Free stocktake template and count
Count online below, or download the template for Excel and Google Sheets. Then check whether the ATO needs a formal stocktake from you at 30 June.
Do I need a stocktake at 30 June?
Not always. Under the ATO's simplified trading stock rules, a business with aggregated turnover under $50 million need not do a formal stocktake if it estimates its stock changed in value by $5,000 or less over the year.
The $50 million limit applies to income years starting on or after 1 July 2021. Some pages, business.gov.au among them, still give the older $10 million figure.
The $5,000 check
Start of the year is the value in last year's return, or 0 if you held no stock. Counted with the free count above? Its result has a button that puts your count in here.
The estimate has to be made in good faith, by a rational process you can explain and prove to the ATO if asked. The ATO lists how accurate your records and inventory system are among the things to consider.
The ATO's own example: a knitwear shop that started the year with $5,600 of stock needs no count at an $8,000 estimate, but must count and include the increase at $12,000.
Over $5,000, the general rules apply: a stocktake as close as possible to 30 June, with stock valued at the start and end of the year. A rise is assessable income and a fall is a deduction. You can still choose to count under $5,000, for example to claim a fall in value straight away.
If you count: what the ATO asks you to keep
- Each item on hand and its value.
- Who did the stocktake, how, and when.
- Who valued the stock, and on what basis: cost, market selling value or replacement value, chosen item by item.
- Values without GST, if you can claim GST credits.
Stock that is obsolete or becoming obsolete can be valued lower, at a reasonable value, with the reasons written down (section 70-50, TR 93/23). Most stock records are kept for five years.
The free count above prints this record for you: finish a count, fill in who counted and valued it, mark any obsolete lines with a lower value and the reason, and print the stocktake record.
General information from the ATO's pages, read in September 2026. It is not tax advice: check with your accountant or the ATO. Sources: simplified trading stock rules, general trading stock rules, valuing trading stock, stock and asset records.
Count by zone before 30 June
A year end count does not have to be one long weekend. Split the shop into zones, count one zone a session in the weeks before 30 June, and leave the busiest zone for last so the fewest sales happen between its count and the end of the year.
Anything sold or received in a zone after it was counted is adjusted for, so the total still describes the stock on hand at 30 June. Write down who counted each zone and when: that is part of the record above.
What is a stocktake?
A stocktake is a physical count of the stock a business actually has on hand, checked against what its records say it should have.
The difference between the two - if there is one - is what a stocktake exists to find: stock that has moved, been damaged, been missed at the till, or ended up on the wrong shelf.
"Stocktake" and "inventory count" mean the same thing; stocktake is the term used more in Australia and the UK, inventory count more in the US. Neither is more correct than the other.
Count a few shelves, not the whole shop
The annual stocktake where everything is counted in one weekend is the version most people know and the least useful one. By the time a difference turns up, nobody can remember what caused it, and the answer is always the same shrug.
Counting one shelf or one supplier at a time, regularly, gives you a difference small enough to explain while somebody still remembers the week it happened. It also fits in the gaps of a normal day, which is the only reason it actually gets done.
Count first, compare afterwards
This tool asks what you should have, then hides it while you count. That is deliberate. If the number is in front of you, you will find it: three boxes on a shelf look like the four you were expecting, and the count quietly becomes a confirmation of what the system already believed.
Counting blind is slower by about a minute a shelf and is the difference between a stocktake that tells you something and one that agrees with you.
What a difference usually means
Short stock is almost never theft, and treating it that way is how people end up suspicious of their own staff over a box in the wrong place. In order of likelihood: it is on another shelf, it is in the van, it is set aside for an order, it was sold and not recorded, it was received and not recorded, the barcode is on two different products. Theft is last, and it is rare.
Over-counts are worth the same attention. Stock you did not know you had is money already spent, sitting where nobody is selling it from.
Doing a stocktake with a barcode scanner
Typing product names while counting is where most of the time on a stocktake actually goes, and it is also where most of the transcription mistakes come from - a name typed slightly wrong becomes a new line rather than a count of the old one.
Scanning instead removes that step: point a phone camera at the barcode and the product is identified for you, so counting is typing one number, not a name. Products with no barcode of their own can be given one with the free barcode generator, which prints codes that will never clash with a real product.
Stocktake template for Excel and Google Sheets
The Excel template has two sheets. Stocktake has a row per item with its count, cost, valuation method and value worked out. 30 June check runs the same $5,000 check as above and lists the records the ATO asks for.
For Google Sheets, upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it, or import the CSV. Either way, to bring the count into StockRoom, save the Stocktake sheet as CSV and choose it under Bring a spreadsheet in, in the app's menu.
Prefer paper? The stock count sheet template prints a sheet with a box for what you count and, deliberately, none for what you expected, for the same reason this page counts blind.
Questions
Do I have to do a stocktake at 30 June?
Not if your aggregated turnover is under $50 million and you estimate your stock changed in value by $5,000 or less over the year. Under the ATO's simplified trading stock rules you then need not do a formal stocktake or account for the change. Over $5,000, the general rules need a stocktake as close as possible to the end of the year.
Is the limit $10 million or $50 million?
$50 million of aggregated turnover, for income years starting on or after 1 July 2021, on the ATO's own page. $10 million is the small business test inside it, and some pages still give only that figure.
How often should I count?
Often enough that a difference is still explainable, which for most small shops means a few shelves a week rather than everything once a year. Count your fastest-moving and most valuable lines more often than the rest: those are where a mistake costs the most and where it happens.
Should I count at cost or at selling price?
Usually at cost. The ATO lets you value each item at cost, market selling value or replacement value, and you can choose item by item. This tool values the count at cost, and the cost box is optional if you only want the quantities.
What if I cannot count everything in one go?
Leave the rest blank. Anything you do not type is left exactly as it was, not treated as zero, so a half-finished count is still a useful count and never damages what you already had.
Do I need to stop selling while I count?
For a shelf at a time, no. Count when the shelf is not being picked from, note anything that goes out mid-count, and the difference stays small enough to explain. For a whole-shop count it matters much more, which is another argument for not doing one.
Does anything I type here get uploaded?
No. The count runs entirely in this browser, there is no account and nothing is sent anywhere. Close the tab and it is gone, so use the download at the end if you want to keep it.
Is there a stocktake app, or does it have to be a website?
This page works like an app on a phone: open it, add it to your home screen if you want an icon, and it runs from the browser with no install and no account. StockRoom itself is a full stocktake app with the same counting behind it, plus everywhere the count needs to be saved, compared over time and turned into what to reorder.
Keep the count instead of retyping it
This tool forgets everything when you close it, which is the right trade for something with no sign-up. StockRoom keeps the same count against the same products, so the next one starts from what you found last time rather than from a blank sheet, and every difference is recorded with a note saying where it came from.
Try StockRoom freeFree up to 50 products, then A$9 a month.
Other free tools
Free, with nothing held back. Your count never leaves your browser - there is no account and no upload. Built on the same stock engine as StockRoom, so the numbers are the real ones.