# Stocktake

> A stocktake is counting every product you hold and correcting the system to match what is really on the shelves.

- Source: https://storestandards.com/glossary/stocktake/
- Also called: Physical inventory count, Stock count
- Updated: 2026-08-14
- Author: Nia Chambers, Product, Store Standards

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North America usually calls it a physical inventory count.

Most stores do one a year, on a Sunday, badly.

## Running one that works

- Stop selling and stop receiving while it runs, or the count chases itself
- Count by [bin location](https://storestandards.com/glossary/bin-location/), not by product list
- Two people per aisle: one counts, one records
- Recount anything more than a few units out before you correct it
- Write down the reason for every gap, not just the number

Scan rather than write. A count typed from a clipboard picks up its own errors
on the way into the system.

## What it is good for

Proving the total. An accountant needs a real figure at year end and a
stocktake is how you get one.

It is much weaker at telling you why the figure is wrong, because twelve
months of causes have piled up into one number.

## Where it goes wrong

The correction is applied and the day is forgotten. You have a true number for
one morning a year, and it starts drifting again on the Monday.

Count the fast lines weekly with [cycle counting](https://storestandards.com/glossary/cycle-counting/)
and the annual stocktake stops producing surprises. What is left after that is
your real [shrinkage](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shrinkage/).

## Related terms

- [Cycle counting](https://storestandards.com/glossary/cycle-counting/): Cycle counting is counting a few products often, on a rota, instead of counting everything once a year.
- [Inventory adjustment](https://storestandards.com/glossary/inventory-adjustment/): An inventory adjustment is a manual change to a stock number, made when what the system says does not match the shelf.
- [Shrinkage](https://storestandards.com/glossary/shrinkage/): Shrinkage is stock you paid for that is gone without being sold, through theft, damage or errors nobody recorded.