You can run a stocktake in Pickware for Shopware 6 during live operations. Your shop stays online, orders keep coming in, and you can keep picking and shipping. This works because, when you save a counting, Pickware records the difference between the counted and the expected quantity and only books this difference when you finish.
It becomes critical when bookings and physical goods drift apart while you are counting, for example with stock transfers.
Why sales don't distort the counting
An example: On a bin location, Pickware expects 100 units, you count 101. A difference of +1 is saved. Until you finish the stocktake, you sell 10 units and the stock drops to 90. When you finish, Pickware books the +1, and in the end there are 91 units in the system, exactly as on the shelf.
So Pickware does not overwrite your stock with the counted quantity. Everything that happens after counting is preserved.
What can keep running during the stocktake
You can pick and ship products with one or more bin locations as usual, even if their bin location has already been counted.
Products without a fixed bin location are stored in Pickware on the bin location Unknown. You can keep picking these too, if Unknown corresponds to a fixed place in your warehouse for you, for example a specific shelf. If such a product is spread across several places, count all places directly one after the other and only pick it again afterwards. Otherwise you count goods that were already sold between two partial countings.
Which bookings you should avoid
Attention: During the stocktake, do not transfer stock between a bin location that has been counted and one that has not yet been counted. This leads to stocktake errors.
An example: You transfer 10 units from bin location A to bin location B, but the goods are still on A when it is counted. Pickware now expects 10 fewer units on A, but you count them anyway. This results in a difference of +10 on A. If you then move the goods to B, after finishing there are 10 units in the system on A that are no longer actually there.
Why you should finish the stocktake promptly
A stocktake may stay open for a few days. However, you shouldn't let it run for weeks, especially not if many goods receipts or stock transfers are booked in the meantime.
The reason is negative differences. If you count 6 units fewer than expected on a bin location and then sell the remaining stock, the bin location is already at 0 when you finish. Pickware can then no longer book the −6, because the stock would otherwise become negative. The stocktake ends in the state Completed (with errors), and you have to correct the affected products manually, see What states does a stocktake have and what do they mean?
How to plan a stocktake during live operations
Complete open stock transfers and stocking before you start counting.
Count bin location by bin location and save each counting right away. The shorter the time between counting and saving, the less can happen in between.
Finish the stocktake as soon as possible after counting. If you have to count your warehouse over several days, it is better to work with several small stocktakes one after another, see Rolling stocktake.
If you do have to transfer stock, count the source and destination bin location again afterwards, or correct both in the Counted tab, see Correcting stocktake countings and adding products afterwards.
You can find the entire process in Performing a stocktake: process from start to finish.