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ShelfCount: Stock Take
What ShelfCount does
ShelfCount runs blind stock takes. Your staff count stock on their own phones without seeing the quantity Shopify expects, so the numbers that come back are what is actually on the shelf. When you are satisfied with the variance, one tap writes the adjustments to Shopify.
Starting a count
- Open ShelfCount from your Shopify admin and choose Start a count.
- Pick the location you are counting. Optionally narrow the count by vendor, product tag, or collection, which is useful for counting one section rather than the whole store.
- Choose whether to skip items already showing zero. This keeps a full-store count from filling up with discontinued stock.
- Choose Start counting. ShelfCount takes a snapshot of the products at that location, which takes a few seconds for a small count and longer for a large one.
Expected quantities are frozen the moment the count starts, so sales during counting cannot move the target you are counting against.
Counting
Open the count on any phone. Search for an item by name, SKU or barcode, or scan a barcode straight into the field, then add what you have in front of you.
A barcode scanner that types like a keyboard enters codes straight into the counting field, which is how most USB and Bluetooth models behave. Enter, Tab and numeric-keypad Enter are all accepted as the end of a scan. If yours sends something else, it can usually be reconfigured to send Enter.
If you scan a barcode that is not part of this count, ShelfCount records it separately rather than silently ignoring it, so nothing gets lost.
Why you cannot see the expected quantity
This is deliberate, and it is the point of the app. Counters see the product, the SKU, and how many the team has counted so far, never the number Shopify already holds. When the expected figure is on screen, counts drift towards it. Hiding it is what makes a stock take worth doing.
The variance is shown to whoever reviews the count, before anything is written.
Several people counting at once
Everyone can count at the same time, each on their own phone. Two people scanning the same item add up rather than overwriting each other, and the count screen shows how many devices are active and how many scans have been made.
When the wifi drops
Scans are saved on the device and sent when the connection returns. Cold rooms and the back corners of a warehouse stop being a problem. Leave the screen open until the sync indicator clears.
Reviewing and committing
The review screen shows variance per item and in total, valued at cost, before a single adjustment is written. From there you can commit, or discard the count and change nothing.
Items nobody counted are left untouched unless you deliberately choose to set them to zero. That choice is opt-in and asks you to confirm, because it is the one action in ShelfCount that can remove stock you still have.
Committed adjustments appear in Shopify's own inventory history with the reason correction, so your audit trail lives in Shopify, not only here.
Exporting
Any count exports to CSV: every item, expected and counted quantities, variance, unit cost, variance value, the number of scans, and which devices did the counting.
Plans
The free plan covers one location and 500 items per count, with unlimited devices and unlimited counts. Starter covers three locations and 5,000 items per count. Pro covers unlimited locations and large catalogues.
A location counts towards your plan when you count there. Counting again at a location you already use is always free, and a location you have not counted for 90 days no longer counts against your total.
What ShelfCount can see
Four permissions: products, inventory levels, locations, and the ability to write inventory adjustments when you commit a count. No access to your orders, your customers, or your revenue. The app does not request those permissions, so they cannot be granted.
Support
Email genecogni@gmail.com with what you might need: a question, a count that behaved oddly, or a feature that is missing.
Genecogni LLC