What is cycle counting?
A full stocktake usually means closing the warehouse for a day, counting everything under time pressure and finding differences that are months old. Cycle counting spreads the work across the year.
Cycle counting vs a full stocktake
- A full stocktake counts every item at one moment. It gives a complete snapshot but interrupts work, and errors found then may have happened long ago.
- Cycle counting counts a few items at a time while the warehouse keeps working. Each count is small and careful, and a difference can often be traced to a recent receipt, pick or return.
- Many companies still do a full count at year end for their books. Whether cycle counts can replace it depends on your accounting rules and the reliability of your stock records, so check with your accountant.
How to plan the counts
The most common approach uses ABC classes: A items, the few that carry most of the value, are counted most often, and C items least often. Other triggers are useful too: count a bin when the system says it is empty, when a picker reports a shortage, or after an unusual adjustment. Count against the system quantity, but do not show that quantity to the counter, so the count stays independent.
An example schedule (illustrative numbers)
Correct the stock right away, but also record why it differed: a receipt booked to the wrong item, a pick from the wrong bin, damage never written off. If the same item keeps showing differences, fix the process, not just the number.
What to do with the differences
Correct the stock right away, but also record why it differed: a receipt booked to the wrong item, a pick from the wrong bin, damage that was never written off. If the same item keeps showing differences, fix the process, not just the number. Tracking accuracy per class shows whether the counts are paying off.
Counting stock in OrgLines
In OrgLines stock changes only through documents: receipts, transfers, shipments and stocktakes, never by typing over a number. A recount of one warehouse corrects stock by the difference found, while a full stocktake sets the quantities absolutely, and the result shows how many items were adjusted. Adjusting stock in a stocktake needs a permission, so not every account can change the numbers. Orders and inventory are included from the Business plan.