Stock counts that take 90 minutes and actually match reality
Monthly stock counts are where shrinkage is supposed to be caught — and where most sites discover the paperwork never matched reality in the first place. Here's a 90-minute procedure that works.
The classic monthly stock count on a Uzbek construction site takes half a day, disrupts work, produces a number no one fully trusts, and reveals discrepancies that are "investigated" for two hours and then written off. The reason it does not work is not the counting — it is the procedure. Here is a 90-minute procedure that produces a number you can actually sign.
Pre-count: 30 minutes, the day before
Nothing in the count itself is fixable if the setup is wrong. Day-before prep is where the count succeeds or fails.
Stop all movement 18 hours before. No transfers, no issuances to prorabs, no deliveries accepted in the last 18 hours before count-time. If something absolutely must move, it gets logged separately and added back after the count.
Print the expected stock list. One sheet per warehouse area, grouped by material category, with expected quantities printed next to blanks for "counted quantity." No expected quantity on the sheet = the counter sees the blank and fills it in honestly. Printed expected quantity next to a blank = the counter is tempted to "match" the expected number.
We recommend showing the expected quantity only on the warehouse manager's reconciliation sheet, not on the counter's sheet.
Assign two counters per area. One counts, the other tallies and writes. Swap every other area. Single-person counts miss 2–5% of items; two-person counts miss under 0.5%.
The count itself: 60 minutes
Start with bulk, finish with small items. Cement, sand, rebar first — these are the high-value, low-piece-count items. Pieces (nails, fasteners, fittings) come last because they are the slowest and the ones where fatigue causes errors.
Count by container, not by weight-estimate. Full bags get counted as bags; partial bags get weighed, not eyeballed. The phrase "about half a bag" has no place in a stock count.
Photograph every location. Every warehouse area gets a timestamped photo before the count and a photo after. This is the audit trail when reconciliation argues about what was there. Phones are free; photos are free; memory is not.
Mark counted items immediately. Chalk mark on the pallet, sticker on the bag pile, tape across the rebar stack. Whatever physical sign means "already counted." Preventing double-count in a large warehouse is harder than people think.
Reconciliation: 30 minutes
Not on the count day — the day after.
The warehouse manager takes the count sheets and the expected stock list, sits down for 30 minutes, and does three things:
- Confirms the arithmetic. Human addition errors are real. Check the totals.
- Flags the gaps. Items that count differ from expected by more than tolerance (2% for bulk, 0 for pieces). A gap is not yet a problem — it is a data point.
- Writes the reconciliation note. For each gap: "probable cause." Consumption not logged. Transfer not recorded. Delivery received after cutoff. Theft. The category matters.
The reconciliation goes to the director. The director approves or asks for investigation on specific gaps only. Most gaps are administrative; a small number are real losses.
The monthly output
A single signed sheet: date, warehouse, counter names, closing stock per SKU, reconciliation notes, director's signature. It becomes the opening stock for next month. Without this artifact, next month's count has nothing to reconcile against, and the cycle collapses.
Why 90 minutes and not a full day
A well-run site warehouse has 30–50 meaningful SKUs — the rest is long-tail and counted quarterly, not monthly. 30–50 SKUs × 2 counters × 1–2 minutes each = 60–100 minutes. The other 30 minutes are setup and prep. The "half-day count" is not counting; it is the warehouse manager recreating paperwork that should have been in place the whole time.
What changes after three clean counts
The first count reveals the discrepancies that have been hiding. The second count reveals which discrepancies are systematic. The third count is the first one where the numbers actually match — because the first two exposed the process gaps and the warehouse manager fixed them.
The procedure works not because the count is better. The procedure works because it forces the paperwork to stay honest between counts. The real value is the 28 days of improved discipline that the monthly count enforces, not the 90 minutes of counting itself.