Stock levels and counts

The Stock screen shows what the till thinks you have and what it is worth. Sales reduce quantities automatically; everything else is an adjustment you make deliberately.

Reading the screen

Each product shows its on-hand quantity and its cost value — the quantity multiplied by the cost you entered on the product. If the cost is blank, the value is zero, which is why filling in costs matters.

The Dashboard flags low stock separately, so you do not have to sit on this screen watching for it.

Adjusting a quantity

Pick a product and adjust the quantity up or down. You must give a reason, and the reason is not decoration — it is what makes the numbers explainable weeks later.

• Purchase — new stock arrived from a supplier. Quantity goes up.
• Count — you physically counted the shelf and the till was wrong. Use this to set reality.
• Adjust — anything else: breakage, spoilage, a staff meal, something written off.

Getting into the habit of choosing the right one costs nothing and means that when the numbers drift you can tell shrinkage from bad data entry.

Receiving a delivery

There is no purchase order workflow yet, so receiving stock is a series of Purchase adjustments — one per product, entered as the delivery is unpacked.

Do it as the goods land rather than at the end of the week. A delivery entered three days late means three days of wrong stock figures and a low-stock alert you cannot trust.

Running a stock count

The usual routine is:

1. Count the shelf, on paper or on a phone, before you open or after you close.
2. Open Stock and compare each counted line with what the till says.
3. Where they differ, adjust to the counted number with the reason Count.
4. Note anything with a big gap and look at it properly — a large discrepancy is more often a catalogue error, such as two products sharing a barcode, than theft.

Counting the whole shop at once is a big job. Most shops do better counting one category a week on a rota, so every line gets counted every couple of months without anyone losing an evening.

Stock valuation

The Reports screen has a stock valuation report you can print, which is the number your accountant will ask for. It uses the cost on each product, so it is only as accurate as those costs.