The questions we get asked before every stocktake.

Yes, and we would rather be blunt about it. Every scan is a live call to the portal, which is what keeps one version of the truth. Test it before you buy. Print the scanner check sheet, scan the barcode on it to load the portal address, then walk the aisles you will be counting. If the sign-in page comes up at the back of the racking, it will count there. We do not install or repair wifi — that is your network or your IT people — but it takes twenty minutes to find out, and it is a much better thing to discover in advance than mid-count.

The operator is told immediately, on the spot, and that count is not recorded. Nothing is silently queued and nothing is lost later. They step back into coverage and re-scan. Counts already accepted are safely on the portal.

They can, and both counts stand separately. That is a discrepancy worth seeing on a report rather than something the software should quietly average. The reports show who counted what, so it can be settled.

Count both. A bay can be big enough that the same item sits ten metres apart, and each pile is counted where it is found. When an operator counts a part they have already counted in that bin, the device asks whether it is a second pile or a correction to the first.

Scan the bin and enter part number 0. That records the bin as checked and holding nothing, which is a different fact from never having been visited — and the reports keep those two separate, because reconciling needs to tell them apart.

Their own, yes — amend the quantity or withdraw the count entirely. They cannot see or touch anybody else's. A withdrawn count leaves every total immediately but stays visible to an administrator, so a figure that was entered and taken back can still be looked into.

The software is built for Zebra Android devices with a real scan engine and a trigger. A phone camera reads a barcode in about a second, held still, in good light. Over a shift of thousands of scans that difference is hours — and phones do not survive warehouses.

No. Hire is usually the better answer for an annual count: the devices arrive staged and configured for your site, and go back afterwards. Buy them if you count regularly through the year. We keep six for hire at $110 a day each, or $440 for four days up to seven — cradles, spare batteries and an access point included. What hiring involves.

Very likely, and older than you would expect — Android 5.1 or newer, not the model or the scan engine. We have run it on TC8000s from 2015. The surest check takes two minutes and installs nothing: open the browser on the scanner and go to app.stocktakesonline.com.au. If the sign-in page loads, the app will run on that device — that tests the one thing that actually fails on an old scanner, which is not the app but whether the device still recognises our security certificate. If it does not load, call us on 0414 53 53 95 with the model and we will tell you what your options are — many devices in the field are still on whatever they shipped with, and can go higher. There is more on the compatibility page.

From stocktakesonline.com.au/app — download it on the device and install. Devices we supply arrive with it on already. There is a barcode on that page you can scan straight off a monitor with the scanner, and a printable sheet for older devices with a laser, which cannot read a screen. Updating is the same as installing: the new version goes over the top and nothing is lost, because the device holds no data.

It depends on how long you can afford to be counting and how many people you can spare. Tell us the size of the site and the window you have, and we will suggest a number — over-ordering is the usual mistake.

Two CSV files, loaded through the portal. It parses them in your browser and shows what it found — row counts, a preview and any lines it had to skip — before anything is saved, so a mangled header is caught before it replaces a live catalogue.

Every report exports to CSV with the same columns you see on screen, which imports into spreadsheets and most inventory systems. If you need a specific file layout, tell us what it expects. We do not write anything back into your system — no sync, no posting adjustments, no login to anything of yours. You get a report and a file; entering it is your decision and your audit trail.

Yes, and it is the one report that is built per customer rather than shipped with the rest. Send us a real stock export from your package — Xero, QuickBooks, Reckon, Hnry, MYOB — with the part number and the quantity it thinks is on hand, in CSV or Excel, exactly as it comes out. We write a reader for that package and version, and you get expected against counted, line by line, on screen, printed, or exported to CSV. MYOB is already built, and a page of its own says exactly what happens to an AccountRight count sheet. For anything else we will tell you within a day whether it is straightforward, and if it is, building it is part of setting you up rather than an extra. Ten rows is enough to work from, and we do not keep the file.

The unscanned reports. They list the parts and bin locations nobody has touched, which is the half of a stocktake the totals cannot show you. When those lists are empty or explained, you are finished.

In Sydney, on managed PostgreSQL with automated nightly backups and point-in-time recovery. Every read is scoped to your company by the database itself, so one client cannot see another's stock.

Yes. Closed stocktakes stay reportable — a report on a finished count is the one most often wanted, sometimes months later when an auditor asks.

A one-off charge for one counting event. $110 inc GST for one scanner, $330 for five, $550 for ten — the rate drops from ten — and the licence runs seven days from the moment you activate the stocktake. There is no subscription. Count quarterly and you buy four licences a year; your closed stocktakes stay on the portal and reportable between counts at no charge. See Pricing, and ask us for a fixed number — we quote on sites, part numbers and the window you have.

If your parts and locations are in a clean file, an afternoon. The long pole is almost never the software — it is getting the racking labelled and the location scheme right, which is worth starting weeks before the count.

Yes. Send us a parts file and a bin list and we will load them into a demonstration account so you are looking at your own warehouse rather than a sample one.

Someone who knows both the software and the hardware, reachable while you are counting. Because the labels, the scanners and the software all come from us, there is nobody to pass you to.

Counts do not happen between nine and five, so the office hours at the foot of this page are not the answer to this question. Andrei's mobile is 0414 53 53 95 and it is on. Tell us the date you are counting and we will be expecting it — a 5am start or a Saturday is normal for a stocktake, and it is the only time the software has to work.