How to Count Inventory in Shopify, Step by Step

To count inventory in Shopify, go to Products > Inventory > Stock counts in the admin, create a count for one location, add the products, and count them by scanning or typing. Then a manager compares Expected with Counted and approves, and Shopify updates your on-hand quantities. For a quick spot check there's Quick count in Shopify POS, and for a big count away from a screen you can export a CSV, count on paper and import it back. Stocky, the old counting app, stopped working on August 31, 2026.

The short version

• Use a stock count in the admin for a full count or a cycle count. One location per count.
• Count when nothing is being fulfilled, so orders aren't moving stock while you count.
• Have someone review before approving. Approving can't be undone.
• Shopify counts the products you sell. Ingredients, jars and labels need counting somewhere else.
• If you make what you sell, TaroStack counts the whole kitchen on a phone, ingredients included. There's a section on it below.

Three ways to count, and when to use each

That's how Shopify describes it on its own migration page for people leaving Stocky, which also says Stocky was removed from the App Store on February 2, 2026 and stopped working on August 31, 2026 (Shopify). If you still have Stocky stocktakes you care about, the same page says you have read-only access to export them for at least 90 days after that date.

A stock count, step by step

From Shopify's help pages, read on September 30, 2026 (creating, counting and reviewing):

1. In the admin, go to Products > Inventory, click Stock counts, then Create count.
2. Choose the location. A count covers one location, so a kitchen and a shop are two counts.
3. Add products by searching or by scanning their barcodes, give the count a name and a planned date, and save. It starts as a Draft.
4. Click Start count. Type each quantity, or scan: each scan adds one to that product's count. Several people can count at once, and each number is credited to whoever entered it.
5. You can stop and come back. Quantities are saved as you go.
6. When it's done, choose Request review rather than Complete count. Complete count updates your stock straight away, with no review.
7. The reviewer sees Expected and Counted side by side, can reject a line that needs a recount, and then approves. Each change lands in the product's adjustment history.

A few things catch people out. You can't create a count in the Shopify app or in POS, only in the admin on a desktop browser. Bundles can't be counted. Two products sharing one barcode make scanning fail, so clear those up first. You can't export a finished count. And approval is final, so the review step is worth the extra five minutes.

A worked example

Here's a jam maker with two Shopify locations: the kitchen, where online orders are packed, and a small shop across town. On Monday morning, before any orders are packed, they count the kitchen's four products:

The gift box is a bundle in Shopify, so it can't go in the stock count. They count it by hand and fix it with an ordinary adjustment.

Before approving, look at each difference. The 3 jars of guava jam aren't missing. They went out of the shop's stock because of how Shopify routed an online order, which is the example in Shopify inventory not updating. Approving the count here would make the kitchen right and leave the shop wrong by the same 3 jars, so count the shop the same morning and fix both. The two chutney jars were broken in a box and never written off; approving the count records that.

What a Shopify count doesn't count

Shopify counts the products you sell, by location. If you buy finished goods and sell them, that's everything. If you make what you sell, it isn't close. The guava pulp, the sugar, the pectin, the empty jars, the lids and the labels aren't products, so they aren't in any stock count, and the jam that's cooling on Monday isn't in Shopify until someone adds it. There's more on that gap in does Shopify have an inventory system and Shopify raw materials inventory.

So a maker usually ends up with two counts: Shopify's for the finished jars, and a sheet like the inventory count sheet example for everything behind them.

Where this stops working

The two-count routine is where it gets heavy. The Shopify count happens in the admin. The ingredient count happens on a clipboard, gets typed into a spreadsheet, and is compared with numbers that somebody has to work out by adding up a month of deliveries and batches. Neither count shows what a difference is worth in dollars until someone does the multiplication, and nothing connects the 2 missing chutney jars to the mangoes and sugar that went into them.

How TaroStack does it

If you make what you sell, the count that matters most is the one Shopify can't do, and TaroStack does it in the same walk as the finished goods. You count on a phone, a tablet or a printed sheet, everything on the shelf in one pass: the jam, the pulp, the jars and the labels. It works in the walk-in with no signal and sends itself when you're back in range, and you can scan barcodes with the phone's camera or a scanner. Expected is already worked out, because every delivery received, batch recorded and order shipped has been adding and subtracting all month.

Before you post, TaroStack shows each difference and what it's worth in dollars, so the two broken chutney jars are a $9.00 line (at $4.50 each) you can see, not a surprise in next month's margins. It suggests what to count next, from what being wrong would cost. Connect your Shopify store and we set it up with you: orders arrive by import and a daily check, and that daily check catches differences between TaroStack and the store and tells you, rather than silently overwriting either side.

Counting is on every plan, from $49 a month, with Shopify or Square on Starter. The first 30 days are free, and your products and ingredients import from a spreadsheet. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How do I do a stocktake in Shopify?

Use a stock count: Products > Inventory > Stock counts > Create count, choose one location, add the products, count them, then request a review and approve. Approving updates on-hand quantities and can't be undone. For a count away from the admin, export inventory to CSV, count, and import.

What replaced Stocky?

Shopify's own inventory tools in the admin and POS. Stocky was delisted on February 2, 2026 and stopped working on August 31, 2026; stock counts, transfers and purchase orders now live in the Shopify admin.

Can I count inventory on Shopify POS?

Yes. Quick count in the Shopify POS app spot-checks up to 1,000 variants in a session, counting On hand. At stores with Shopify POS Pro, staff can also perform a stock count that was created in the admin.

Does Shopify count ingredients and packaging?

No. Shopify only tracks products you sell, by variant and location. Raw materials need a separate count, in a spreadsheet or in inventory software that knows your recipes.