How to Do a Stocktake Without Closing the Shop
A working method for counting shelves while the till keeps trading: what to count, how to handle an item that sells mid-count, and what to check before you apply the correction.
Sound familiar?
Closing to Count Costs a Trading Day
The standard advice is to count after hours or shut for a day. For a shop with one or two staff, that is either unpaid overtime or lost revenue, so the count keeps getting postponed and the records keep drifting.
Counting While Trading Creates a Race
If an item is counted at 18 and then five sell before the correction is applied, writing 18 back into the system silently returns those five units to the shelf. The sale stays on the ledger while the stock it moved reappears.
A Variance Without a Cause Is Just a Number
Correcting stock to match the shelf hides the reason it drifted. Without a recorded movement and a reason, the same shrinkage repeats next month with nothing to investigate.
Built for how you actually work
Count One Section at a Time
A cycle count covers a single category — one aisle or one supplier per week — instead of the whole shop at once. Each count is short enough to finish properly, and every line still gets reviewed before anything changes.
Each Line Records the Stock Level at Scan Time
When a line is saved, Slapsoil stores what the system believed was on hand at that moment. The review screen shows that snapshot rather than a live figure, so the count is a record of what you found rather than a moving target.
Only the Variance Is Applied
Reconciling computes counted minus expected-at-scan, then applies that difference to current stock. Counting 18 against a recorded 20 after five units sell leaves 13, not 18 — the sale is not undone.
Every Correction Leaves a Movement
Each discrepant item produces one stock movement with the reason Stocktake Discrepancy, visible on the Audit Trail. That is what turns a variance into something you can investigate next month.
Counting and Reconciling Are Separate Permissions
Any team member can start a count, enter quantities, and cancel. Reconciling rewrites the catalogue, so it is an admin action — staff can complete a count and hand it to a manager to apply.
This page is part of Slapsoil — free, offline-first inventory management software with a built-in point of sale. See the complete feature overview, or browse every industry and comparison guide.
View the full overviewCommon questions
How do I do a stocktake without closing the shop?
Count in sections while trading continues, and use a system that records the expected quantity at the moment each line is scanned. Slapsoil applies only the difference between counted and expected-at-scan to current stock, so units sold between counting an item and reconciling the count are not added back.
What is the difference between a stocktake and a cycle count?
A stocktake usually means counting the whole store in one pass. A cycle count covers one section, category, or supplier at a time on a rotating schedule. In Slapsoil both use the same screen — you choose whole store or a single category when you start the count.
What happens if an item sells while I am counting it?
Nothing is lost. The line stores the stock level recorded when it was scanned, and reconciling applies counted minus that snapshot to whatever the quantity is at the time you reconcile. Writing the counted number straight back is what would resurrect the sold units, and Slapsoil deliberately does not do that.
How often should a small shop count stock?
Counting one category per week generally surfaces drift faster than one full count per year and fits around trading. Prioritize high-value, fast-moving, and easily-lost items; slow-moving stock can be counted less often.
Does a stocktake work offline?
Starting a count, entering quantities, reviewing discrepancies, and reconciling all run from local browser storage after setup. Counting the same session from more than one device requires activated Cloud Sync, internet, available collection quota, and a successful sync on each device.
Which batch does the correction apply to?
The newest batch absorbs the whole variance, and an item with no batches gets an UNBATCHED batch created so batch totals and item quantity stay consistent. If you need a variance attributed to one specific lot, use Stock Adjustments for that item instead.