Store Inventory – Complete Overview

Store Inventory: Reasons, Frequency, Procedure and Tips from Professionals

Why conduct inventory in stores, retail outlets, warehouses, or entire networks at all? And when it’s mandatory, how often is it optimal to implement it? In this new article, you’ll learn not only that, but we’ll also recommend the ideal procedure for store inventories, offer an overview to help you decide when it’s time to invite experts to your company for inventory, and conclude by sharing some useful tips!

Why Conduct Store Inventory at all?

Store inventory is legally mandatory, where accounting entities (companies) must at least once a year prove that the actual state of inventory corresponds to the records in their accounting. This legislative requirement is the main reason to conduct it. However, it also brings practical benefits:

Through regular inventory control, the company not only fulfills its legal obligation, but also gains valuable information for its management, which it can further capitalize on in business.

How Often should You Conduct Store Inventory?

The frequency of inventory depends on the size of the store, product range, and internal processes. Generally, the higher the goods turnover and more frequent changes in inventory, the more often it’s appropriate to conduct inventory. It’s also important to consider the results of annual inventory. For stores or branches with poor results, it’s advisable to conduct inventories more frequently and focus on inventory and asset protection and management.

• Annual inventory (minimum obligation) – legally required, serves to close the accounting period and reconcile warehouse inventory with accounting.
• Quarterly inventory (or semi-annual) – recommended for stores with wider product ranges, where errors easily accumulate, as it helps maintain more accurate inventory overview. Suitable for stores with poor annual inventory results and for outlets with deteriorated results.
• Monthly inventory – suitable for outlets with high goods turnover, frequent deliveries and high risk of losses (e.g., food, drugstore items).
• Cycle counting – ongoing checks of specific categories or shelves. This way, there’s no need to stop operations, yet you keep inventory under control.
• Partial inventory – checking a specific part of the product range (e.g., selected categories), which allows detecting discrepancies without stopping entire operations. Suitable for example with risky goods and higher-priced items (a few rolls vs. a few very expensive scarves).
• Ad-hoc inventory – extraordinary check when theft is suspected, system errors, ownership changes, or changes in suppliers and processes.

TIP: Generally, the more valuable or faster-turning goods you sell, the more frequently you should include store inventory (goods inventory) in your plan.

Store Inventory Implementation Procedure

For inventory to proceed efficiently and with minimal impact on regular store operations, it’s good to follow a clear procedure. The proven steps are as follows:

1. Inventory preparation – setting the date, processing all inventory movements (receipts, issues, transfers, etc.), cleaning spaces, closing or limiting sales, preparing forms or mobile devices (scanners).
2. Work division – assembling teams, assigning specific sections or categories to individual workers, training on methodology and inventory procedures.
3. Physical counting – manual recounting of goods directly in the store or warehouse, checking the number of pieces, packages or units, marking already counted items to prevent duplicates.
4. Comparison with accounting state (investigation of differences) – recording results in software, comparing actual states with records, identifying differences (shortages, surpluses, incorrectly maintained cards).
5. Inventory evaluation – analyzing results, finding causes of discrepancies, proposing measures to limit errors, updating the warehouse system and preparing documents for accounting.

Good to consider: The description of the store inventory process above shows that inventory is not just about counting itself, but also about organization, error prevention and subsequent evaluation.

In-house Inventory vs. Professional Inventory

Retailers often face the decision whether to handle inventory with their own resources (with their employees), or rather entrust it to a specialized company. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages – it depends on the size of operations, employee capacity, requirements for accuracy and speed, etc.

The table above shows that in-house inventory may be suitable for smaller stores, but for larger operations or where maximum accuracy and speed is expected, professional solutions pay off.

TIP: If you prefer to conduct inventory with your own workers while keeping it accurate and efficient, we offer our expert software for this purpose. And we’re happy to lend you scanners and other hardware.

Expert Tips for Store Inventory

Inventory can be time-consuming and organizationally demanding. However, if you plan it well and use proven procedures, you’ll handle it faster, with less error rate and without unnecessary stress.

• Prepare in advance – set the date, prepare forms and scanners, ensure organization
• Use barcode scanners – they eliminate errors, speed everything up and facilitate comparison with the database
• Stop goods receipt and issue – don’t perform any inventory movements during inventory
• Divide the store into sections – proceed by zones so you have an overview of what’s counted
• Focus on risky items – check more expensive or frequently missing goods separately
• Ensure peace for work – eliminate disruptive influences and involve only designated employees
• Evaluate inventory immediately – fresh results have the greatest informational value
• Adapt counting order – to actual storage and proceed systematically from left to right (never conduct inventory in the order you have in accounting records or on pre-printed lists)
• Always conduct inventory as blind – so that the inventory worker doesn’t know in advance what counts they should reach.

And after completion? Immediately pass the conclusions forward and follow up with necessary measures in the company to streamline and optimize internal processes without unnecessary delay.

Need help with inventory? We’re here for you We offer turnkey inventories, specifically goods inventory or asset inventory. And we’re available to help even if you just need inventory consultation or to conduct an inventory audit afterwards. More in the inventory services overview.