Stock Inventory Register

What this tool does

CM8-76 is a stock register with valuation and reorder control, sized for a small warehouse, a workshop stores or a maintenance crib — the place where a few hundred part numbers sit on shelves and somebody has to know what is there, what it is worth and what needs ordering.

You enter one row per part number in one place. The tool works out what each line is worth, which lines have fallen to their reorder point and how much to buy, how long the stock will last at the usage you record, and which lines have gone longest without a physical count. It prints a reorder report you can hand to whoever raises the purchase orders, and a stock-take priority list you can hand to whoever counts.

Everything runs inside this single file. There is no account, no upload and no network request of any kind, so your part numbers, costs and suppliers stay on the computer you are using.

What goes in each field

Two rules make the register work: one row per part number per location, and the unit of measure is the unit everything else is expressed in. If a line is a box of 100 bolts, then the quantity, the unit cost, the reorder point, the reorder quantity and the usage are all in boxes — not in bolts.

• SKU or part number — whatever you actually write on the bin label. Keep it stable; it is how you will find the line again.
• Description — enough to identify the item without opening the box. Size, grade, material, rating.
• Category — drives the value donut and the category filter. Pick a scheme and stick to it.
• Location or bin — the aisle, rack, bin or bay. If the same part sits in two places, use two rows, or the count will never reconcile.
• Quantity on hand — what you last counted or last recorded. Fractions are allowed for metres, kilograms and litres.
• Unit cost — what one unit of measure cost you. Leave it blank if you track quantities only; the line will then value at zero and the headline tile will tell you how many lines are in that state.
• Average daily usage — units issued per calendar day. Leave it blank rather than guessing: a blank produces a dash, a guess produces a confident wrong cover figure.
• Reorder point and reorder quantity — both or neither. A point with no quantity cannot say how much to order; a quantity with no point will never trigger.
• Supplier and lead time — lead time is working days from placing the order to the goods being on the shelf, not the supplier's optimistic quote.
• Last counted — the date of the last physical count. Leave it blank if the line has never been counted; blank sorts to the top of the stock-take list, which is where it belongs.
• Status — active lines are reordered. Obsolete and discontinued lines are valued and counted but never appear in the reorder report, so the tool can never tell you to buy more of something you have stopped using.

How stock is valued

That is the whole method, and you should understand exactly what it is not. It values stock at whatever unit cost you typed against the line. It is not FIFO, not weighted average and not standard cost. It applies no lower-of-cost-and-net-realisable-value test, absorbs no overhead into work in progress, and makes no provision for slow-moving or obsolete stock.

The unit cost is also the thing that goes stale fastest. Steel, resin, fuel and freight move; a register costed two years ago will understate or overstate the total badly. Update the unit cost when a delivery arrives at a different price, and note in the report header when the costs were last refreshed.

Reorder points and order quantities

A line is flagged when it reaches its point — at it counts, not only below it:

Only active lines are tested. Obsolete and discontinued lines are excluded however low they fall, which is the point of the status field.

How much to order depends on the rule you choose in the settings:

The fixed rule is what most small stores do: you buy a box, a pack or a pallet at a time. It has one failure mode — if a line has fallen a long way below its point, ordering the usual quantity leaves it still short. The top-up rule fixes that by ordering enough to get back above the point plus a normal order. Switch between them and watch the estimated cost in the reorder report change.

Setting the point itself is a judgement, but the arithmetic behind it is not:

A line with a point below its lead-time demand will run out every time, however promptly you order. The register shows you this directly: any line whose days of cover is shorter than its lead time is coloured red in the Cover column.

The register also flags lines that are still above the point but will not stay there:

In plain words: at the usage recorded, this line will hit its reorder point before an order placed today would arrive. It only appears where both a usage and a lead time exist.

Days of cover

Cover answers the only question that matters when you are deciding what to expedite: how long before this runs out. Compare it with the lead time, not with a target — 20 days of cover is comfortable on a line you can replace in three days and alarming on one that takes a month.

Usage is an average, and averages hide seasonality and lumpiness. A part fitted once a year in a planned shutdown has a tiny daily usage and a huge apparent cover, right up to the week of the shutdown. Insurance spares — the ones you hold because the line stops without them — are governed by consequence and lead time, not by cover. Record the basis of your usage figure in the settings so that anyone reading the printed report knows what period it came from; that note is printed under the reorder chart.

Units of measure

Units of measure are where stock figures usually go wrong, so the tool is deliberately careful with them. Quantities are never added across lines: there is no "total units on hand" tile, because 14 boxes plus 5 drums plus 16 sheets is not 35 of anything.

