Inventory9 min readUpdated 13 October 2026By the StockỌja team

How to do stock taking in a shop

Short answer

Stock taking means counting every item in your shop, comparing the count with what your records say you should have, and correcting the records with a reason for every difference. Do it when nothing is being sold, count in pairs, work section by section with a prepared sheet, recount anything that looks wrong, and then look for the pattern behind the gaps.

What stock taking is for

Every shop has two versions of its stock: what is on the shelves and what the notebook, spreadsheet or system says. They drift apart through unrecorded sales, deliveries that were not checked, damaged goods that were quietly thrown away, and theft. Stock taking brings the two back together.

A good count gives you three things: records you can trust again, a list of what went missing and where, and the value of the stock you are holding. That last number matters more than people think. You need your closing stock to work out what the business really made in a period, because unsold stock is not a cost yet.

Full stock take or rolling counts?

There are two ways to count, and most shops need both:

	Full stock take	Rolling (cycle) counts
What you count	Everything, in one go	One section, shelf or category at a time
How often	Every quarter, half year or year end	Every week, so each product is counted about once a month
Shop open?	Closed, or before opening / after closing	Before opening or in a quiet hour
Best for	A clean starting point and year-end figures	Catching problems early, without a big shutdown

Rolling counts are covered in our guide on how to track stock in a small business. This guide is about doing a proper full count.

Before you count: prepare

Thirty minutes of preparation saves hours on the night. Do these the day before:

1
Pick the date and a cut-off time
Choose a quiet day. Decide the exact moment the count starts, and make sure every sale and every delivery before that moment is recorded.
2
Hold deliveries
Ask suppliers not to deliver during the count. Anything that arrives anyway stays boxed and to one side until you finish.
3
Tidy and group
Put each product in one place. The same item on three shelves gets counted twice or missed. Group sizes and colours together.
4
Separate the problems
Put damaged, expired and returned items in a marked box. They are counted on their own, not mixed with good stock.
5
Agree the units
Decide how each product is counted: pieces, packs or cartons. Write the unit on the sheet so nobody counts cartons on one shelf and pieces on another.
6
Split the shop into sections
Shop floor, store room, display, each shelf or category. Give each section to a pair of people and a numbered sheet.

On count day: step by step

1
Stop selling and note the time
Close the till or record the last sale, and write the cut-off time at the top of every sheet.
2
Count in pairs
One person counts out loud, the other writes. Swap roles between sections so nobody gets tired and sloppy.
3
Count what you see, not what you expect
Write the number you physically count. Do not look at the expected quantity first; it pulls the count towards it.
4
Open the cartons
A sealed carton is not proof that it is full. Open a sample, or all of them for expensive items.
5
Count the store room and the display
Items in the window, on mannequins and in the back room are all stock. So are goods you have taken home or lent out.
6
Mark each shelf when it is done
A sticky note or chalk mark stops a shelf being counted twice or skipped.
7
Recount the big gaps
Before anyone goes home, a different pair recounts every line where the count and the record disagree by more than one or two units, and every expensive item.
8
Sign the sheets
Each pair initials their sheets. If a number is questioned next week, you know who to ask.

Your stock-take sheet

A sheet makes the count consistent, whoever is counting. Use one sheet per section, with these columns:

Column	What goes in it
Product	Name, plus size or colour if it has options (e.g. "Ankara shirt, M, blue")
Unit	Pieces, packs or cartons, agreed before the count
Expected	What your records say should be there at the cut-off
Count 1	What the first pair counted
Count 2	The recount, only where needed
Difference	Final count minus expected (negative means missing)
Reason	Damaged, expired, lost, theft, found, miscount, or "check"
Initials	Who counted and who recounted

Download our free stock-take sheet: printable PDF or spreadsheet (CSV) for Excel or Google Sheets.

