Stocktaking

Stocktaking counts what is physically in your warehouse and corrects the quantities in Complaia to match. It runs as one numbered session: you start it, count, review the differences and post them as stock corrections. While a session is open, the warehouse is frozen for everybody. Plan it like a closing day.

Where to find it: Warehouse → Operations → Stocktaking

The screens themselves are titled Stocktake.

When you'll use it

• The yearly or quarterly count.
• The quantities of a warehouse or a segment can no longer be trusted.
• Goods keep turning up that Complaia does not know about.

Key concepts

• Session — one count from start to posting. Complaia numbers it by itself, for example SC-2026-001. The letters depend on your company's language: a Polish company gets INW-2026-001. Only one session can be active at a time.
• What is counted — every product and every component that has stock when the session starts. Goods still in production (work in progress) are not included. Goods packed in boxes are counted by Complaia itself, so you do not scan their parcels.
• Scope — with the advanced warehouse type you can limit a session to one warehouse, or to one segment of it. The scope cannot be changed later. The freeze always covers the whole company.
• System stock and count result — each item shows the quantity Complaia expected and the quantity you counted. The difference becomes a stock correction when you post.
• Not counted is not zero. An item you did not count is left exactly as it was. If a shelf is really empty, enter 0.
• Two ways to count an item — type the final quantity, or scan the package labels on the goods. Use one method per item. If you mix both, the row shows Check this result, and you must clear the item and count it again.
• A typed result replaces the previous one. Saving a new number for an item overwrites the old number.
• Scanning counts parcels. Each label counts once. A product that ships in several parcels counts as a whole piece only when one label of every parcel has been scanned.
• Goods waiting to be checked — boxes in To check on Route returns are in the building but do not count as stock. The counting screen lists them at the top. Count them separately and check them on Route returns.

The freeze

From the moment a session starts until it is posted in full or cancelled, the following is refused for everyone, in the browser, in the mobile app and on POS (point of sale) terminals:

• Stock reservation: making, fulfilling or cancelling reservations.
• Order packing: opening, filling, closing and unpacking boxes.
• Shipment handover: issuing one box on its own with Issue the box alone.
• Route returns: taking boxes back.
• Goods receipt, and creating, editing or receiving external receipts.
• Goods issue and Stock transfer, for products and for components.
• Importing stock from a CSV file.
• Deleting a warehouse, adding, changing or deleting a segment, and switching the warehouse type.
• Production steps that reserve stock or put goods into a warehouse, for example moving finished goods from a workstation into a warehouse.

These still work: reading stock, exporting it, and creating or editing a warehouse's name and address.

Handing boxes to a courier on Shipment handover and loading a route on Loading are still recorded. The boxes leave stock later: Complaia tries again on its own after the session is posted or cancelled.

The receipt, issue, transfer, returns, reservation and packing screens show the banner Warehouse frozen: stocktake … in progress with a Count → link. A refused action shows the message A stocktake is in progress, so the warehouse is frozen. Warehouse operations resume once the stocktake is finished or cancelled.

A POS terminal is locked completely while a session is open. The screen Stocktake in progress covers all its modules, Production included, and offers one button: Go to counting. Tell the shop floor before you start.

Session statuses

Status	Meaning
Open	Started; nothing counted yet. The warehouse is frozen.
Counting	The first result has been entered.
To review	Counting is closed; the differences are waiting to be checked. You can go back to counting.
Posting	Posting started but did not finish for every item. The warehouse stays frozen. Post again or cancel.
Posted	All corrections are written. The warehouse is unfrozen.
Cancelled	The session was abandoned. Nothing more is corrected. The warehouse is unfrozen.

The screens

The session list

Column	What it shows
Session	The session number
Status	One of the statuses above
Opened	When the session started
Posted	When it was posted
Progress	For example 12 of 40 counted, with 3 differences

The row button is Count → for an active session and View for a finished one.

While a session is active, a banner at the top names it and offers Cancel and Count →. Header buttons: Refresh and New stocktake.

The counting screen

📷 Screenshot to add: the counting screen with the progress card (Items, Counted, With a difference, To count), the Scan labels column, the Search and add an item from the system column, and three rows in the table: one not counted, one typed, one scanned with parcel chips.

