Stocktaking

Stocktaking (also called stock counting or inventory counting) is the process of physically verifying the items you have on hand against what your system says you should have. Beam stocktakes are done with handheld RFID scanners: you walk through the area and the scanner counts tagged items in real time. See RFID scanning for reader setup. On this page: Why Stocktake?, Creating a Stock Take, Executing a Stock Take, Real-time progress, and Reviewing results.

Why Stocktake?

Stock Takes help you:

• Find discrepancies between expected and actual stock levels.
• Identify missing, misplaced, or surplus items.
• Keep your inventory data accurate and up to date.
• Meet compliance and auditing requirements.

Creating a Stock Take

To create a new stocktake:

1. Go to Stocktakes in the app and tap + Add.
2. On Basic information, enter the stocktake name, scheduled date, and optionally a description. Tap Continue.
3. On Select scope, choose what to count: All items, By category, or Specific items (max 300). Tap Continue or Create Stocktake.
4. If By category: select the categories and subcategories you want, then tap Create Stocktake. If Specific items: add items via + Add Item and the side panel, then Create Stocktake.
5. The new stocktake is created and appears in the list. Location-based stocktakes are not currently supported.

Executing a Stock Take

Once a Stock Take has been created, open it to begin counting. Use a handheld RFID scanner to count:

1. From the Stock Take screen, start scanning with your handheld reader.
2. Walk through the area with the handheld scanner; it reads RFID tags as you pass.
3. Items are automatically detected and matched against the expected list in real time.
4. The count updates live as tags are read, showing progress instantly.

Real-time progress

While a Stock Take is in progress, Beam shows real-time metrics to help you track how the count is going:

• Expected amount The quantity your system expects to find.
• Actual amount The quantity that has been counted so far.
• Accuracy percentage How closely the actual count matches the expected count.
• Variance The difference between expected and actual quantities, highlighted when significant.

Reviewing results

You can view results at any time. In the Stocktakes list you see progress, counted vs expected, and accuracy per stocktake. Open a stocktake to see totals and a breakdown by category; open a category to see subcategories, then open a subcategory to see individual items and filter by result status.

Item result statuses (shown as filters in the stocktake):

• OK The actual count matches the expected count.
• Extra More items were found than expected (surplus).
• Miss Expected items that were not found or fewer were found (shortage).

In the item list each row shows counted vs expected (e.g. 2/2). A green checkmark (✓) means OK; red (e.g. 1/2) indicates a shortage or missing count. Discrepancies are highlighted so you can quickly focus on the items that need attention. Review the results before closing the stocktake with the green checkmark.

Completing a Stock Take

When you are satisfied with the count results:

1. Review all results and investigate any significant discrepancies.
2. Resolve discrepancies by confirming or adjusting counts as needed.
3. Tap the green checkmark and confirm in the Close count dialog to finalize the Stock Take.
4. Results are saved permanently for future reference and audit trails.
5. Inventory counts may be updated automatically based on your configuration.

Stock Take statuses

Every Stock Take goes through a lifecycle represented by its status: