Stock counts and wastage
Count a warehouse on screen or on an Excel sheet, settle the shortages and excesses, and write off damaged or expired stock.
What the system says is on the shelf drifts from what is really there: breakage, theft, a miscount at receiving. A stock count brings the books back to the shelf and puts the difference, at cost, into its own account, so you can see what shrinkage costs you. Wastage records stock you threw away on purpose, charged to cost of sales where it belongs, instead of it surfacing later as an unexplained shortage.
Open Purchasing → Stock Counts & Wastage and press New Stock Count. Pick the branch, the warehouse and the day — usually today — and Start Count. The draft lists every inventory item in that warehouse; nothing in stock changes yet.
To count on paper or in Excel, download the sheet: with quantities for the person reviewing, or without them so whoever counts isn't swayed by the number. Fill in only the yellow Counted qty column and upload it back. You can upload several times — one shelf or one person at a time — and each upload only touches the rows it has.
Or type the counts straight into the screen; Enter moves to the next item, and the filters show what is still uncounted or what has a difference. A blank means not counted and stays as it is; 0 means counted and none found. Save keeps your progress.
Approve Count sets stock to the counted quantities and posts one entry: shortages debit Inventory Count Differences, excesses credit it, against Inventory. Approving needs its own permission.
For damaged, expired or broken goods press New Wastage, pick the warehouse and date, then the items, quantities and reason. Saving posts it at once: the stock leaves and its cost goes to the account set for that reason under Settings → Wastage Reasons, or to Inventory Wastage (shown under cost of sales) when the reason has none.
A mistake is fixed by Cancel: the stock movements and the entry are reversed and the document stays on the list as cancelled. A count can't be cancelled once a later count has been approved in the same warehouse.
Good practice
- Once a count is approved, no stock document — purchase, return, transfer, services invoice or wastage — dated on or before it can be added, edited or cancelled in that warehouse. Enter everything for the period before you approve.
- Counting today measures stock at the moment you press Start Count, so the shop can keep selling while you count. Counting a past day measures it at that day's end.