• Progress card — the percentage counted and four figures: Items, Counted, With a difference, To count.
• Items to count — the list, with the switch show uncounted only.
• Scan labels — a scan field. After each scan a note shows the product and what the scan meant. For products in several parcels it also shows which parcels are still missing.
• Search and add an item from the system — choose a product or a component, enter the quantity and click Add to count.
• The table — columns Product, System stock, Count result and Difference. Each row has a field for the result with Save, and a round-arrow button that clears the item's result and scans.

Header buttons: the scanner's state (Ready to scan or Enable scanning), Cancel stocktake and Finish counting → review. Once counting is closed, the screen says so and only offers Back.

The review screen

• Four figures: Differences, To post, Skipped, Counted.
• Differences to post — only the items that differ. Columns: Product, System stock, Count result, Stock correction, and a last column with a skip switch on each row.
• Header buttons: Back to counting, Post differences and Print (the difference report). After posting has created new labels, Print labels appears too.

Common tasks

Start a session

1. Book in every delivery and finish packing and handing over first. Once the session starts, none of that is possible.
2. Open Warehouse → Operations → Stocktaking and click New stocktake.
3. With the simple warehouse type, confirm Start a stocktake? with Start stocktake.
4. With the advanced type, the window New stocktake asks what the count covers. Leave Warehouse on Whole warehouse, or choose one warehouse. For one warehouse you can also choose one Segment, or leave All segments. Then click Start stocktake.
5. You see Stocktake opened: warehouse frozen. and the counting screen opens.

Count by typing quantities

1. Find the item. Switch on show uncounted only to shorten the list as you go.
2. Type the quantity you counted into the row's field.
3. Click Save (or press Enter). The Difference column shows the result.
4. To correct it, type the right number and save again. The new number replaces the old one.

For a shelf you checked and found empty, type 0 and save.

A product that ships in several parcels (the row says, for example, 1 product = 3 packages) is typed in whole pieces only. Count loose parcels with the scanner.

Count by scanning labels

1. Click the field under Scan labels.

2. Scan the package labels that are already on the goods. Each label counts once.

3. Read the note after each scan:

   Note	Meaning
   Confirmed in this location	The parcel is where Complaia expects it.
   Location correction: the goods lie somewhere else than the system says	The parcel is known but recorded in another place. Posting moves it to where you found it.
   Unknown label: the stocktake will assign it (goods on the floor, stock 0)	Complaia has never seen this label. Posting books the goods in with it.

4. For a product in several parcels, check the row. It shows, for example, Packages: 5 · Complete products: 1 and which parcel numbers are missing. Only complete sets count as pieces. Leftover parcels are listed as Packages outside complete sets.

Components have no package labels. Type their quantity.

Count on a POS terminal or in the mobile app

1. Open counting. On a POS terminal, tap Go to counting on the screen Stocktake in progress. In the mobile app, tap Stocktake on the home screen.
2. Tap Scan a label and scan the package labels on the goods. Each label counts once.
3. Check the list Counted items. Each item shows the quantity Complaia expected, the quantity counted and the difference.
4. If an item was counted wrongly, clear it there and scan it again.

These two screens count by scanning only. Typed quantities, the review and posting are done in the browser.

Add something that is not on the list

1. Under Search and add an item from the system, choose a product or a component.
2. Type the quantity you found and click Add to count.

The item joins the list with a system stock of 0. If it was already on the list, the quantity replaces its typed result.

Clear an item you counted wrongly

1. Click the round-arrow button at the end of the row (Clear this item’s count and scans).
2. Read the window. Every entry for this item is voided: typed results and scans from every device, POS terminals and the mobile app included. Confirm.
3. The item goes back to not counted. Count it again, with one method.

Voided entries cannot be restored. The scanned labels can be counted again.

Close counting and review

1. Click Finish counting → review.
2. Go through Differences to post.
3. Switch skip on for every difference you do not want corrected now. Skipped items keep their stock from before the count.
4. If you closed counting too early, click Back to counting.

Print the difference report

1. On the review screen, click Print. The button is shown when there is at least one difference.
2. The report opens in a new browser window with the print dialog. It lists each item that differs, with its place, the system stock, the count result and the correction.

If nothing opens, allow pop-ups for Complaia and click Print again.

