Guide

Do a physical inventory count without shutting down

Get an accurate count of what you actually have, not just what your system says you have.

6 min read·5 steps

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Pick a slow period, not necessarily closed hours
You don't need to close, a quiet weekday morning works fine for most small operations. Full shutdowns are only necessary for large, complex inventories.
Count in sections, not all at once
Break your inventory into zones or categories and count one at a time. Trying to count everything in one continuous sweep is where most errors creep in.
Use two people for anything valuable or easy to miscount
One counts, one verifies and logs. For high-value or easily-confused items (similar SKUs, different sizes of the same product), a second set of eyes catches mistakes a solo count misses.
Investigate discrepancies over a certain threshold
Small count differences (1-2 units) are usually just counting error. Larger gaps deserve a real look, it could be theft, a receiving error, or a process problem worth fixing.
Update your system immediately, not 'later'
Enter corrected counts the same day. A count that sits in a notebook for a week is a count that gets forgotten, and your system stays wrong for another month.

That’s the whole thing.

Pick a slow period, not necessarily closed hours