Counting stock and reading usage

A count is how you tell the app what is actually on the shelf. Two counts, some days apart, are what the Usage screen needs to work out how fast you go through each item.

Starting a count

Open Inventory → Count (the page is titled Quick Count) and choose a shop. The Start a Count card offers:

• Due Count — the items whose weekly or monthly cadence says they are due.
• Category Count — one category.
• Weekly Count — the weekly items, plus any every-two-weeks item that is due now.
• Monthly Count — everything.
• Full Count — every tracked item.

Press Start Count. If a count for that shop was already open, the app resumes it ("Count session resumed") rather than starting a second one.

What a count means

The banner at the top says it plainly: "Count everything on the shelf — this replaces the stock figure."

• A count is a full recount, not an adjustment. The total you enter becomes the item's on-hand figure.
• Leave an item completely blank to skip it — its stock figure is left alone.
• Nothing is saved until you press Finish Count. The values are submitted together.
• A count never changes an item's packaging. The pack and box sizes on file at the moment you count are recorded with the entry, so the count log still reads correctly if you edit the setup later.

The three numbers

Each item card shows up to three fields: Boxes, Packs and Loose pieces. Which ones appear depends on the item's setup — an item that does not come in boxes has no Boxes field. Loose pieces is always there.

Under the fields the card previews the total: "= 247 pcs" (or the item's own unit label if it has one). That preview is the number that will be stored.

Whole numbers only. Count an opened pack as loose pieces rather than typing "2.5 packs". If you type anything that is not a whole number, the card shows "Whole numbers only — count an opened pack as loose pieces." and Finish Count will not go through until it is fixed.

Each card also shows, to help you compare while you count:

• the category and current on-hand figure, with the box and pack split;
• the packaging, for example "20 per pack · 10 packs per box (200 per box)";
• the last count and when it was taken;
• a Variance line once you have typed something, and a "Low stock" flag when the new total is at or below the item's Minimum.

The footer shows "3 of 12 counted". When you are done, press Finish Count. You will see "Count completed and saved to history" and land on the Count Log.

The count log

Inventory → Count Log is the history of every count and adjustment, filtered by shop and date. Each row shows when, who, the item, the Previous figure, the Counted figure, the Variance and any note.

Under the Counted figure is the breakdown you typed, using the pack and box sizes that were on file at the time:

1 box × 200 + 2 packs × 20 + 7 loose

Older entries made before three-number counting existed show a single figure with no breakdown.

The Usage screen

Inventory → Usage shows, per item, how many pieces you go through in a week. In the page's own words: "How much of each item you go through in a week, worked out from your completed counts. Deliveries recorded on a shopping list are added back so a restock never reads as usage."

Pick a shop. The summary line reads "Usage available for 4 of 12 items". Each item card is in one of three states:

1. Fewer than two completed counts. The card says "Count it once more and usage appears here." with a Count now link. A count that is still open, or was abandoned, does not count — only counts you finished with Finish Count are used.
2. Two or more counts that cannot be compared yet. For example, both counts were taken on the same day. The card explains why ("…usage appears once two counts sit a day or more apart…").
3. A figure. A big number of pieces a week, the pack equivalent ("about 3 packs"), and "What you have now lasts about 12 days."

Every card with a figure states what it rests on: "Rests on 2 counts (Sep 1, 2026 → Sep 8, 2026)". The more counts, the steadier the figure.

How the figure is worked out

For each pair of consecutive completed counts, the app takes the earlier figure minus the later figure, adds back any pieces received from a purchase order between the two dates, and divides by the days between them. Those intervals are added up to give pieces per day, shown as pieces per week.

Two things follow from that:

• If stock went up between two counts with no delivery recorded, that interval is ignored rather than counted as negative usage. Receive deliveries through Purchase Orders so restocks are accounted for.
• Manual stock adjustments are not added on top — the counts already reflect them.

Related

• Inventory: boxes, packs and pieces
• Ordering by the box