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Stock counts

A stock count is the calibration step in StockBrik. Estimates drift between counts - a splash of milk here, an unweighed handful of flour there - and a count is how you reset every estimate back to reality. It is also how you produce the £ stocktake valuation your accountant asks for at period end.

StockBrik counts are designed to be done on a phone, walking the storeroom with one thumb free.

Starting a count​

  1. Go to StockBrik → Stock Counts
  2. Click Start count and, if you run more than one site, choose the location
  3. The count sheet opens with a row for every tracked ingredient

Only one count can be in progress per location at a time. If a count is already underway, it appears as a prominent Continue count card so anyone on the team can pick it up where it was left.

Blind entry​

The count sheet deliberately hides what StockBrik expects you to have until you have entered a value for that row. Once you type a quantity, the expected figure and the variance appear.

This is standard stocktake discipline: if the sheet showed "expected 4.2kg" before you counted, it would be very tempting to glance at the shelf and write 4.2. Blind entry means every count is a genuine, independent observation - which is exactly what makes it useful for correcting the estimates.

If an ingredient has never been counted and has no estimate yet, the row says so plainly: this count sets the baseline.

Pack-aware entry​

Nobody weighs an unopened bag of flour. For ingredients with known pack sizes (taken from your suppliers' SKUs in CostingBrik), each row offers pack-based entry alongside a direct quantity:

  • Choose the pack size, for example Booker - 2.5 kg x 4
  • Enter the number of full packs
  • Add any loose amount, with quick + half and + quarter buttons for part-used packs

So "four unopened bags and about half of an open one" is three taps, and StockBrik converts it into the ingredient's tracking unit for you. Ingredients without supplier pack data simply take a direct quantity.

Entries save as you go, row by row, so a dropped wifi signal in the walk-in loses at most the row you were typing.

Completing a count​

When you have counted everything you intend to, tap Complete. StockBrik shows a summary before anything is final:

  • Variance per item - counted versus expected, so you can spot a typo (a missing decimal point on the flour) before confirming
  • Stocktake valuation - the total £ value of the counted stock, priced from your CostingBrik cost data

Confirm, and the count is locked in. The valuation is accountant-ready: a dated, itemised £ figure for the stock you held, exactly what you need for period-end accounts.

Partial counts are fine. Counting your twenty most valuable ingredients well beats counting everything badly - only the rows you counted are anchored.

Counts are the anchor

Every completed count re-anchors the estimates: from that moment, each counted ingredient starts again from the counted quantity, and its confidence is restored. If a Stock Levels row is showing Count recommended, this page is where you fix it. See How estimates work for why.

Cancelling a count​

An in-progress count can be cancelled by a user with the right permission - useful if someone started one by mistake. Cancelled counts do not touch your estimates.