How often should you count stock? With RFID the honest answer is: far more often than you used to, because counting is now cheap. The right mix of cycle counts and full audits depends on your volume, value and shrinkage history. This article gives you a starting cadence.
The two instruments
- Full audit: the C-72 handheld sweeps the entire warehouse against complete records. Takes hours instead of the days manual counting needed, but still benefits from a movement freeze.
- Cycle count: a small slice, one zone, rack or category, counted on a rotating schedule during normal operations. No freeze required.
Recommended starting cadence
- Weeks 1 to 4 after go-live: one full audit weekly. Early audits shake out tagging mistakes and build team confidence.
- Steady state for most SMBs: a full audit monthly, plus daily or alternate-day cycle counts sized so the whole warehouse is covered every two to four weeks.
- Year end: a full audit in the last week of March, with the variance report archived for your statutory auditors.
Weight your cycle counts by risk
- A items: the 20 percent of SKUs holding most of your value get counted weekly.
- B items: counted fortnightly.
- C items: low value bulk counted monthly.
- Add extra counts for zones with past variances, new staff, or high footfall near dispatch.
Reading the results
Track audit accuracy percentage on the TrueStock dashboard. Healthy operations run above 99 percent. If accuracy is high for three consecutive months, you can relax the cadence, for example moving full audits to quarterly. If it dips, tighten cycle counts on the affected zones instead of blaming the whole warehouse.
Configure schedules under Settings, then Audit Plans, and TrueStock will remind assigned users automatically. For help calibrating a cadence to your industry, open a ticket with Tech Guru IT Solutions.
