first delivery, when nothing moves.
• Recount only the lines with a difference before you correct anything.

After the count

Apply the corrections in one go and keep the sheet: a count with a date, a name and reasons is the record that turns "things go missing" into a number. Six months of these sheets tell you whether shrinkage is rising.

Doing it in Invenva

Stock Count in Invenva is this sheet made live: rows never move, ticking a row keeps it in place, a mismatch gets a reason chip on the shelf, barcodes tally instead of typing, and Apply writes one count record with before and after for every line that changed. Two people can split the shelves between two phones. The live demo has a sample count ready to try.