Free printable stock count sheet

1. Add your details

   Type your shop name, the date and the name of the person counting. They appear at the top of the printed page.

2. Add your products

   Paste a list of product names, one per line, and they fill the first rows. Add blank rows beneath for things you find on the shelf that are not on the list.

3. Print it

   Press the print button. The navigation, footer and controls are left off the page, so only the sheet prints. Landscape or portrait both work.

4. Count and write it down

   Fill in Expected from your records, Counted from the shelf, then the Difference and any Notes.

Nothing you type is stored or uploaded. Close the tab and it is gone, so print before you leave. If you need a bigger list, paste it in batches and print each one.

• Product: the name, with the size so two sizes never share a row.
• Expected: the number your records say you should have. Leave it blank if you want a blind count, explained below.
• Counted: the number you actually found.
• Difference: counted minus expected. A negative number means the shelf is short. A positive one means you have more than the records say.
• Notes: the reason, if you know it: damaged, expired, miscounted last time, sold without a record, or moved to another shelf.

A stock count is simple, but small habits decide whether the numbers can be trusted.

1. Pick a quiet time. Early morning or just before closing means fewer sales happening mid-count. If you must trade while counting, write down sales made during the count and adjust.
2. Count in a set order. Go shelf by shelf, left to right, top to bottom. Stick a small note on a shelf when it is done so nothing is counted twice or skipped.
3. Count the storeroom too. Total stock is the shelf plus whatever is in the back. Write both if you want to see where it sits.
4. Try a blind count. Leave Expected blank, count first, then fill it in afterwards. People who know the target tend to count toward it.
5. Use two people for valuable items. One counts, one writes. Phones, cosmetics and tobacco are common places for trouble.
6. Count in whole units. Open packs and loose items can be written as a note, so a half-empty box does not become a guess.

A small shop counts four products on Monday morning. The difference is counted minus expected.

Add up the differences and the shop is 5 units short out of 75 expected, about 6.7%. The detail matters more than the total. The oil has a clear cause, so the fix is to record it as damage. The rice is a small gain that suggests one sale was never written down. The sugar is a bigger gap with no explanation, so you recount it before changing anything.

The paste box takes plain text, so a list from a spreadsheet or a notes app works as long as there is one product per line. Copy a single column, not whole rows, or the quantities will end up inside the product name.

Put the products in the order you walk the shop, not alphabetical order. If the sheet follows the shelves, you never double back across the floor, and a skipped line is easy to spot. Grouping by section also lets you split the count between two people: one takes the first half of the sheet, the other the second, and nobody counts the same shelf twice.

1. Recount anything with a difference you cannot explain.
2. Update your records to match what you counted. The shelf is the truth.
3. Keep the sheet. A few months of sheets show which products drift most.
4. Look for patterns: the same product short each time, or one section always off.
5. Reorder anything now sitting below its minimum. Use the reorder point calculator to set it.

How often you count depends on the shop. Fast sellers and high-value items are worth checking weekly or monthly. A full count of everything twice a year is a sensible floor. For a longer walk-through, see how to do a stock count without closing the shop.

A printed sheet is a fine way to count. It costs nothing, needs no battery and works anywhere in the shop. The slow part comes after: typing every number back into your records, and every typing step is another chance for a mistake.

Shopkeepa is built so you can enter the counted quantity right at the shelf from your phone and see the difference straight away, with no re-typing. See inventory tracking. Until then, this sheet gets the job done.