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Count your stock and post the adjustment

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Counting your stock is how your cost of goods becomes real. You count what is on the shelves, record what it cost you, and TALISK_HQ moves the difference to cost of goods sold. This is the year-end step an accountant would otherwise do by hand.

Before your first count, do two things once: turn on Count my stock and record what it is worth in Ledger › Setup, and mark the account that holds your stock in Ledger › Accounting › Chart of Accounts using the Stock button. From then on, code stock-purchase bills to that account rather than to an expense account.

To record a count:

  1. Go to Ledger › Accounting › Stock counts.
  2. Enter the date counted and what the stock is worth, at cost. Add a scope note if the count did not cover everything.
  3. Click Save count. Nothing has posted yet.
  4. Click Review and post. TALISK_HQ shows what your books say, what you counted, the difference, and the two accounts that will move.
  5. Click Post this count.

What the entry does

If your books say more than you counted, the difference was sold or lost, so it moves to cost of goods sold. If your books say less than you counted, stock was relieved too early or a purchase was expensed that is still on the shelf, so the difference comes back out of cost of goods.

If your books already agree with the count, TALISK_HQ records the count and writes no entry. That is the result you want, not a failure.

Count the shelf

A count covers stock you can walk up to. Goods still on the water or in a container belong in their own account, usually a goods in transit account, and move onto the shelf account when the container lands. So mark your inventory account, and leave goods in transit alone.

When a count is refused

TALISK_HQ refuses a count rather than posting something it cannot stand behind:

  • Dated before your books start. That stock is already inside your opening balance, so adjusting it would count it twice.
  • Dated before your last posted count. Counts are forward only. Record a correcting count on the existing date, or a later one.
  • Dated inside a locked period. You do not quietly adjust a period you have already filed. Reopen the period if the adjustment really belongs there.
  • No account marked as stock, or no cost of goods account on your chart.

Correcting a count

Record a new count. A posted count is a record of what you counted that day, so TALISK_HQ never rewrites one. A new count at the same date, or a later one, posts the correction on top.

If entries dated on or before a posted count change afterwards, which usually means a supplier bill arrived late and was dated back, Books Health tells you your books no longer match that count and by how much. The fix is the same: count again and record it.

Good to know: Talisk records what you counted, at cost; it never decides what your stock is worth and it never counts anything for you. Counts are forward only, so a count cannot be dated before your last posted one or before the date your books start, and a count dated inside a locked period is refused rather than quietly moved. A posted count is never edited: you correct it by recording a new one. The screen is full access only, so view and edit bookkeepers cannot post here. Talisk tracks the value of your stock, not quantities, locations or reorder points.

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