Stock Counts
A guided, role-driven workflow for assigning, counting, and reconciling inventory — turning error-prone spreadsheets into trusted, auditable counts.
On Sortly's Core team, I designed Stock Counts: a structured workflow that lets inventory managers create, assign, track, and complete granular counts across web and mobile. With real-time status, audit trails, and discrepancy resolution built in, it replaces the spreadsheets and paper scraps teams relied on — making counts transparent, delegable, and trustworthy at scale.
Counting inventory was chaotic, and the numbers couldn't be trusted.
There was no standardized way to count, delegate, track, and reconcile. Counts lived in disconnected spreadsheets and on scraps of paper; handoffs between shifts were messy; and no one could see who counted what, when. Edge cases — deleted items, revoked access, unit-of-measure changes mid-count — turned reconciliation into guesswork. The result was write-offs, wasted labor, and failed audits.
“Our counts live in disconnected spreadsheets and scraps of paper. I'm never sure I can actually trust the numbers.”
“Handoffs are chaotic. I can't see who counted what, or when — so we end up counting the same things twice.”
“When there's a discrepancy, resolving it is a headache. I need a record I can stand behind in an audit.”
“Our counts live in disconnected spreadsheets and scraps of paper. I'm never sure I can actually trust the numbers.”
“Handoffs are chaotic. I can't see who counted what, or when — so we end up counting the same things twice.”
“When there's a discrepancy, resolving it is a headache. I need a record I can stand behind in an audit.”
Counting inventory is one of the most frequent — and least supported — jobs our customers do. A discovery effort spanning customer interviews, Frill, and Zendesk, paired with a 1,300-response survey, made the demand impossible to ignore.
300+
requests and tickets flagging stock-count pain
58%
of surveyed users count inventory at least monthly
1,300
survey responses analyzed during discovery
Teams were hacking the product to get by — custom fields, CSV exports, offline counts on paper. The need was real; the workflow simply didn't exist yet.
Armed with 300+ requests, we built a guided, role-driven workflow that carries a count from assignment to reconciliation — without chaos, second-guessing, or doing the work twice.
A status-driven workflow
Every count moves through clear states — Draft → Ready to Count → In Progress → In Review → Complete. Each transition enforces its own required fields, so a count can't move forward until it's genuinely ready, and its status is legible to the whole team at a glance.
Assign and delegate with confidence
Assign a count to one person or everyone, set a due date, and add up to 250 line items. Role-based permissions decide who can create, count, recount, resolve, and complete — so delegation stays clear and accountable.
Count anywhere, web or mobile
The full workflow works in the field and at the desk, with inline editing, barcode and QR scanning, and a low-stock filter. Counted and uncounted items stay clearly marked as progress is saved.
Surface every discrepancy
At review, expected and counted quantities are compared automatically, with the absolute discrepancy surfaced in both units and dollar value. From here, admins can recount, or resolve a discrepancy on the spot by updating the quantity to match the count — so nothing slips through unnoticed.
Reconcile, audit, and export
Authorized roles resolve discrepancies by updating quantities, and every action is written to an activity history. Completed counts lock, and a PDF export supports in-field paper counts and clean audit records.
Stock Counts turns inventory accuracy from a spreadsheet gamble into a fast, auditable, team-driven workflow.
Stock Counts shipped to Ultra, Premium, and Enterprise plans across web and mobile, following a beta that drew strong feedback for its status-driven, assignable workflow. Three launch-success metrics — activation, completion, and discrepancy detection — show it reached its audience and is doing the job it was built for.
8%activation
of eligible accounts started a count
78%completion
of started counts completed within 30 days
78%discrepancy
of completed counts surfaced a discrepancy