Keep your inventory accurate by regularly performing a stocktake in Katana. A stocktake ensures your recorded inventory aligns with what’s physically available in your warehouse.

What is a stocktake?

A stocktake (also known as an inventory count or cycle count) is the process of physically counting your stock to verify its accuracy in Katana. This is typically done:

Monthly, quarterly, or yearly
During audits
After production or shipping discrepancies

If you're auditing only a subset of products regularly, that's called a cycle count — a focused stocktake for selected categories or items.

Creating a stocktake

Option 1

Go to the Stock screen → Inventory tab.
Press the Stocktake option at the top left of the table
Katana will generate a stocktake with all item variants and their current stock quantities (for what you previously selected).
To do a cycle count, apply filters or use checkboxes to include only specific items.

Option 2

Go to the Stock screen → click the Stocktakes tab.
Choose a location (if you have more than 1) and press + Stocktake.
Katana will generate a stocktake with all item variants and their current stock quantities.

Note: Stocktakes are location-specific. If you have multiple locations, repeat this process for each.

Prepare before counting

Before you begin:

Add a reason for the stocktake
Delete rows for items you don’t plan to count
Add new rows for unlisted items
Leave notes if needed

If you're using batch tracking (available on Standard or higher plans), each tracked batch appears as its own row.

Begin counting

To ensure consistency, pause stock-moving operations for the items you’re counting.

If you don't have the stocktake already open, open it from Stock screen > Stocktakes tab.
Change the status to Work in progress to lock in current stock levels.
The column Quantity in stock will be replaced by Counted quantity.
Start updating each row with the actual counted quantity.
1. If you find items in stock that aren't on the list, press + Add row to add them

Tip: You can print the stocktake for paper-based counting by clicking the print icon.

Barcode scanning (Optional)

If you use barcode scanners (scanning available on Standard and higher plans):

Scanning will auto-update the counted quantity.
If a scanned item isn't on the stocktake, a new row will be added.

Finishing the count

Review and update all Counted quantity fields.
Decide what to do with blank rows:
- Check Mark all remaining items as counted to treat blanks as zero quantity.
- Leave it unchecked to keep original quantities.
Change the stocktake status to Counted to generate a discrepancy report.
Review any mismatch between counted vs. expected quantities.

Completing the stocktake

Once you're satisfied:

Set the stocktake status to Completed.
Katana will create a Stock Adjustment, automatically updating the quantities to reflect your count.

By default, Average cost remains unchanged during stocktakes. To change it, edit the resulting stock adjustment or use a stock level import.

If needed, you can revert the stocktake by changing its status from Completed to a previous state — this deletes the stock adjustment and undoes inventory changes.