Getting started
Importing items from a spreadsheet, setting up locations and inviting the people who handle stock.
Centilio StockHeld for tomorrow
CENTILIO STOCK / MONEY
What is inventory management software, and how will Stock work?
Short answers to what people ask about keeping stock, and practical guides that help whatever you count with today. Questions about Stock itself are answered as designed, because Stock has not shipped.
not shipped · wave 46 guidesuseful before Stock shipsno sign-up needed
Product design preview · Stock has not shipped. All features, screens and prices are proposals.
Stock has not shipped yet.
Stock has not shipped. The console, the features, the plans and the prices on these pages are the design, set out in full so you can judge it long before it exists. Stock is in the fourth wave of Centilio tools — later than most — with no app, no beta and no date yet. Join the waitlist and you will be told first.
Topics
Start with the question you have.
In short: software that keeps a running count of what you hold, where it is and what it is worth, changed by every sale, purchase and transfer rather than by hand. Stock is designed as one, sharing a record with your invoices and your books.
Everyday use
Receiving, counting, transfers, reorder points and scanning on a phone.
Celia
What it forecasts, what it drafts, and what it never does: place an order or change a level.
Billing
Per business, not per seat, with a Free plan for one location and up to three people, and Pro at $19 a month. All prices are proposed.
Guides
Six guides, useful whatever you count stock with today.
Short and practical, and not about Stock at all. They work with a clipboard, a spreadsheet or any inventory tool.
How to set a reorder point
A reorder point is the level at which you order again, so that the delivery lands before the shelf is empty.
- Find the average daily sales of the item over the last three months.
- Find the supplier’s lead time in days, from placing the order to stock on the shelf.
- Multiply the two: that is what you will sell while you wait.
- Add a safety buffer for slow deliveries and busy weeks — a few days of sales is usually enough.
- Review it every quarter, and after any season that changes what sells.
How to run a stock count without closing for the day
A full count once a year finds problems twelve months late. Count a little, often.
- Split the shelves into sections and count one section a week.
- Count the fast movers and the expensive items more often than the rest.
- Count before receiving and after shipping, never in the middle of either.
- Record every difference with a reason, not just the new number.
- Look at the reasons each month; the pattern matters more than any one count.
How to find and clear dead stock
Stock that never moves is cash you cannot spend. Find it first, then decide.
- List the items with no sales in the last 90 days, with their value at cost.
- Sort by value, so the decisions start where the most cash is tied up.
- For each, choose: bundle it, discount it, return it to the supplier or write it off.
- Stop reordering it, and lower or remove its reorder point.
- Check the list again next quarter, so it does not quietly fill back up.
How to start using barcodes in a small stockroom
You do not need a scanner gun or a warehouse system to start.
- Use the barcodes your items already carry from the manufacturer wherever they exist.
- Print labels for the rest: one code per item and variant, never one per box.
- Label the shelves and bins too, so a scan records where an item is as well as what it is.
- Start with receiving: scan every delivery in for a month before scanning anything else.
- Then scan counts and picks, once everyone trusts the codes.
How to keep stock right across several locations
Two locations double the places a number can drift.
- Give every location its own levels, even a van or a back office.
- Move stock between them with a transfer, never by adjusting one down and the other up.
- Set reorder points per location, because each one sells differently.
- Count each location on its own schedule.
- Decide who may move stock between locations, and keep that list short.
How to value your stock for your accountant
Your accountant needs one number for the stock you hold, and a method behind it.
- Agree the costing method first: average cost, or first in, first out.
- Value at cost, not at selling price, and include the delivery charges you paid to get it in.
- Write down damaged and obsolete stock before year end, with a reason for each.
- Count the high-value items just before the year-end date.
- Hand over the valuation with the movement history behind it, so questions can be answered from records.
Questions
Quick answers.
How does inventory software work?
It keeps a level for every item and location and changes it with each movement: a sale takes stock out, a delivery puts it in, a transfer moves it. Counts check the level against the shelf, and differences are recorded rather than typed over.
What should the best inventory software do for a small business?
Keep levels right without constant counting, warn you before you run out, and tell you what the stock is worth. Everything else — batches, serial numbers, several warehouses — matters only if your business needs it.
How do I choose the right inventory software?
Start from where your sales are recorded, because that is what should move the levels. Then check locations, units, batches and scanning against how you really work, and trial it for two weeks on your fastest-moving items.
What are the most important features?
Levels moved by sales and purchases, reorder points, a movement history, scanning on a phone and a valuation your accountant accepts. Most small businesses need those five before anything else.
Should I build my own inventory system?
Usually not. A spreadsheet or a small custom database works for a few dozen items, but it rarely survives a second location, a second person counting or an auditor’s questions.
Does Stock work with multiple warehouses?
Yes, by design, with transfers between locations. Free covers one location, Pro up to five and Business as many as you need.
Can it scan barcodes?
Yes, on any phone, by design. The camera is the scanner, and Stock prints barcode and QR labels for items that have none.
When is Stock available?
Stock is in the fourth wave of Centilio tools, after Bill, Ledger and Spend. There is no date yet; the waitlist hears before any announcement.
Contact
Ask us something this page does not answer.
Stock is still being designed, so the questions you send now shape it. Tell us how many items, locations and people you have and where your stock lives today, and we will tell you how Stock is designed to handle it.
Next for you
What Stock works with.
The tools whose transactions move the levels. Each arrives in its own wave, and Stock is designed to work with all of them from the day it opens.
Every Centilio tool shares one record and one login with Stock.
Hear first when Stock opens.
Stock is in the fourth wave, after Bill, Ledger and Spend, whose invoices, books and supplier bills it is designed to read. Join the waitlist and you will be told before the announcement; in the meantime Account, Sign and Drive are live.