Parts stocktake: a worked example, count sheet and checklist

A parts stocktake checks the quantity you physically hold against the quantity your records say you hold, for the same part, location, unit and point in time. The useful result is a reconciled count: which differences need a stock adjustment, which belong to an unrecorded movement, and which still need investigating.

Start with one stockroom or a manageable group of parts. Define the cutoff, count without seeing the expected quantities, investigate differences, then record each approved correction once. The worked example below follows that process through an emergency job issue, a wrong-bin discovery, an empty shelf and an unfinished count.

Count on screen: open the free stocktake tool. Import a CSV or try the sample, count with expected quantities hidden, review differences and download a report. No signup is needed. Your count stays in that browser; download a backup before switching devices or clearing browser data. The tool records the count and review but does not update your inventory records.

Prefer paper or Excel? Keep using the printable parts count sheet and free inventory workbook, or download the Excel file directly. The printable sheet is for recording what you find; the workbook is for reconciling quantities and recording movements. Its sample stock is plumbing and electrical supplies, so replace the examples with your own items in a working copy.

Jump to: prepare · count sheet · worked example · workbook instructions · closing checklist · common questions.

1. Set the scope and cutoff

Give the count an ID, such as PARTS-2026-11-04-A. Record the location, included SKUs or areas, counting unit, cutoff date and time, and who will review the differences. If you count only filters, label the result a filter count; it does not establish that the rest of the stockroom is correct.

Before anyone starts:

• Finish recording receipts, issues, sales and transfers that happened before the cutoff. Check the associated delivery or job records when a quantity looks doubtful.
• Identify every place in scope: primary shelves, overflow bins, receiving areas and any job staging area included in your stock balance.
• Separate returns, damaged parts, old cores and customer-owned parts from usable stock. Label their status and determine how each is represented in your records; do not merge them into a saleable SKU just because they look similar.
• Confirm the counting unit. A box of ten and ten individual pieces only agree if the record uses the same unit and conversion.
• Save the expected balances with the cutoff time. Keep them away from the counter until the first count is recorded.

Pause movements for the affected stock where practical. If an urgent issue cannot wait, record its SKU, quantity, location, time and job reference, and whether it happened before or after that SKU was counted. Do the same for receipts, returns and transfers. An unexplained difference is hard to interpret when stock moves without a record.

Check what your software means by “on hand.” A reservation may still be included in stock, while an issue may already have reduced it. For example, Auxo Workshop's stocktake instructions say its on-hand quantity includes parts allocated to jobs. The PlanSmith workbook instead reduces a location's quantity when an Out movement is entered. Establish the basis you are comparing before deciding whether a part on a job belongs in the count.

For the broader setup (SKUs, supersessions, cores and bin control), use the auto parts inventory management guide.

2. Count without the expected quantity

A blind count leaves the expected balance off the counter's sheet. Record the first count before showing the discrepancy. AM-Win's count-sheet documentation provides a quantity-hiding option for this purpose and warns that excluding zero-balance items can miss stock that is physically present.

Use the printable count sheet, or copy these fields onto paper:

Put the count ID, location, cutoff and included areas at the top. Use additional lines for stock you find that is absent from the list. Give an unidentified item a temporary reference and keep it unresolved until you can match it; do not guess a SKU from appearance.

Work through the shelves in a fixed order and mark completed areas. Check both directions: every listed part needs a count or an explicit outstanding status, and every physical item in scope needs a line or exception. Include overflow storage so a part is neither missed nor counted twice.

Write 0 when you have checked the relevant places and found none. Leave a quantity blank when it has not been counted. “Uncounted” and “counted zero” lead to very different decisions. Record recounts separately so the first observation remains visible.

For a SKU stored in two bins within one workbook location, keep two physical-count lines, then total them for that location before comparing with the workbook. The current workbook tracks locations, not separate bin balances; a single-bin count is not enough to correct a whole-location balance.

3. Reconcile the count: a worked example

This is a fictional parts-room example. All quantities below are each, all four SKUs belong to the Warehouse location, and the opening snapshot was saved at 10:00. The count team checks the included shelves and overflow areas. Other movements are paused, apart from one recorded emergency issue.

At 10:05, two OF-100 oil filters leave for job JOB-204. The issue is entered in the stock record before those filters are counted at 10:10. There are no further movements before reconciliation and posting in this example.

Expected quantities include recorded movements up to each SKU's count time.

The calculation for the oil filter is:

Expected at count time = 12 opening + 0 received − 2 issued = 10
Count difference       = 9 physically counted − 10 expected = −1

The raw comparison with the opening snapshot looked three short. Two of those units have an explained, recorded destination. Posting a further loss of three would count the issue twice and incorrectly reduce the balance to seven. After a recount and review, the remaining correction is one unit out, leaving nine.

If the job issue had not yet been entered, verify it and enter it once before calculating the residual difference. Do not post both a three-unit count correction and the two-unit issue.

Decide what each difference means

Oil filters: a second count confirms nine. Review receipts, jobs and transfers. If the remaining shortage is still unexplained and the reviewer approves a one-unit correction, record it as an unexplained shortage after recount. Do not invent a cause such as theft or damage.

Spark plugs: the team finds six in their usual bin and fourteen in an overflow bin. That makes twenty at Warehouse, matching the location balance. Correct the storage arrangement or bin reference; there is no location-level quantity adjustment. If the extra fourteen were really at another tracked location, investigate and record the real transfer rather than treating the two locations' differences as unrelated losses and gains.

