Dukan ka stock kaise check kare: how to count stock and find out why it is short

How do you check a shop's stock?

Count what is in the shop, item by item, and compare it with what should be there: the stock you started with, plus what you bought, minus what you sold. Where the two numbers differ, find the reason for each gap and fix the cause. Then correct your record so the next count starts from the right figure.

Counting is the easy part. The comparison and the reasons tell you whether the shop has a theft problem or a paperwork problem.

How do you work out what should be on the shelf?

For each item, what should be there is: opening stock, plus everything received from suppliers, minus everything sold, plus customer returns put back on the shelf, minus anything returned to the distributor or thrown away. If any of those is missing from your books, the "should be" figure is wrong before you start counting.

So a stock check only works when purchases and sales are both written down. A shop that writes sales but not deliveries will always seem to gain stock. A shop that writes deliveries but not every sale will always seem to lose it.

How do you count stock without closing the dukan?

Count one section at a time at the quietest hour, before opening or after the evening rush, with one person counting and another writing. Don't try to count the whole shop in one go, because tired people miscount.

1. 1Pick one section: the oil and ghee rack, the tea and sugar shelf, the cigarette counter.
2. 2Count the shelf, the back store and anything still in cartons under the counter. Stock forgotten under the counter is the most common "missing" item.
3. 3Count in the unit you sell in. If you sell soap by the piece, count the carton as pieces. A carton written as one piece makes a large false gap.
4. 4Write the exact number, not "about ten". An estimate can't be compared with anything.
5. 5Don't sell from that section until its count is written down, or note every sale made during the count.

Does every item need counting every week?

No. Count small, costly, fast-moving items weekly and cheap, bulky ones monthly. Cigarettes, cooking oil, ghee, tea, shampoo and anything that fits in a pocket are where gaps cost real money and grow fastest. A sack of salt rarely goes missing.

Rotating sections like this keeps each count short, and every item is still counted at least once a month.

Stock kam nikla: does that mean chori?

Not necessarily. In a small shop, most stock gaps come from things that were never written down. Check these first, because each one makes stock look stolen when it is not:

• A sale that was never billed: cash taken in a rush and the item never rung up.
• A sale billed as the wrong item, such as the 1-litre oil rung up as the half-litre, so one is short and the other is extra.
• Udhaar given at the counter but never written in the khata.
• Ghar ka saman: items taken home for the family without a note.
• Damaged or expired stock thrown away without being written off.
• A delivery signed for while two cartons were short.
• A counting mistake.

Some gaps will be theft. But if you jump to theft first, you accuse people over a missing note, and the real leak keeps running.

How do you tell theft from a mistake?

Look at the pattern over several counts. Mistakes scatter: some items come up short, some come up extra, and the gaps change from week to week. Theft repeats: the same few small, valuable items come up short count after count, often around the same shift or the same person on the counter.

An extra item tells you as much as a missing one. Stock that is higher than it should be almost always means something else was billed in its place. If one item is short and a similar item is extra by the same amount, you have found a billing mistake.

What do you do after the count?

Correct the record to the counted number, write why it was wrong, and fix the cause so the gap does not come back. Don't quietly overwrite the old figure. A correction with a reason tells you next month whether the same item keeps going missing.

1. 1Write each gap with the item, the count, what should have been there, and your best reason: billing mistake, damage, ghar ka saman or unknown.
2. 2Set the record to the counted figure, so the next comparison starts from the right number.
3. 3Fix the cause: bill every sale, write every udhaar, write down what goes home, and check cartons before signing for a delivery.
4. 4Recount the items marked "unknown" in a week. If they are short again, they go on your watch list.

Who doesn't need a formal stock check?

In a very small shop where the owner sits at the counter all day, alone, and buys for cash every morning, the owner can see the whole stock at a glance. A written count tells that owner nothing new.

No software stops theft on its own. If an item leaves without a bill, no system knows until somebody counts the shelf. The count is still your job; software makes the comparison and the record keeping faster.

How does a POS help with a stock check?

A POS keeps the "should be there" figure for you. Every billed sale takes the item off stock as it is sold, so after a count you compare the shelf with one number per item. In NexusTill the Inventory screen shows the on-hand quantity of every item, searchable by name, SKU or barcode, with the stock's value and how many items are running low or out of stock.

• After a count, Adjust stock lets you add or take off a quantity for an item with a reason, such as "count", "damage" or "expired".
• Each adjustment is saved with who made it, and stock records are never edited afterwards. A wrong one is answered by a new adjustment.
• The Stock Valuation report puts a rupee figure on what is on your shelves: on-hand quantity times cost.
• The Cashier Sales report shows what each person on the counter billed, which helps when one shift keeps coming up short.
• Each person signs in with their own account, so every sale has a name on it.

All of this is on every plan, including Starter. On Growth and Scale, receiving a purchase from a supplier adds the stock automatically. On Starter you add new stock with Adjust stock when a delivery arrives. If you keep your daily hisab in a notebook today, start with /blog/shop-hisab-kaise-kare, and see how stock and khata work together in /blog/digital-khata-with-inventory.

Compare the plans on /pricing, and try it on your own shop for 7 days. No card is needed, and nothing is charged when the trial ends.

Written by NexusTill Team.