For the same reason the reorder chart plots money, not units. Bar length is the cost of the suggested order, which is comparable between a box of nuts and a drum of oil; the shortfall in units is printed against each bar with its unit of measure. Money is the only common denominator a mixed stores has.

If your bin holds 1,400 individual bolts but you buy them in boxes of 100, decide which one the line is and be consistent. Mixing them — a quantity in bolts against a unit cost per box — inflates the stock value a hundredfold and nothing in the tool can detect it.

Counting and the count cycle

Set the count cycle to the interval at which every line should be physically checked — 90 days is a common starting point for a small stores, shorter for high-value or fast-moving lines. The stock-take priority table lists everything that is overdue, never-counted lines first, with the value of each so you can see what is at risk.

Cycle counting a few lines every week beats one annual shutdown count: errors are found while their cause is still traceable, and nothing has to stop. Work down the priority list, count what is there, correct the quantity in the register, and set the last-counted date to the day you counted.

One consequence to know about: the date filter at the top of the register filters on the last-counted date. Setting a date range therefore excludes lines that have never been counted. Clear the date filter before printing anything described as the whole register.

Obsolete and discontinued stock

Obsolete means you no longer use it. Discontinued means you are running the remaining stock down and will not buy more. Both keep their value in the register — that money really is sitting on the shelf — but neither is ever suggested for reorder.

Set the warning threshold in the settings to the share you are prepared to tolerate. When the register exceeds it, the tile is flagged. A stores that quietly accumulates dead stock is spending money twice: once on the stock and once on the space and the counting time it consumes. Review the flagged lines, ask the supplier whether they will take them back, and if the answer is no, get the write-off decision made rather than counting the same dead parts every quarter for another five years.

Reading the charts

Value by category shows where the money is. It is usually more lopsided than people expect, and the lopsidedness tells you where to spend your attention.

Top ten lines by value is the practical version of the same point. In most stores a small number of lines carry most of the value; those are the ones to count often, to control access to, and to think hardest about before ordering. Lines that are not active are drawn in grey.

Lines at or below the reorder point is your buying list, longest bar first by cost. Red bars are genuinely below the point; amber bars are sitting exactly on it.

Value by location shows which bay or aisle holds the money, which is the sensible order to count in. Beyond ten locations the remainder is grouped so the chart stays readable.

Every chart, tile and table obeys the filters, and so does the printed report and the CSV export. Filter to one category and the total stock value becomes that category's value — useful, but check the scope line before quoting a figure from a filtered view.

What this tool is not

It is a register, not a stock control system. Being clear about the boundary saves disappointment:

• No transactions. There is no goods-in, goods-out, transfer or adjustment history. The quantity is whatever was last typed or counted, not a running balance.
• No batches, serials or expiry dates. If you need lot traceability or shelf life, you need a system that models them.
• No multi-warehouse logic. One row is one part in one place; the tool will not move stock between locations or net one site against another.
• No purchase orders. The reorder report tells you what to buy. Raising, sending and receiving the order happens somewhere else.
• No accounting. See the valuation section — the total is a management figure.
• No demand forecasting. The usage figure is one you supply; the tool does not calculate, smooth or project it.

Printing and sharing

Print Report produces a report from whatever the current filter shows: the header you set in the settings, the six headline figures, all four charts, the reorder report, the stock-take priority list, the full register and your closing notes. Print to PDF to circulate it, or print the reorder report section on paper and walk it round the stores.

The scope line under the title states the filter in force and the currency. Clear the filters before issuing anything described as the whole register, and say in the closing notes when the unit costs were last reviewed — the reader cannot tell from the figures.

Saving your work

Stock lines, settings and the report header are written to this browser's local storage as you type, and the toolbar shows the time of the last save. That storage belongs to one browser on one computer: another browser, a private window, a second machine or a clean-up tool that clears site data will not have it.

Treat Export .json as the real save — one file containing everything, which Import .json restores anywhere. Export CSV gives you the register for spreadsheet work and includes every filtered line with its calculated value, position, cover and days since count. Reset asks twice, then erases everything this tool has stored. There is no undo, so export before you reset.

Accuracy & disclaimer

This tool calculates from what you enter and nothing else. It cannot tell whether the quantity on the shelf matches the quantity in the register, whether the unit cost is current, whether the usage figure covers a representative period, or whether the unit of measure on a line is consistent with the cost against it. Every figure it produces inherits those risks.

The valuation is quantity multiplied by the unit cost you entered. It is not an accounting valuation method and must not be presented as one. Stock accounting rules, and the treatment of obsolete and slow-moving stock, differ by country and by reporting framework — take advice from your own accountant.

Reorder points, safety stock levels and the consequences of a stock-out are operational judgements. This is a record-keeping and calculation aid, not advice, and not a substitute for knowing your own business.