Fuse holders: both counters confirm zero after checking the expected and overflow areas. No supporting receipt, issue or transfer explains the three recorded units. An approved correction is three out. The entered zero is evidence of a completed count, not an empty form field.

Air filters: nobody has counted them yet. Leave the line outstanding and assign it to a counter. Do not turn the blank into a six-unit write-off or describe this four-SKU stocktake as complete.

For an optional sense of scale, illustrative unit costs of $8 per oil filter and $6 per fuse holder put the two proposed corrections at −1 × $8 and −3 × $6: −$26 altogether. This is a quantity-times-cost illustration, not an accounting journal or a choice of inventory valuation method.

If stock moves after you count it

Keep the correction tied to the counting point. Suppose one more oil filter leaves after the count, with an issue recorded before the correction is posted. The book quantity becomes nine and the physical quantity becomes eight. The original residual correction remains −1, leaving eight. Forcing the current balance back to the earlier physical count of nine would be wrong.

When timing is uncertain, pause the affected movement and reconcile the event sequence or recount. Do not use a convenient adjustment to make two incomparable numbers agree.

4. Record the correction in the workbook

The inventory tracking workbook has a Stock count sheet and a Movements sheet. Counting does not automatically post corrections.

Before a new count, clear earlier or sample quantities from Counted so an old value cannot pass for a fresh observation. Leave the calculated columns intact. On Stock count, select the location in B1, set the count date in E1, and enter physical counts in column E, Counted. Columns D, Expected, F, Difference, and G, Value of difference are calculated. A blank Counted cell leaves the difference blank; an entered zero calculates a difference against Expected.

The count date does not freeze the expected balance. Expected sums the movement ledger for that SKU and location without a date cutoff. Later movements, and the corrections you post, change the displayed difference. Save a values-only reconciliation copy or printed record before posting. Use the separate blind-count sheet while counting; the workbook's reconciliation view displays Expected beside Counted.

For the example, add these corrections only after approval, with the two-unit job issue already recorded:

Let Item and Net calculate. Add the review time and evidence reference to the note or the saved reconciliation record. The workbook has no dedicated approval step or protected stocktake history; those controls have to be maintained separately.

Enter the difference, not the physical count, as the movement quantity. A shortage of one means Out = 1, not Out = 9 or Out = −1. A confirmed excess of two means In = 2. Keep the unused direction blank. Recording opening stock in an empty ledger is a separate case; do not repeat that opening-stock procedure during a later stocktake.

Post each approved line once and mark it posted in the saved review record. Leave the spark-plug balance unchanged and retain its matching count as evidence. Keep the air-filter line outstanding. The workbook does not stop someone entering the same correction twice.

After posting, read back the movements and location balances. With no later movement, oil filters should be nine, spark plugs twenty and fuse holders zero; air filters remain six on the books with their physical count still unknown. Once the saved record is secure, clear old input counts before reusing the sheet for another count or location. Do not clear calculated columns or delete historical movements.

5. Close the count and keep the evidence

Use this reconciliation checklist for each completed scope:

• Every included SKU and physical storage area has been checked; outstanding lines are named and assigned.
• Units, location and movement timing agree with the comparison basis.
• Discrepancies have a recount and a reviewed explanation or an explicitly unresolved cause.
• Real missing movements are recorded once, with their supporting reference.
• Only approved residual differences have been posted, once each.
• The posted movements and resulting balances have been checked.
• The original count sheets, cutoff balances, movement log and approval record are saved together under the count ID.

Close only the scope that is finished. In the example, three SKUs have been reconciled and one remains outstanding. The two posted adjustments do not make the whole stocktake complete.

Keep the before-and-after evidence even when the difference is zero. Reading back the saved transaction and balance is also a distinct step in MapTrack's physical stocktake workflow; saving a correction alone does not verify the resulting record.

Use recurring exceptions to choose the next small count: the part repeatedly found in the wrong bin, stock with late job issues, or a critical spare whose recorded balance cannot be trusted. Set frequency around movement, operational importance and observed errors rather than assuming every part needs the same schedule.

Once the balances are reconciled, use them to review your spare-parts reorder points, including outstanding orders and supplier lead times.

If multiple counters, per-bin balances or controlled approvals are becoming necessary, the inventory spreadsheet guide explains where the spreadsheet stops fitting. For a system you are building, the inventory database design guide covers the movement-ledger foundation.

Common questions

Is a parts stock check the same as a full stocktake?

A stock check can cover one SKU or shelf. A full stocktake covers the complete declared inventory scope. Both need a consistent unit and counting point; a successful spot check does not prove that uncounted parts are correct.

Can I keep the workshop open while counting?

You can count a limited area while other work continues, provided affected movements are controlled and recorded against the count timing. If you cannot establish whether a part moved before or after its count, resolve that uncertainty before correcting the balance. Smaller scopes are easier to finish and reconcile.

Should an empty count cell become zero?

No. A blank means no observation has been entered. Use zero only after checking the relevant storage scope and confirming none are present. Keep unfinished lines visible instead of manufacturing a completed count.

Will entering Counted change stock automatically?

Not in the current PlanSmith workbook. It calculates the difference; you manually record an approved Counted movement on Movements. Preserve the reconciliation before doing so because the live Expected and Difference formulas will recalculate.