Inventory Counts are an integral part of running a successful business. Depending on your business, your inventory count strategy can change from year to year. They can also be time-consuming, so we want to make sure you're fully equipped with the right tools to get the job done as quickly, efficiently, and accurately as possible.

Whether this is your first count, or you're a seasoned pro, here are some frequently asked questions that we see year after year:

At the very least, you should be performing a full inventory count once a year. Many businesses prefer to do smaller counts of their inventory throughout the year or in regular intervals. The reason for the products selected can vary. Some businesses will count products that have a high shrinkage or shrink rates to stay on top of those discrepancies. Counting more regularly ensures accurate counts throughout the year.

Scheduled Stocktakes or cycle counts can happen daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or anything in between!

Typically, a full inventory count of all your products in a specific time range is reserved for once or twice a year.

In an ideal situation, an inventory count or a cycle count would be done when you are not actively selling, and your store is closed. That means no customers to work around and, most importantly, no inventory quantities changing.

For a lot of stores, an inventory count will be before or after hours. With websites though, it's a good idea to perform the counts during a slower time (if possible) and to make appropriate accommodations if an online or in-store sale is made.

If you need to start counting before the store is closed, we recommend closing off the backroom or a section and making a point that the product cannot physically cross this line. That way, you can start counting and know that your items will not be moving around the store once they've been counted.

A discrepancy is anything that doesn't match up. In an inventory count, typically that's when you're expecting to have X amount of product, but when you do a count, you discover that you actually have Y amount.

A discrepancy can be caused by many different events, including theft, receiving issues, mislabeled items scanned at checkout, and the list goes on.

Hands down, Stocktakes are the only way to go if you are using an external barcode scanner or scan gun. Make sure it's compatible with our system and test its usability on a test Stocktake before the actual inventory count.

More information can be found here:

You'll want to bring all of your products to a central point in your store for accurate counting.

If that's not possible though, you'll need to get a bit creative. That could mean printing out multiple hard copies of your inventory list, labeling them by the part of the store you're counting, and then manually consolidating them on a master sheet. A master list will be the final copy where counts are entered and make it easy to see where any discrepancies lie. This could also be your Stocktake on your computer or a physical printout, but having a hard copy is ideal.

Another option is to have one person actively scan an area while another performs manual counts in another section.

Those are just a couple of options people have used over the years. Just remember that we do not advise simultaneously using multiple scanners for one Stocktake.

A "blind count" is when the counter cannot see what the "expected" count is. It is a helpful tool to ensure there isn't a bias when counting. By having the "expected" counts hidden, discrepancies are easier to pinpoint and research.

To do a blind count on a Stocktake, you'll want to hide this column on the Stocktake:

For the Reconciliation Worksheet, make sure the "include current counts" is toggled off, as shown here:

For the Bulk Upload option (either Edit or Reconcile Inventory Quantities OR Edit Variants), the current counts will be on there by default. For any copies that you print for the team to mark up and count, make sure that column is removed or hidden.

For Stocktakes, if you've got multiple scanners, you'll want to use one scanner per Stocktake. We recommend separating your inventory into multiple Stocktakes. For each Stocktake, you can open it on your device (computer or laptop) and start scanning/counting with its connected barcode scanner.

For our Barcode Scanner Mobile App, we recommend that only one person is making updates to a product at a time. Multiple people can be using the Barcode Scanner app simultaneously, which can cause confusion since any number entered will update the total count for the location. To be clear, this is not an ideal option if you have inventory in different areas of the store since it will be hard to get an accurate count.

If you do have multiple people using the Barcode Scanner app, we recommend each person use their own device and sign in with their own Thrive credentials.

Stocktakes are a fantastic option even without a barcode scanner. Whether you put all your products onto one or multiple Stocktakes, this is still the recommended option.

You can print out multiple copies and give employees pages to count. This also makes it easier if you have a back stock of your products. That way one person isn't running back and forth trying to count both. You can have a set of people counting the back and another set counting the front and then consolidate them onto your master list.

For the Reconciliation Worksheet, multiple people can count products, but you'll only want one person entering counts on the master sheet.

For the Bulk Upload option (either Edit or Reconcile Inventory Quantities OR Edit Variants), you'll also only want one person in charge of entering counts on the master sheet. This ensures one "point person" who is familiar with the columns of the spreadsheet and you don't accidentally enter counts in the wrong area.

No. This is not recommended since the incoming counts can override each other.

If you have multiple external barcode scanners you'd like to use, you should split up your inventory into multiple Stocktakes. Otherwise, if you want multiple people to work on one Stocktake, we recommend manually counting product line by line.

We have a Barcode Scanner Mobile App that allows you to use your mobile device. Generally, this method is not recommended for users with large accounts since you'll be updating live quantities at the moment, and there is a buffer between you and your live inventory.

With the other steps, you have to input a count for a product, but then you submit it all at once. With the Barcode Scanner Mobile App, you'll be submitting a live count with each product adjustment.

More information can be found here:

No. Stocktakes are not accessible from the Barcode Scanner App.

The Barcode Scanner app will edit your live counts as soon as you press 'Save.' For Stocktakes, there is an actual paper trail and checkpoints along the way, which is why they are the recommended tool for large inventory counts.

New quantities for existing products can be received and edited via the Barcode Scanner app.

If you are receiving a brand new product, though, it will first need to be created on Thrive before its quantities can be changed using the Barcode Scanner app.

Two options! If you're performing a Stocktake, you'll have the option to "zero out" products that weren't counted when saving, as shown here:

If you've already submitted your Stocktake, you can run a Due for Stocktake report and see all the items where a quantity was not counted. Typically, these will be the items that you did not count and are a good indicator that they can be zeroed out on a new Stocktake.

For all other methods, just make sure to input a zero for that product!

These are the three options we recommend for tracking waste/spoilage/shrink and how to get the dollar amount lost:

If you're using Stocktakes, when you submit your final numbers, we will automatically calculate the total cost associated with the discrepancies onto the Stocktake Discrepancy Report. The report makes it easier to hone in on only the changes made to the inventory count.

The other option (if the discrepancies are entered via Spreadsheet Bulk Upload or Barcode Scanner Mobile App) is the Inventory Change Report. In this report, you'll see the discrepancies in the "Added" and "Removed" columns of the report. Be mindful of the time range in which you are running the report so as not to include sales deductions.