What is a stock card, and how do you read one?

What is a stock card?

A stock card, also called an item ledger or a stock movement history, is a running record of one item. In Egypt it is often called كارت الصنف, or simply حركة الصنف. Each line records one movement: the date, what happened, the number of the document behind it, the quantity in or out, and the balance left afterwards. The balance is the result of the lines, and every line points to a document you can pull out and check.

In a clothing or shoe shop, one item means one size in one colour. A shirt model in three colours and four sizes has twelve stock cards, because a size M sold as an L moves stock from one of them to another.

What does each line on a stock card mean?

Every movement is one of a few kinds, and recognising them is most of the skill of reading a card.

• Goods received: stock in from a supplier, matching the delivery note or invoice.
• Returned to supplier: stock out, sent back as faulty or wrong.
• Sale: stock out at the till, one line per bill.
• Customer return: stock in, but only when the returned piece goes back on sale. A damaged return should not add stock.
• Transfer out and transfer in: stock leaving one branch and arriving at another, with a line on each branch's card.
• Count adjustment: the difference a stock count found, in or out.
• Adjustment: breakage, damage, a sample given away or stock found, always with a reason.

Why should a stock card never be edited?

A stock card is only useful if it is complete. If someone can go back and change an old line, the card stops proving anything: the balance may be right, but nobody can say how it got there.

The rule is the one accountants have always followed. A mistake is corrected by adding a new line that reverses it, never by changing the old one. If a delivery of 12 pieces was booked as 20, you do not change 20 to 12. You add an adjustment of 8 out, with the reason "receiving entry error". The card now shows both lines, the balance is right, and anyone reading it later sees what happened and who corrected it.

How do you read a stock card to find where stock went?

Most stock cards are opened for one reason: a count found fewer pieces than the records expected. Work through it in this order.

1. Choose the exact item and branch: the size, the colour and the shop where the difference was found.
2. Start from a balance you trust, usually your last stock count, and read every line from that day to today.
3. Check each delivery against the supplier's paperwork. The quantity on the card should be what was counted in, not what was ordered.
4. Check transfers. Every transfer out of one branch should have a transfer in at the other, and stock still on the road is not lost.
5. Look at the neighbouring sizes and colours. If M is two short and L is two over, a wrong scan is far more likely than theft.
6. Check customer returns. A piece put back on the rail without being recorded shows up as a surplus, and a damaged return recorded as restocked shows up as a shortage.
7. Look for adjustments with weak reasons, and for shortages that begin on the same days or shifts.
8. If nothing explains the difference, record it as a count adjustment with a reason, and count that item again soon.

Which patterns on a stock card point to a problem?

• Shortages that appear only after certain shifts, days or staff members.
• Frequent adjustments out by the same person, or with vague reasons such as "other".
• Deliveries from one supplier that are a piece or two short at every count, which points to receiving.
• Transfers that leave one branch complete and arrive at the other short.
• A balance that would go below zero: a piece sold before any was booked in, usually a delivery entered against the wrong size.
• Expensive items with no movement for months: not a loss, but money sitting on a shelf.

How does a stock card work with a stock count?

A stock count tells you what is on the shelf at one moment. A stock card tells you how the shelf got there. Neither is enough alone: a count without a card shows a difference you cannot explain, and a card without counts can drift for a year before anyone notices.

Together they make a loop. Count, compare, open the card of every item with a large difference, find the cause, fix the habit that caused it, and post the correction with a reason. Our guide on how to do a stock count covers the counting half of that loop, including blind counts, and our guide to inventory management for small shops shows where both fit into an ordinary week.

How PointLit keeps the stock card

In PointLit every movement of stock is one line in a stock ledger, and the database itself refuses to change or delete a line once it is written. Sales, goods receipts, supplier returns, transfers and stock counts each write their own lines, so stock on hand is always the result of the lines, never a number someone typed.

A correction is a new line. Stock adjustments ask for a Reason before anything is posted, and a stock count posts its differences as Count adjustment in or Count adjustment out lines. A goods receipt entered wrongly is corrected with an opposite document. A refund adds stock back only when Put the stock back is switched on; for damaged goods it is switched off, and no stock line is written. The result is a stock card that shows what happened, not what someone later wished had happened.

How to open an item's stock card in PointLit

1. Open Reports, and under Stock choose Stock movements.
2. In the filters, pick the item under Products to see every size and colour of a model, or under Variants for one size in one colour, and choose the shop under Branches.
3. Set the Period From your last count To today. One view covers up to 366 days.
4. Read each line: When, Event, Direction, Quantity, Branch, Other branch for a transfer, Document and By. Roles allowed to see costs also see Unit cost and Value at cost.
5. Use Totals by event to see how much came In and went Out of each kind, and open a line's Document to see the goods receipt, transfer or stock count it came from.
6. Choose Export to save a CSV file or an Excel file, or Print or save as PDF. The filters stay in the page address, so a copied link opens the same card for a manager.