What gets measured gets managed. Effective stocktaking will give you visibility on where your purchased goods go - how many are used, lost, stolen or wasted. 

Stock counting saves you the time and effort in crunching numbers by:

• Collating data from purchases, sold items, and recorded wastage - you get the full picture with by-the-minute updates
• Allowing you to easily perform regular stock takes and 
• Enabling you to see your stock loss instantly 

This guide will cover how to perform a stocktake using Stock Count and track stock levels.

What’s in this guide?

Enable the Stock Counts feature
Perform stock count
Import stock levels with CSV
Review past stock counts
-View all stock counts
-See stock level report
Frequently Asked Questions

Enable the Stock Counts feature

1. Select Features in Back Office

2. Choose Stock Counts, then select Enable

Perform stock count

1. From the Sites page, select the Stock Count tab. (If you have multiple sites, you will first need to select a Site)

2. Select New Stock Count

3. Search your products by tags and select Generate Stock Sheet

Pro Tip -  Our hospo pros recommend using product tags to easily filter your stock counts.

You can tag by stock location, supplier or, high-cost items to make it easier to keep a close eye on your important stock levels.

4. All the products will be generated on a sheet along with their cost price and current (projected) quantity

Enter the numbers from inventory check under Counted Qty

Fields in the Stock Count and what they mean:

• Filter Products: Easily search & filter by tags
• Avg Cost Price: Live price from your purchase history or your fixed cost price
• Current Qty: Expected stock level based on your sales, received orders and wastage
• Counted Qty: How much you have just counted during your stocktake
• Variance Qty: This is the discrepancy between Current Qty and Counted Qty. You’ll want to confirm these numbers are correct. Confirming the accuracy of counts can help minimise shrinkage, loss, and theft.
• Cost Variance: A positive or negative value here points to a number of problems mainly inaccurate counts or missing stock.

5. Select Save

6. You will see this dialogue box. Select Yes

7. Once saved, these logs can no longer be edited. They can be corrected though by recounting them and logging the results again.

Import stock levels with .CSV

Stock count data can also be updated via CSV.

1. From the Stock Count page under Sites, select New Stock Count

2. Filter using relevant tags and select Generate Stock Sheet

3. Select the cloud icon with the downward arrow. This will download the CSV

4. Open the CSV using Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets

5. Enter your stock count under the counted column.

6. Save your file as a CSV. This can be found under Save As or Download As depending on which software you use.

7. Once the file is saved in CSV format, you can upload it to Kounta. From the Stock Count page under Sites, select New Stock Count

8. Filter using relevant tags (the same ones you used before downloading the CSV) and select Generate Stock Sheet

9. Select the cloud icon with the upward arrow. This will upload your CSV.

10. You will see this dialogue box. Enter the filename here to upload and select OK

This will update with another stock count log.

Review past stock counts

View all stock counts

1. From the Sites page in Back Office, select Stock Count. (If you have multiple sites, you will first need to select a Site)

2. Select the timeframe for the stock counts you want to review. Use the eye icon at the side to view the stock count

See stock level report

The Stock Levels report is updated by data from Purchases and Wastage - both of which can be viewed in their own separate, more focused reports.

Here is how you can view the Stock Level Report

1. From the Reports page, select the Stock tab. (If you have multiple sites, you will first need to select a Site)

2. You will be able to see how many of the items you have on hand, how much they cost, and the total value of all stock items

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to pay for the Stock Counts feature?

The Stock Counts feature is available on all plans.

If you need a plan upgrade, it's a fine day for a power-up! Talk to us.

Where does stock on hand number come from?

In a stock count, the number of inventory items under Current Quantity is generated by Kounta.

This is collated from received purchase orders, wastage, and sold items or sold items’ recipes.

This is how it’s derived:

Current Quantity (Stock) =  Received purchase orders - Wastage - Sold items or sold items’ recipes

How do I add an inventory item to the stock list?

Stock items are added in as products- but with an additional setting. For items to show up in the stock list, you must indicate that you “stock this item” from product settings.

What's my next step?

Maximise the full power of Lightspeed's Inventory tools!

Managing wastage is a challenge for many businesses in the hospo industry. Track your wastage (the why, who, and how much) and sync your inventory data automatically - so you save time and effort.

Once your stock items are entered, you can enter your recipes. This way, every time a product is sold (or entered as wastage), it will automatically update your stock count of how much is left.