Best Practices · 29 January 2026 · StockLens Team
How Often Should You Perform a Stock Take?
There is no universal right answer. The right cadence depends on volume, margin sensitivity and how quickly you want to catch problems.
Weekly
High-volume venues, late-night bars and tight-margin operations benefit from weekly counts. Problems surface within seven days instead of thirty.
Fortnightly
Most independent bars, gastropubs and mid-volume restaurants settle on fortnightly. It is the best balance of effort and visibility.
Monthly
Low-volume venues and operations with very stable product mixes can run monthly. Variance investigation becomes harder when the gap is this large.
Why AI counting changes the answer
When a count takes 30 minutes instead of 4 hours, the cost of running weekly drops dramatically. Many StockLens customers move from fortnightly to weekly after onboarding.