Stock takes and reconciling

A stock take is a physical count of what is really on your shelves. iTrade compares your count with what it expected, shows you every difference, and, once you are happy, updates its stock to match. Counting and updating are separate steps, so nothing changes until you have checked the results.

How it works, in short

Status	What's happening	What you can do
Counting	People are counting and entering numbers. Stock hasn't changed.	Add, edit and remove counts. Finish counting.
Ready to reconcile	Counting is finished. You have 2 days to review and apply it.	Review the differences. Reconcile stock, or reopen counting.
Reconciled	iTrade's stock now matches your count.	Nothing. It is locked.
Expired	The 2 days passed without reconciling.	Nothing. Start a fresh stock take.

Before you start

• Count when the shop is quiet or closed. Fewer sales while you count means fewer surprises.
• Record known losses first. Damaged, expired or stolen items you already know about should be written off with a reason, not left for the stock take to find.
• Enter all deliveries. Goods that arrived but aren't in iTrade will look like extra stock.
• Plan the areas. Count one shelf, aisle or room at a time, and give each person their own area.
• Check the company switcher shows the branch you are counting.

Step 1: start a stock take

1. Open Stock → Stock Takes. The page lists your stock takes with their status.
2. Click + New stock take.
3. Give it a name. iTrade suggests one with today's date. Change it to something clearer if you like, for example "Month-end September 2026" or "Storeroom shelves". Add notes if you want.
4. Click Start counting.

The stock take's page opens with the status Counting.

Step 2: count

1. Scan the product's barcode, or search for it by name or code.
2. Type how many you physically counted.
3. Click Add count.

Repeat for each product. Each row shows:

• System qty: what iTrade expected when that product was first counted.
• Counted: what you counted.
• Difference: counted minus expected. A plus means you found more than expected. A minus means some are missing.

Counting the same product in two places

Counting a product again adds to its count. It doesn't replace it. So if you count 12 on the shelf and later 30 in the storeroom, enter 12, then 30, and the row shows 42. The page reminds you of this.

Fixing a count

While the status is Counting, you can edit a row to correct its number, or remove it altogether.

Counting with several people

Several people can count into the same stock take at the same time, each with their own login. Everyone opens the same stock take from the Stock Takes list. Give each person a different area so nothing is counted twice.

Counting with the app

In the iTrade app, open Stock Takes, pick the open stock take, and record counts the same way. Scanning with the phone camera or a Bluetooth scanner works well for this. The app needs a connection for stock takes.

One difference: in the app each product can be entered once per stock take. If you count more of it later, open its count and change the number to the new total, rather than adding it again.

Step 3: finish counting

When every area is counted, an Owner or Manager clicks Finish counting.

• The status becomes Ready to reconcile.
• A deadline shows: you have 2 days to reconcile.
• If you find something you missed, click Reopen counting to go back to Counting, fix or add counts, then finish again. You can do this any time until you reconcile.

Step 4: review and reconcile

The review shows, for each product:

• the adjustment iTrade will make: + for stock found, − for stock missing,
• the total units that will be added and removed, and
• the stock value change: the adjustments multiplied by each product's unit cost.

Read it carefully. A big difference is often a counting mistake, a delivery that wasn't entered, or the same shelf counted twice. Reopen counting and recount anything that looks wrong.

When you are happy, click Reconcile stock.

iTrade asks: was this the whole shop?

You have to answer this before anything is applied. It decides what happens to products that have stock in iTrade but were never counted in this stock take.

Your answer	What happens
Yes - we counted everything	A product nobody counted was looked for and isn't in the shop, so it is set to zero. Use this for a proper month-end count of the whole branch.
No - part of the shop	Only the products you counted change. Everything else is left exactly as it is. Use this when you counted one shelf, one category, or your fast movers.

Before you answer, iTrade lists every product that would be set to zero, how many units that is and what they are worth at cost. Open See the products that weren't counted and read it. If something on that list is in the shop, you missed it - reopen counting, count it, and finish again.

Products already showing zero aren't listed and aren't touched - setting zero to zero changes nothing.

Once you confirm:

• iTrade's stock for every counted product now matches your count.
• Anything missing is written off, so the loss can be traced later (see below).
• If you answered Yes, products nobody counted are set to zero and show as Not found on the stock take.
• The status becomes Reconciled and the stock take is locked. It can't be edited, reopened or deleted.

Missing stock is written off, not just adjusted away

When a count finds less than iTrade expected, the shortfall is recorded as a Stock Write-off with the reason “Missing at stock take”, naming the stock take and what was counted against what was expected. It is there in your write-off register with the breakages and the theft, which is where you go when you want to know what your shop is losing - rather than buried inside a stock take nobody thinks to reopen.

Stock found is different: there is nothing to write off when there is more on the shelf than expected, so that is added straight on.

Sales during the count are handled for you

The adjustment is worked out against the stock iTrade expected at the moment each product was counted, not at the moment you reconcile. For example: you count 20 of an item when iTrade expected 22, so the adjustment is −2. Before you reconcile, you sell 5. After reconciling, iTrade shows 15 (22 − 2 − 5), which is right.

If the 2 days pass

A stock take left in Ready to reconcile for more than 2 days shows as Expired. It can no longer be reconciled, because by then the count no longer reflects the shelves. Start a fresh stock take and count again.

A stock take that hasn't been reconciled yet (Counting, Ready to reconcile or Expired) can be deleted. A reconciled one can't.

Counting part of the shop

A stock take doesn't have to cover the whole shop. You can count just one shelf, one category, or only your fastest-moving items, as often as you like - answer No to the "whole shop" question and only what you counted will change.

The answer is remembered on the stock take, so you can always see afterwards whether a count was treated as the whole shop or part of it.

Where the results show up

• Stock Take Report (Reports): every count over a date range, with system quantity, physical count, the variance and its value, and who counted. Use it to spot products that keep going missing. See Reports.
• Profit & Loss: reconciled adjustments show as Stock take adjustments (reconciled) under "Stock losses & gains". Missing stock reduces profit; stock found increases it. See Profit & Loss explained.
• Products and Stock Report: current stock reflects the adjustment straight away.

Write-off or stock take?

Write-offs are for losses you know about: damaged, expired, stolen or used as samples. Record them when they happen, with a reason. A stock take then only has to explain what is left over, and your reports show why stock went missing, not just that it did.