A stocktake (sometimes called an inventory count or cycle count) is a physical count of the stock you actually have, compared against what Shopify says you have. EasyScan's Stocktakes feature guides you through the whole process: count your products with a barcode scanner or by hand, review any differences, and push the corrections straight to your Shopify inventory.
Why run stocktakes?
Over time the numbers in Shopify drift away from what's really on the shelf — items get damaged, misplaced, stolen, or miscounted when they arrive. Regular counts keep your stock levels trustworthy, which means fewer oversells, smarter reordering, and cleaner books.
Merchants typically run stocktakes for three reasons:
Cycle counts — count a small slice of your catalog (one vendor, one shelf, one product range) on a regular schedule, instead of shutting everything down for one giant count.
Shrinkage checks — investigate when picking or sales keep coming up short for certain products.
Year-end counts — a full physical count of a location for accounting and tax purposes.
Availability
Stocktakes is available on the Advanced and Pro plans.
The feature is currently in Preview: it is fully functional, and we're actively refining it, so you may notice small improvements appearing over time. We'd love your feedback through the in-app support chat.
Where to find it
Open EasyScan in your Shopify admin and select Stocktakes in the navigation menu. The Stocktakes page lists all of your open and archived counts, and it's where you create new ones.
Creating a stocktake
On the Stocktakes page, select Create stocktake.
Name (optional) — give the count a recognisable name, like "Back room — August cycle count". If you leave it blank, EasyScan numbers the stocktake for you (ST-1001, ST-1002, and so on).
Type — choose Barcode to count by scanning items with a barcode scanner or camera, or Manual to look products up and type the counts in.
Location (required) — the Shopify location you're counting. A stocktake always covers a single location, so create a separate stocktake for each store or warehouse.
Inventory mode — On hand (the default) or Available. This decides which stock figure you're counting against and how corrections are applied. See the next section before changing it.
Vendor or supplier (Manual only, optional) — narrow the count to products from a single vendor or supplier. Perfect for cycle counts.
Variant limit (Manual only) — cap how many variants are included in the count: 25, 50, 100, 250, or All.
Select Create.
EasyScan then loads your product catalog for the stocktake. Small catalogs are ready almost instantly; very large ones can take a few minutes. You can leave and come back at any time — the Stocktakes page shows the loading progress.
On hand vs Available
Shopify tracks two stock figures for every item at a location:
On hand — every physical unit at the location, including units that are already committed to orders or set aside as unavailable.
Available — only the units that are free to sell right now.
When you count shelves you're counting physical units, so On hand (the default) is the right choice for most stocktakes. When you apply your results, EasyScan sets each item's on hand quantity to exactly what you counted.
In Available mode, EasyScan instead works out the difference between your count and the item's available quantity at the moment it was counted, then adds or subtracts that difference from Available when you apply.
The inventory mode is fixed when you create the stocktake, and the final adjustments always follow it — so choose deliberately. If you're not sure, keep On hand.
Counting your stock
How you count depends on the type you chose:
Barcode stocktakes — scan items one by one, and every scan adds to the running count. You can split the work into separate counting sessions (called checks), so several people — or several days — can share one stocktake. Every check rolls up into the same overall totals. See Counting with a Barcode Scanner.
Manual stocktakes — work through a preloaded product list, search by product name, SKU, or barcode, and confirm or correct each quantity. Corrections sync to Shopify as you save them. See Counting Manually.
Either way, the moment an item is counted for the first time, EasyScan freezes the stock figure it had at that instant. That frozen starting point is what discrepancies are measured against later — so your results stay accurate even if the count takes days to finish.
Reviewing and applying the results
For barcode stocktakes, nothing changes in Shopify while you count. When you finish, you mark the count complete, review every discrepancy, remove any rows you don't want to change, and apply — EasyScan then pushes the adjustments straight to your Shopify inventory. See Reviewing and Applying Stocktake Adjustments.
Manual stocktakes update Shopify as you confirm each item, so there's no separate apply step at the end.
Count sheets and exports
Every stocktake can be exported from its session page:
Export CSV — download the counted items as a spreadsheet.
Print PDF — a print-ready count sheet.
For very large counts, EasyScan emails the CSV to you instead of downloading it in the browser.
Tips for a smooth count
Count when stock isn't moving. Pick quiet hours, or pause picking and receiving at the location while you count. If stock does move mid-count, EasyScan flags the affected items during review so nothing slips through unnoticed.
Take your time. Stocktakes are resumable — progress saves automatically, and a count can happily run across several days.
Divide the work. On barcode stocktakes, create a check per person or per area so a big count doesn't depend on a single device.
Archive finished counts. Archiving keeps a stocktake and all of its data for reference, but makes it read-only. You can restore it at any time if you need to pick it up again.