Stocktake

A stocktake is counting what is physically there and reconciling it with what your records say. The gap between the two is the variance, and it is the most useful number in the exercise.

Every system drifts. Spillage, an unrecorded sample, a batch that used a bit more than the sheet said, a delivery counted as 20 kg that was 19.4. None of these is dishonest and all of them accumulate. A count is how the ledger gets told the truth.

What the variance tells you

A variance is information about a process, not a clerical error:

• A consistent shortfall on one ingredient usually means the recipe under-declares it, or that it is being over-poured at the bench.
• A surplus often means yield is better than recorded, or that a loss was booked twice.
• A large one-off is worth finding before it becomes a habit.

Reconciling silently by overwriting the number throws all of this away. The count should leave a record of what changed and by how much.

Counting in a working kitchen

Two habits make a count possible without shutting down:

• Count by location, not by list. Someone standing in the dry store counts the dry store.
• Freeze movements while counting, or count areas one at a time so nothing moves behind you.

Made stock is counted differently from ingredients: it exists in lots with their own codes and dates, so a count has to say which lot as well as how many.

In BatchDash

A stocktake opens a counting session, holds the counted quantities, and writes the difference into the ledger as adjustment movements rather than by overwriting a level. Every figure stays traceable to the count that produced it, and the valuation of the adjustment is computed at the weighted average cost so the money side follows.

If you keep several locations, each counts on its own without freezing the rest of the business.

The inventory valuation report is the figure a count is usually defending, and the stock page is the pitch.