Your stocktake never reconciles
Count it once, see every difference before it lands, and finish with stock that matches the shelf — and the books that follow from it.
You know this if…
- The stocktake takes a weekend and the numbers are still wrong on Monday.
- Count sheets are typed into a spreadsheet days later, by someone who wasn't there.
- Nobody can say whether a difference is a miscount, a mis-pick or theft.
- Your accountant asks for a stock value and you send last year's.
Why it happens
A paper stocktake drifts while it happens. Orders ship and deliveries arrive between counting a shelf and typing it in, so the count is compared with a figure that has already moved.
And when the count finally lands, nothing records what changed or why. The spreadsheet is overwritten, the difference disappears, and next year's stocktake starts from another guess.
How Manifold handles it
A Manifold stocktake is a counting sheet against the live record: every stock SKU at each location, what Manifold expects, what you counted and the difference. Completing it sets stock to the count and records each difference as a write-down or a gain, at cost.
Start a stocktake
Inventory › Stocktakes › Start stocktake opens a counting sheet for every stock SKU at every location.
Count, and see the variance
Type each count, or count on the Stocktake station on a phone or tablet: scan an item to add one, and the expected figure stays hidden so nobody counts to it.
Recount what looks wrong
The station asks for a recount when a figure is off by more than two units and more than ten per cent.
Complete it, and the books follow
Stock becomes the count, and every difference posts as a write-down or a gain with its cost, recorded against the SKU's history.
What you can check
Blind counts on the station
The Stocktake station never shows the expected figure, so a counter can't count to it. Scanning the same barcode again adds one.
The Stocktake station →Differences valued at cost
Completing a stocktake posts each shortfall as a write-down and each surplus as a gain, so your stock value and your accounts agree.
Stocktakes and the ledger →A reminder when it's due
The dashboard tells you when a location hasn't been counted in 90 days.
The dashboard →Questions people ask
- Can I count one location at a time?
- Yes. A stocktake lists every stock SKU at each location, and a SKU you leave uncounted keeps its figure, so you can count one site, or one part of the range, and complete it.
- Do we need scanners?
- No. The Stocktake station runs in a browser on a phone or tablet: type or tap a figure, or scan with the phone's camera in Manifold's mobile app or with a Bluetooth or keyboard-style scanner.
- What does our first stocktake do?
- Your first one is the opening stocktake: it gives every SKU a count and a cost, and completing it opens your books in Manifold and in any accounting app you connect.
- Do I have to stop using what I have now?
- No. Every new Manifold business starts read-only: orders come in, imports run and your team works in Manifold in full, but nothing goes out — no stock to your store, no email to customers — until an owner goes live. Run it beside your paper and spreadsheets until you trust it.
See it on your own products.
Nothing changes until you say so.
Connect your Shopify store or bring a spreadsheet, and your own products, stock and orders are in Manifold the same day. Every new business starts read-only: your team can work in it in full while nothing goes out — no stock to your store, no email to customers — until an owner goes live. Free for 60 days.
Other problems we fix
Only one person knows where everything is
When stock lives in one person's head: every SKU's stock by location and every movement recorded with its document and who did it, searchable by anyone.
How to stop overselling across Shopify and wholesale
Stop selling stock you no longer have: one count across Shopify and wholesale, with orders holding units and the store's figure updated within seconds.
Knowing what to reorder, and when
Stop reordering from memory: see which SKUs are short against open orders and incoming stock, raise the purchase order, and know your supplier's real lead time.