This article walks you through the stocktake process step by step. A stocktake with Pickware consists of 4 steps:

You can record counts either in the Pickware Admin or with the WMS App. Counting with the WMS App has the advantage that you can scan bin location labels or product labels directly. If you do your stocktake in the warehouse with pen and paper, for example, it makes sense to enter the values directly in your Pickware Admin afterwards. All other steps are done in the Pickware Admin.

Which processes are safe to carry out in parallel to an ongoing stocktake?

What should be avoided?

In the Pickware Admin, go to Warehousing → Stocktake and click Start stocktake to begin a new stocktake. Select the desired warehouse and optionally enter a name. The numbering is assigned automatically.

If you work with locations, a stocktake runs per warehouse zone.

Open the WMS App and navigate to the menu item Stocktake. If no stocktake has been created in the Pickware Admin for the selected warehouse yet, a message appears telling you that you first need to start a stocktake.

Two different modes are available for the stocktake: counting per bin location ("Select bin location") and counting in the warehouse (unknown bin location).

Here you can record products per bin location by first scanning the bin location label or selecting a bin location from the list. You can then scan the products on the selected bin location or search for them using the keyboard and enter the respective quantity.

Please note: If you record more than one count for the same product and bin location combination in this mode, the previously recorded value is overwritten. This means that if, for example, you record 3 units in a first count and later want to record another 2 units of the same product, you need to enter 5. If you only enter 2, the product will only appear with 2 units in the summary at the end of the stocktake.

When counting by bin location, items that are not actively counted also count as counted. Items that are located on the bin location but are not recorded are included in the stocktake with a stock of 0. Be sure to keep this in mind before you finish your stocktake.

If you don't use labeled bin locations or want to count products without a fixed bin location, use this option instead. Here too, you can scan products or enter them manually. The counts are then recorded under the bin location Unknown.

Please note: If you record several counts for the same product in this mode, they are added up at the end. This means that if, for example, you record 3 units in a first count and later another 2 units of the same product, a total of 5 units of the product are counted for this stocktake.

To finish the stocktake, switch back to the Pickware Admin under Warehousing → Stocktake.

In your Pickware Admin, you will find the tabs Counted and Uncounted for the respective stocktake. To record counts, switch to the Uncounted tab.

The Uncounted tab lists all products that have stock in the selected warehouse or that have a default bin location assigned there. Products that you find in the warehouse while counting but that don't meet this requirement do not appear there. You can add them afterwards in the Counted tab.

Products without stock management do not appear in the stocktake. This applies, for example, to products imported from Shopify with Track quantity deactivated. To learn how to activate stock management for such products, see How do I manage my stock in Pickware?.

By clicking the respective filter icon, you can display all products on a specific bin location (1) as well as all bin locations on which a product is stored (2).

On the right you will find further filter options (3), for example if you want to filter your products by categories, manufacturer, or tags used. There you can also specify whether stock on the unknown bin location should be shown in the list.

If you don't complete a stocktake in one day but carry it out in partial counts over several days or weeks (rolling stocktake), the Last counted filter helps you see only the bin locations and products in the Uncounted tab that are actually still open in the current run.

In the Uncounted tab you will find the column Last counted at. If a product was already counted in an earlier, completed stocktake of this warehouse, the date and time of the last count are shown there; if it has never been counted, a dash appears.

You can find the Last counted filter in the filter menu. It is deactivated by default — so your stocktake initially runs as usual.

Using the presets (days/months) or a freely selectable date, you hide all products that have already been counted within the selected time range. If you select the preset 10 days, for example, all bin locations and products that were already counted in the last 10 days disappear from the list — only what is still open remains. The selected setting is saved even if you leave the stocktake in between and open it again.

In each row, a blue button with an arrow is available (1). With it, you can directly apply the respective value from the Expected column to the Counted column. If you counted a different value, double-click in the Counted column instead and enter it.

With the upper blue arrow (2), you can record counts according to the expected values for all entries on this page at once. Depending on the Items per page setting at the bottom right of the screen, you can record up to 500 counts at the same time.

To apply recorded counts, check the corresponding rows using the checkbox on the left. Please note that all counts for a bin location are always selected. Your selection is also kept when you change pages in the navigation at the bottom, so entries from other pages can also be marked for applying. Then click Apply all selected counts.

You can also apply a single count via the context menu. Here too, all other counts for this bin location are applied as well.

If you want to apply entries for which no count has been recorded yet, a message appears informing you that in this case they will be applied with the value 0.

In the Counted tab you see all recorded counts per product and bin location. Similar to the Uncounted tab, you can also use the filter icons here to filter by a specific bin location or product. The respective value in the Difference column is booked as stock when the stocktake is finished.

For each list entry, you can adjust the count by double-clicking in the Counted column and overwriting the value. You can also use the context menu to delete the count for this bin location (Delete whole counting) and to delete counts on the unknown bin location product by product (Delete single product counting).

If, for example, products were overlooked during counting, you can add them afterwards by selecting the entry Add product to counting process in the context menu for the corresponding bin location. In the following window, you can then enter the product to be added and its quantity.

This is also how you record products that don't appear in the Uncounted tab at all because they have neither stock nor a default bin location in the selected warehouse — for example, products that according to the system are not in this warehouse but that you find while counting. A prerequisite for this is that a count for the relevant bin location already exists in the Counted tab.

The filter menu on the right offers you further options in addition to the filter options you already know from the Uncounted tab. For example, you can specify a percentage range for the difference between the expected and counted value if you want to recount products with a particularly high percentage difference.

Unlike Difference, Difference (total) does not refer to the stock of a product on a specific bin location but to the global stock of a product. This way, if there are any differences, you can check whether the stock globally still matches the expected value. In the list settings, you can display the columns Expected (total), Counted (total), and Difference (total) accordingly.

As long as the stocktake has not been finished, the counts can be changed or the entire stocktake can be deleted. The stock changes resulting from the differences are only booked once the stocktake has been finished. To book the stocktake, click Finish stocktake in the Counted tab.

If there are still uncounted products when you finish the stocktake, a corresponding message appears.

In a stocktake, when counting by bin location, items that are not actively counted also count as counted.
The items that are located on the bin location but are not recorded are included in the stocktake with a stock of 0 when the count is saved.
Therefore, make sure that either all items of a bin location are counted completely or that a stock of 0 is correct for items that were not recorded before you finish the count.

While the stock changes are being carried out, the stocktake has the state Book stock. If you click the corresponding entry in the stocktake overview, you can follow the progress. Once finished, the state changes to Completed. In the Counted tab, completed stocktakes can be exported as a CSV file.

Pickware does not adjust bin locations that you haven't counted when the stocktake is finished. A completed stocktake can no longer be changed. If you notice an error afterwards, correct the stock directly on the product.