How to do a stock take in a phone shop
Last updated: 30 September 2026
Count accessories by quantity and handsets individually by IMEI, because a matching total can still hide the wrong phones being present. Do handsets often — weekly is realistic — and accessories less frequently, and investigate differences immediately while someone still remembers the transaction.
- Handsets are counted by IMEI, not by how many of a model you have.
- A correct count of the wrong units is still wrong.
- Count high-value serialised stock far more often than low-value stock.
- A discrepancy found within a week is solvable; one found at year end is not.
Two kinds of stock, two methods
Thirty screen protectors are interchangeable, so counting thirty of them is a complete answer. Four iPhone 13s are not: if the system expects four specific IMEIs and you have four different ones, the total matches and the records are wrong.
That difference is why phone shops cannot run on quantity-based stock control alone. The unit is the individual handset.
How often
Weight the frequency by value and risk. Handsets are the expensive, portable, easily-confused stock — a weekly IMEI count is not excessive. Accessories can be monthly or quarterly.
The point of frequency is not diligence for its own sake. A discrepancy found a week after it happened can usually be traced to a transaction and a person; the same discrepancy found eleven months later is a write-off.
Investigating a difference
- A sale recorded against the wrong unit — right model, wrong IMEI.
- A handset moved to the repair bench and not marked as moved.
- A trade-in taken in and never entered.
- A device sent back to a supplier with no record.
- Genuine loss.
Keeping the count honest
Whoever counts should not be the only person who can adjust the records afterwards, or a count becomes a way of making a problem disappear. Separating those is basic, and role permissions are the usual way to do it.
Mobile POS runs stock takes against IMEI-tracked units and records every adjustment with who made it and when, so a correction leaves a trail rather than replacing the previous number.