Counting the tricky items

Cartons, packs and singles. Count in the smallest unit you sell. If you sell Indomie by the pack but buy by the carton, count packs: 3 full cartons of 40 plus 12 loose packs is 132 packs.
Sizes and colours. Count each size and colour separately. "Ten shirts" is not useful when the problem is that size M in blue is always short.
Paid but not collected. Goods a customer has paid for and not picked up are still on your shelf but no longer yours to sell. Count them on their own line.
Supplier or sale-or-return goods. Keep them separate and count them for the supplier, not as your stock.
Damaged and expired items. Count them in their own box and write them off with a reason. Do not leave them in the sellable count.

After the count: what the differences mean

Add up the differences in naira, not just in units. Ten missing sachets and ten missing phones are very different problems. Multiply each difference by the item's cost price:

Product	Expected	Counted	Difference	Cost price	Value
Phone case, leather	14	12	−2	₦2,100	−₦4,200
20W fast charger	8	8	0	₦5,500	₦0
Earbuds	12	10	−2	₦19,000	−₦38,000
USB-C cable, 1m	30	33	+3	₦1,200	+₦3,600

Example figures. In this example the shop is short ₦38,600 in total, and most of it is two pairs of earbuds. That is where to look first.

Find the pattern behind the gaps

A single count tells you what is missing. Comparing counts over time tells you why:

What you see	Likely cause	What to change
Small, cheap items short every time	Sales not recorded, or items given away	Every sale through the till, including quick cash sales and friends
Extra stock you did not expect	Deliveries recorded twice, or sales recorded wrongly	Check deliveries against the order before adding them
One product always short	Wrong unit (cartons vs pieces) or theft	Fix the unit; keep that item in a visible or locked place
Shortages on one person's shifts	Errors or theft on that shift	Separate logins, so every sale and change shows who made it
Gaps between branches	Stock moved without a record	Record every move as a transfer

Correct your records, with a reason

Once the counts are final, update your records so they match the shelf. Never just overwrite the old number: write down why it changed. "Damaged", "expired", "theft" and "miscount" mean very different things for your business, and the reasons only become useful when you can look back at them.

In StockỌja, you do this per branch with Adjust stock → Set counted quantity, choosing Stock count (or Damaged, Expired, Lost, Theft, Found) as the reason. It shows the change before you confirm, and the adjustment is saved in the product's stock history with your name and can't be deleted. Next time, you count against records that already include every sale from the point of sale.

How often should you do it?

A full count at least every quarter, and always at the end of your financial year.
Rolling counts every week, so every product is checked about once a month.
High-value or fast-moving items (phones, perfumes, wigs, drinks) more often, even weekly.
Extra counts when staff change, when you open a new branch, or when a count shows a big loss.

Questions

How long does stock taking take?

It depends on how many products you have and how organised the shop is. A tidy shop with a few hundred items can be counted by two people in an evening. Preparing first (grouping items, printing sheets, agreeing units) usually saves more time than it costs.

Should I close the shop for stock taking?

For a full count, yes, or count before opening or after closing. If you sell while counting, the numbers move under you and the count is wrong before you finish. Rolling counts of one section can be done before opening on a normal day.

Who should do the counting?

Two people per section where you can: one counts, one writes. Avoid having the person responsible for a section count it alone. That is not about distrust; a second pair of eyes catches honest mistakes.

What is the difference between stock taking and stock control?

Stock control is the everyday work of keeping stock right: recording sales and deliveries, reordering in time and moving goods with a record. Stock taking is the check: a physical count that shows whether that everyday work is accurate.

What should a stock-take sheet include?

At least the product with its size or colour, the unit you are counting in, the quantity your records expect, the quantity counted, a recount column, the difference, a reason and the initials of who counted. Our free sheet has all of these.

What stock taking is for

Full stock take or rolling counts?

Before you count: prepare

Pick the date and a cut-off time

Hold deliveries

Tidy and group

Separate the problems

Agree the units

Split the shop into sections

On count day: step by step

Stop selling and note the time

Count in pairs

Count what you see, not what you expect

Open the cartons

Count the store room and the display

Mark each shelf when it is done

Recount the big gaps

Sign the sheets