Stock Counts by Scanning Barcodes: A Practical Guide for Shops

Why your records and your shelf disagree

Even when every sale and purchase is recorded, small gaps build up over time:

• A broken or expired item is thrown away without being recorded.
• A sale is entered under the wrong item, or with the wrong quantity.
• Goods are taken for the house or given away.
• Something simply goes missing.

Each gap is small, but together they make your stock value, your profit and your reorder decisions less reliable. Counting is how you find them.

1. Before the first count: link the codes

Scanning only works if each item knows its barcode. In Amunta Business, open an item and scan its code once to link it. The same code then finds the item when you sell it and when you count it. Items without a printed barcode can still be counted by hand.

2. Count one category at a time

You do not have to count the whole shop at once. Start a stock count and pick a single category — drinks, cleaning products, spare parts — or count everything. Small counts are easier to finish during a quiet hour, and you can cover the whole shop over a week or two.

3. One scan, one piece

Scan items one after another: each scan adds 1 to that item's counted quantity. If a code does not belong to any item in the current count, the app tells you instead of counting it somewhere else. For a box of 24 identical pieces, type the quantity instead of scanning 24 times.

4. Use a blind count when someone else counts

If the counter can see the expected quantity, it is tempting to stop at that number. Turn on blind count to hide the expected stock, so the count reflects what is actually on the shelf.

5. Watch your progress

The count shows how many items you have counted out of the total, and you can list only the items not counted yet so nothing is skipped. You can also hide items with zero stock, or show only items that were last counted before a given date.

6. Review the differences

For every counted item, the app shows whether it matches or what the difference is, along with the value of the shortage or surplus. A big difference is often a counting mistake rather than a loss: recount that item before you go further.

7. Commit only when you are sure

Nothing changes in your stock until you commit the count. When you do, a stock correction is recorded for each item that changed. It cannot be edited afterwards — if something was wrong, a new count corrects it. If the count went badly, you can discard it instead. Every committed count stays in the count history, so you can see when each part of the shop was last checked.

How often should you count?

• Fast-moving or valuable items: every week or two.
• Everything else: one category at a time, so the whole shop is covered every month or quarter.
• Always: after a delivery mistake, a theft, or a busy season.

Counting little and often is easier than one exhausting count a year, and problems are found while they are still small.