The count is over. The count sheets are on your desk, the book balance is in a file on your computer, and the stocktake report you have to sign must be ready by tomorrow morning. If your signature is on the report, it must also be clear later on what the count found and why certain figures don’t match. Otherwise all that sits next to the shortage is your signature, with no explanation. Let’s go through what the report must contain and how to get it right first time. You can also download a fillable stocktake report template<\/a> here. The whole stocktake process is described in the stocktaking guide<\/a> and the preparation in the year-end stocktake article<\/a>; here we focus only on the last step.<\/p>\n<\/div> The count is an activity; the report is the written record of its result. The report can be signed and compared with the book balance, and accounting can use it to correct the stock records or the fixed asset register. To do that, the report has to answer three questions:<\/p>\n If the report has only signatures and the sentence “no differences found”, nothing can be checked against it later. If it has only a count table that has not been compared with the book balance, it is a count sheet, not a report. The template has room for the answers to all three questions.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> The fields are given in the same order as in the template, so you can fill it in and read the explanations alongside.<\/p>\n<\/div> Report number.<\/strong> Give the report a number; there is a dedicated field for it in the template header. The accountant can refer to the number in the entry, and years later the report is easy to find by its number.<\/p>\n Company and registry code.<\/strong> The report must show which company’s books it belongs to. If several companies share the same warehouse, this is the first thing you will be asked to clarify.<\/p>\n Stocktake type and basis.<\/strong> State whether it is a year-end stocktake, an interim stocktake, a change of responsible person, or something else. As the basis, give the number of the management directive or the clause of the accounting policies and procedures under which the count was carried out. Without a basis it is hard to show later that this was a proper stocktake and not just an informal look round.<\/p>\n Assets counted.<\/strong> Fixed assets, stock, low-value assets or other assets. One report per asset type makes the table easier to read and helps you use consistent explanations.<\/p>\n Balance date and the count’s start and finish times.<\/strong> These are different pieces of information. The book balance is fixed as at one moment, but the count may take several days. If the report has only one date, nobody knows which moment’s balance the actual quantity was compared with, and any delivery that arrived in between can become an apparent difference.<\/p>\n Location and person responsible for the assets.<\/strong> State the warehouse, building or department, and the name of the person responsible for the assets. Draw up a separate report for each location; otherwise it is hard later to tie the differences found to a specific location and area of responsibility.<\/p>\n<\/div> The template has the roles on separate lines: the person in charge of the stocktake, the counters, the independent checker and the accounting representative. Write out the names and add job titles. Follow one important principle: if you are responsible for the assets yourself, don’t be the only person counting them. The reason is not distrust but the reliability of the audit trail. A report in which one person alone confirms the existence of assets in their own care is weaker evidence later, because nobody else has checked the result.<\/p>\n<\/div> The table is the core of the report. Each line represents one asset or stock item.<\/p>\n<\/div>What the report must answer<\/h2><\/div>
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What the report must contain: field by field<\/h2><\/div>
Report number and general information<\/h3><\/div>
Who counted and who checked<\/h3><\/div>
Results table<\/h3><\/div>
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