Post the differences

1. Make sure a person with the Stocktake: post differences permission is at the screen. Without that permission, the button is not shown.
2. Click Post differences.
3. Read Post the differences? It says how many corrections will be created and how many items are skipped. Confirm.
4. You see Posted N differences. Warehouse unfrozen. Each difference is written as an Adjustment in the item's movement history, with the session number as its reference.

Posting cannot be undone. If a surplus was found, new labels may be created for it. See the next task.

If nothing differs, or you skipped every difference, Post differences stays disabled because there is nothing to post. End the session with Cancel to unfreeze the warehouse.

Print labels for surpluses

1. After posting, read the result at the top of the review screen. Generated N labels for surpluses. Print and stick them on the goods. means goods were booked in that had no label.
2. Click Print labels. The labels open as a PDF. For a large number, Complaia first tells you how many files and browser tabs will open.
3. Stick them on the goods. The button stays available, so you can print again later.

Cancel a session

1. Click Cancel in the banner on the session list, or Cancel stocktake on the counting screen.
2. Confirm Cancel the stocktake? The warehouse is unfrozen and the counted data is lost.

Corrections that were already posted stay posted.

When it doesn't work

What you see	Why	What to do
New stocktake is greyed out	A session is already active.	Finish or cancel the session named in the banner.
Another stocktake is already in progress.	Somebody started a session at the same moment.	Refresh the list and join that session.
A colleague cannot receive, pack or issue	The warehouse is frozen while the session is open.	Finish or cancel the session.
An item you did not reach kept its old quantity	Not counted is not zero.	Count it as 0 in the next session if it is really gone.
Check this result on a row	The item has both a typed result and scans.	Clear the item and count it with one method.
This label has already been counted in this stocktake.	The same label was scanned twice.	Carry on. It counted once.
The parcel … is in the box …	The parcel is packed in a box. Complaia counts boxed goods by itself.	Skip this parcel.
Enter a whole number of complete products. Count individual packages with the scanner.	You typed a fraction for a product that ships in several parcels.	Type whole pieces, or scan the parcels.
The manual count is lower than the number of labelled products.	You typed fewer pieces than there are labelled pieces on stock, so Complaia cannot tell which ones are gone.	Clear the item and scan the parcels that are really there.
Multi-package products require an inventory of the whole warehouse.	The session covers one segment, and the product ships in several parcels.	Count such products in a session that covers the whole warehouse.
These goods are outside the scope of this stocktake.	The label or item belongs to a warehouse or segment the session does not cover.	Leave it for a session that covers that place.
The goods with this label are in work in progress, which the stocktake does not cover.	The goods are still in production and have not been moved to the warehouse.	Move the production onto stock first.
Components are not counted with a scanner.	You scanned a component code.	Type the quantity.
Counting closed: this session is under review or has been posted.	Counting was finished.	On the review screen, click Back to counting. This is not possible once the session is posted.
Skipped N items. after posting, and the status stays Posting	For those items the stock no longer matched what the session recorded, so they were not overwritten. The warehouse stays frozen.	Read the list, then click Post differences again. Items already posted are not posted twice. Or cancel the session.
Post differences is missing	You do not have the permission to post.	Ask whoever holds Stocktake: post differences.
Allow pop-ups to print.	The report and labels open in a new window.	Allow pop-ups for Complaia and print again.

Permissions

To do this	You need
See Stocktaking in the menu, open sessions and the review, print labels	Stocktake: view
Type results, scan labels, clear an item; open Stocktake in the mobile app	Stocktake: counting
Start a session, finish counting, go back to counting, cancel	Stocktake: session management
Post the differences	Stocktake: post differences

The built-in Warehouse worker role has the first three, not the fourth. Stocktake: post differences is granted separately, so that counting and correcting the books can be done by different people. The role editor ticks Warehouse: View and Stocktake: view together with any of the others.

The counting screen shows Cancel stocktake and Finish counting → review to everybody who can open it while counting is open. Without Stocktake: session management, clicking them is refused.

Related

• Stock levels — where the corrected quantities appear
• Goods receipt — book deliveries in before you start
• Warehouses — warehouses and segments you can limit a session to
• Route returns — check the goods that wait in To check
• Identifiers & labels — the package labels you scan
• Roles & permissions — where the posting permission is granted
• Glossary