Running a stocktake

A stocktake counts your physical stock, compares it against Shopify's on-hand quantities, and pushes the corrections back to Shopify in one step. Every adjustment is logged, so you have a record of what changed and why.

Stocktakes need inventory write access. The first time you open Stocktakes , Stockie asks for it. Someone who can approve app permissions for the store has to grant it, or the count cannot update Shopify at the end.

Full stocktake or cycle count

Choose before you start. It decides what happens to products you do not count.

Full stocktake counts everything in scope. Anything in scope that you do not count is set to 0 when you update Shopify. Use it for a wall-to-wall count where the count is the source of truth.

Cycle count updates only the products you actually count. Everything else keeps its current level. Use it for rotating counts, spot checks, or counting one vendor or category.

1. Create the stocktake

Go to Stocktakes  and click Create stocktake.

• Location - the location you are counting. If another stocktake is already running at that location, Stockie warns you. Two counts over the same products produce conflicting adjustments.
• Name - optional, but it makes the count easier to find later.
• Created by - who is running it.
• Type - full stocktake or cycle count.
• Products - all products at that location, a filter by vendor, type, tag or collection, or specific products you pick.

A single stocktake covers at most 5,000 variants. If your scope is larger, Stockie refuses it and tells you the count - narrow the filters, or split the work into cycle counts by vendor or product type.

2. Count your stock

Stockie pulls the current Shopify on-hand quantities when the count is created.

Count everything physically present at the location, including items picked or packed for orders that have not shipped - those are still on hand until fulfilment. Fulfilling outstanding orders before a big count removes the ambiguity. If quantities have moved since you started, use Refresh from Shopify.

There are two ways to enter counts:

• Scan or search. Put the cursor in the scan field and scan, or type a SKU. Each scan adds 1 to that variant. Matching goes barcode first, then SKU. Turn Sound on for a confirmation beep.
• Type directly. Enter the number in the Counted column, or use Set to [x] to match Shopify's figure when a product checks out.

As you go:

• Filter by All, Matched, Mismatched or Not counted to see where you are up to. An Excluded tab appears once you have excluded anything.
• Count progress shows how many variants you have counted, plus the projected unit adjustment, cost impact and retail impact.
• The Scan log lists recent scans with an Undo on each, for misfires.
• Counts save as you go, so you can Save & exit and come back.

[SCREENSHOT: stocktake-counting - The counting screen with the scan field, count progress panel and scan log visible]

Counting on paper

If you would rather count away from a screen, Export count sheet gives you the list to work from:

• PDF to print and write on, or CSV to fill in on a computer
• The current view or all variants being counted, so you can print one section at a time
• Include Shopify on hand is on by default. Untick it for a blind count, where the sheet does not show what Shopify expects and whoever is counting has to record what they actually see

Key the figures in afterwards.

3. Review the differences

Click Review differences.

This shows only the variants that need adjusting - the change, the adjust-by amount and the cost impact of each. Variants with no cost set are left out of the cost impact figure.

If a line looks wrong, Exclude drops it from the adjustment, or Back to counting lets you fix the number.

Your physical count is compared against Shopify's on-hand quantity, and the adjustment is applied to available by the same amount.

Lines that changed while you were counting

If a sale or a receipt landed after you counted something, that line is flagged under Changed during count.

These have to be resolved before you can go any further - recount the line, confirm the shelf is still right, or exclude it. Confirm all clears them in one go, and means you are confirming your counted quantities are still what is physically on the shelf. Until none are left, Update Shopify inventory stays greyed out.

On a full stocktake, check what is uncounted

A full stocktake warns you here, naming how many variants are about to be set to 0. If you did not finish counting, Exclude all not counted leaves them alone instead.

Worth pausing over. This is the one step that can empty stock you never counted.

If Shopify's quantities were last refreshed more than 30 minutes ago, Stockie refreshes them before applying rather than writing against figures that may have moved. This takes a moment and then continues on its own.

4. Update Shopify

Click Update Shopify inventory. You get a confirmation showing exactly what is about to change: how many variants, at which location, and the net unit and cost change.

If your count matched Shopify everywhere, there is nothing to write and the button reads Close stocktake instead.

Confirm, and Stockie writes the counted values to Shopify. Each adjustment is logged against the stocktake, so it is traceable in Shopify's own adjustment history.

5. After the count

The completed stocktake keeps a full record:

• Adjusted, Matched, Not counted and Excluded tabs, so you can see what happened to every variant in scope
• A summary of variants adjusted, unit variance, cost impact and retail impact
• Linked adjustments - the inventory adjustment record the count created
• A timeline of when the stocktake was created, when its scope was prepared, when quantities were refreshed and when the update was applied
• Export CSV

Your history lives on the Stocktakes list, filterable by all, completed and cancelled.